Our trip to Curacao was certainly an eventful one. After arriving at the hotel, Dad and I went for a walk along the ocean and came across the ruins of an old fort! It was build by the Dutch in the 1750s and was surrendered to the British in 1804 without a fight; the defenders had fourteen cannons, but no cannon balls! (For more Curacao history, see my previous post entitled Sewing Projects and Island Trips.) Forts seem to be as common on the island as castles are in England. Nevertheless, this history buff was surprised and delighted to stumble across one of them. Positioned as it was at the entrance to a small bay, I could just picture tall ships sailing into the harbor. :-)
We found a few other things on our walk too.
On our first full day, we took an ATV trip with Dad's customers around some of the uninhabited parts of the island. On our way, we drove past was has to be world's only prison painted in a rainbow of pastel colors! It was rather amusing, but definitely in character with the rest of the island. Then we were out in the rugged, dry and dusty wilds, navigating between thorn bushes and cactus.
We stopped half way through our drive and climbed to the top of a sheer cliff via a winding cave in the side of the hill. There were bats flying around, and I didn't think one of the ladies would make it, but it was actually fairly light in the interior. Did I happen to mention that it was very dusty? Everyone was CAKED with dirt by the time we got back! We had a great time, though. I didn't see a single dirty face without a big, white grin!
That night we had a three course dinner in downtown Willemstad at a waterside restaurant. Our group was seated in a little starlit courtyard, decorated with a fountain, lampposts and palm trees. I wish I had a picture that showed just how beautiful it was! Willemstad is divided into two sections by it's deep-water harbor. The east section is called Punda meaning "point", the west is Otrobanda meaning "the other side". After dinner, we walked around the downtown area, crossing over to the Punda side on a pedestrian bridge lit by arching neon lights. When we found that we were having difficulty walking straight, we realized that the bridge was actually floating on the water! We got to see the bridge open the next day, but I'll have to tell more about that in my next post. - GJ
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