Saturday, March 18
We met up with our friends and arranged a 2 hour tour of the island with a taxi driver. The 8 of us were taken on a tour of the various neighbourhoods within Willemstad, taking in the downtown area where we saw a floating fish market, a fruit and vegetable market, the historic colourful colonial buildings (which are UNESCO listed) and some of the forts located around the harbour. Another highlight was the pontoon pedestrian bridge, which opens to allow small boats through by moving the bridge!
We were also taken across the huge bridge that crosses the inlet that goes inland to the oil refineries, with the oil coming from nearby Venezuela. Our next stop was a nice beach resort and port on the other side of the island, and apparently a lot of Dutch people come here for holidays. On our way back to the ship we passed through some of the expensive housing estates, and we saw some impressive houses with hedges of magnificent bougainvillea and other tropical flowers. We even saw some iguanas on these hedges and some colourful little birds.
The final stop was the Curacao liquor factory where the famous Blue Curacao is produced. It was interesting reading about how it is made, and at the end of the tour we got to taste the blue liqueur , a tamarind flavoured liqueur and a coffee liqueur - just what you need when it's 30C outside!
After lunch we walked from the ship to the downtown area and took in all the sights again by foot, so we got to see the sights up close and personal. This included enjoying a beer by the waterfront, and even saw the bridge open very wide to let a big ship into the inlet. When the bridge is open they operate a ferry so people aren't inconvenienced. Again it was another enjoyable day in paradise on the biggest island we've visited so far.
We met up with our friends and arranged a 2 hour tour of the island with a taxi driver. The 8 of us were taken on a tour of the various neighbourhoods within Willemstad, taking in the downtown area where we saw a floating fish market, a fruit and vegetable market, the historic colourful colonial buildings (which are UNESCO listed) and some of the forts located around the harbour. Another highlight was the pontoon pedestrian bridge, which opens to allow small boats through by moving the bridge!
We were also taken across the huge bridge that crosses the inlet that goes inland to the oil refineries, with the oil coming from nearby Venezuela. Our next stop was a nice beach resort and port on the other side of the island, and apparently a lot of Dutch people come here for holidays. On our way back to the ship we passed through some of the expensive housing estates, and we saw some impressive houses with hedges of magnificent bougainvillea and other tropical flowers. We even saw some iguanas on these hedges and some colourful little birds.
The final stop was the Curacao liquor factory where the famous Blue Curacao is produced. It was interesting reading about how it is made, and at the end of the tour we got to taste the blue liqueur , a tamarind flavoured liqueur and a coffee liqueur - just what you need when it's 30C outside!
After lunch we walked from the ship to the downtown area and took in all the sights again by foot, so we got to see the sights up close and personal. This included enjoying a beer by the waterfront, and even saw the bridge open very wide to let a big ship into the inlet. When the bridge is open they operate a ferry so people aren't inconvenienced. Again it was another enjoyable day in paradise on the biggest island we've visited so far.
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