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2/24/2015 Tuesday
Willemstad, Curaçao
Arrive 8am Depart 11pm

20150224 Tuesday Curaçao PhotoLink

We awakened to a lovely sunny day. Forecast temperature was 80*F. The ship was already tied up to the pier, which is wide open to the southwest. I wonder how many times swells have come up in the Caribbean that force the ship at the pier to get underway.

But we left the ship on time to join the Land And Sea tour in a bus holding 37 nearly-awake passengers. We cruised the streets on the west side of the harbor and wound up in the Hilton area where the Adventure glass-sided boat docks. We sat topside while pulling away from the dock, then descended into the little cabin below with windows on both sides.

The thing kept going until it reached the drop-off where the water gets much deeper. Then it cruised parallel to the drop-off. Lots of little fish live there, perhaps taking advantage of food being swept up into the shallower water. We wandered around looking at types of coral and bottom structure. At one point a scuba diver came to the windows with lots of fish following him. That made for good pictures. I suspect he feeds the fish.

We came out of the bottom compartment and sat topside while the vessel came to the pier. Then we re-entered the bus.

The bus took us up a gradient and over a very high bridge to the east side of the harbor. Then we found the reason we’d seen so many tanker ships around. There is a refinery on the shore of the deep harbor here. It belonged to Shell, who eventually wanted to shut it down. The government bought it and leased it to Venazuela interests. Crude oil from there is brought here for refining. The products are then shipped to the purchasers wherever they may be. Thus, the people are still employed, but I don’t know who is making money from the deal.

Our bus stopped at a place making Curacao liqueur. We were treated to the guided tour and samples of the liqueur that is made from a bitter orange fruit common here. It comes out at 62 proof and is colored and slightly flavored into seven or so varieties. We chose not to buy any.

The tour went on, but at a point there was a loud noise from the bus. The driver pulled over because she didn’t know what it was and was afraid to continue. I thought it sounded like the radiator venting off pressure. Other buses came along and our passengers were shuffled onto them to complete the rounds.

At the ship we went to the cabin, then to the deck. We got reasonable free wifi from the pier area so we did things on it.

Then we took a walk into the town area on our side of the harbor and back. D went back to the deck area while I went back onto the pier to do more on the internet. I was able to get most of this web site uploaded and a good number of the pictures. When I returned, I went to the Lido deck with the long-range wifi antenna and got everything else uploaded up to these notes for today and today’s pictures. Maybe I can get them uploaded tonight.

We dined in the Rotterdam Room tonight, the full-bore dining room. Enjoyed dinner with two other couples, one from the Detroit suburbs and one from West Virginia.

Tomorrow is our day to meet D’s brother and companion on the island of Aruba, so we’ll go to bed early.