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Published: December 31st 2012
Curacao
The Floating marketsDay 436 Thursday 20
th December
Up at the crack of dawn grabbed the laundry finished packing and asked reception to call a taxi and we were soon driving to the airport. The other areas of Georgetown do look better but it is just residential and factories nothing of interest to tourists. We had some spare time at the airport so we used up our Guyanese money as we have heard no other countries will except it (wonder why?) and there is no Cambio in the airport to exchange to other currencies. Our flight was at 9.15 and at 8.45am we were worried the departure screen still did not show us boarding or a gate number, note there are only 3 gates so you can see them all from the seating area. A small group of people started to go up to Gate 3 so I walked over and was told we could board that it was our plane sitting on the tarmac, well it is a bit causal. We were meant to be getting a Caribbean Airlines but the plane was Atlas Air so as we boarded we double checked with the cabin crew. This plane
Curacao
Willemstad Harbour is far from being new and is the only plane we have been on that has a seat with a missing back, glad I did not get that one. We sat on the tarmac till 9.45am with no explanation wondering if maybe because we were not full we would be joined with the next flight at 10.30am but no and we left. The flight is only an hour to Port of Spain so we only just up in the air and we were coming in to land.
Port of Spain must employ the rudeness airport staff for arrivals I just could not believe it and then the baggage trolley cannot leave the area after customs and the porters are just as rude. By now I am truly not impressed and so glad we are not staying here. We lugged our bags to restaurant area as our next flight is not until 6.30pm. Here we discover the friendliness continues and we were starting to think is it just us when Scott heard another couple exclaim “I can’t believe how rude they are here, I can’t wait to get out of here”, so guess they got the same welcome. Got junk
Curacao
Colourful buildings of Willemstad food for lunch and then moved onto the check-in area to wait to put our bags in and sat there reading till 3.30pm. As we put our bags in I remember I had brought Duty Free Alcohol in Georgetown and I would not get on as hand luggage which was confirmed by the man at the counter who turned out to be the first nice person we met here. He grabbed one of our checked in bags back so we could quickly shove the bottles in hoping that they would not smash on the flight. When he saw our passports he said “F--- you have come a long way” then realised he had sworn but we laughed and said yes. We guess not too many Australian come here.
We walked into the departure lounge and saw that our flight was delayed till 7.30pm found a café and sat there hoping this time would not be pushed out any further. Finally boarded the plane and were under way for the 1hr 20min flight and arrived in Curacao at about 9.00pm. At the customs we were welcomed with big smiles and a really nice lady saying “you finally made it”, this
Curacao
The road bridge into town island really wants tourists and there is information about the town in the arrivals area. Outside we got some money out and grabbed a taxi and the lady driving welcomed us and gave us a rundown on the island and cheap places to eat and other attractions – This is how all countries should be, including Australia. We have picked serviced apartments to stay so we can cook especially on Christmas day. We settled in and fell into bed exhausted moving on days always make you tired even though you are just sitting on your butts.
Day 437 Friday 21
th December
The Ritz Studios where we are staying don’t have anything to do with the Ritz Hotels but was the former Ritz ice cream factory, which was the largest ice cream factory in the Caribbean till they went bust. The old factory was then turned into a hotel, business park and serviced apartments, and is a pretty good setup but unfortunately we don’t get breakfast, and because we arrived so late yesterday we have no supplies so we headed into the shopping district of the town of Willemstad, and what a culture
Curacao
The floating swing bridge opening shock. Yesterday we were in Georgetown which is a dump and here there are flashy shops, bars and restaurants it is another world. We found a cheaper café away from the water where the waitress smiled and gave us a menu. The coffee is nice and food is good and the people are really nice; we definitely picked the right place. Spent the day wandering around I even did some window shopping in Guess and eyed a beautiful pair of shoes that are totally impractical so they are not in my backpack. Scott got his haircut at last….he was starting to look like a woolly mammoth.
We visited the Old Market which serves food but only for lunch so will come back another day as we had a late breakfast and are not hungry. Then onto another market area and walking back we brought some fruit from the floating markets it was just nice wandering around the area.
We had a beer at a local bar as the ones in the centre especially near the water are very expensive and we are saving our money for dinner. For dinner we went to Pampus Restaurant which is not far
Curacao
Open Fire from our hotel only one block and in this short walk were warned to be careful as this area is dangerous. Apparently the ladies of the night are at this end of town and I guess with them the bad things like drugs and theft but we saw none of it other than a few “ladies” a couple of blocks from our home. Dinner was really nice and the restaurant is on the edge of a lake it is a beautiful setting and romantic. Unfortunately this is the only night we will be eating here and will be doing food shopping tomorrow so we can cook our own meals.
Oh and if by now you are wondering how Curacao is pronounced it is said like Cure-a-sow not like how us Aussies would say Cure-a-KO. It is apparently Portuguese word for curing all, which relates to the ancient seafarers who would come here to be cured of scurvy, although this is a disputed theory.
Day 438 Saturday 22
nd December
In the middle of the night the rain started and from the comfort of our bed we could hear it pouring. By morning
Curacao
Tug passing the open floating bridge it had eased so we got up and prepared for our shopping expedition. There isn’t much of a supermarket in town, but one about a ten minute drive outside has arranged for a free shuttle bus for the hotel twice a week, and lucky for us one is at 10.30 this morning. We stood out the front at 10.15 to wait for the bus in a gentle drizzle, which within 5 minutes turned to torrential. Had to run undercover but when the bus arrived right on 10.30 we had no choice but to run out into and across a road that was now about 30cm deep in water. There were 4 others on the bus with us and all of us got drowned in the short dash, but at least the bus dropped us right at the door of a large supermarket.
Only had an hour to get all our shopping done, which had us in a slight panic because from previous South American experiences you could spend a full hour lined up at the cash register. No problems like that here and we were out of there in record time, and dropped back at our hotel by our
Curacao
One of the huge liners in the harbour bus before we knew it. The rain was still coming down and the streets had turned to rivers and our hotel driveway was awash, so it was back to our room to dry off.
Late in the afternoon the rain eased so we headed down to the old town once more and Shelley picked up some more supplies of veggies from the floating markets. Willemstad is such a pretty town and it is a real joy to wander around. Our hotel is across the canal from the old centre and only a 10 minute walk but there is a noticeable difference. On our hotel side there is numerous derelict old homes that are barely standing and are apparently the haunts of the town’s drug users and prostitutes. We saw both but not in large numbers and we are unsure if they are more of hazard to themselves than anyone else but we kept being warned.
We stopped once again for a drink at the little bar just on our side of the canal, before heading home so Shelley could cook up a storm. Once again she channelled McGyver and knocked together a great feed of veggies using only
Curacao
Patrol boat entering the harbour a pocket knife, a piece of string and wit.
Day 439 Sunday 23
rd December
Sunday, bloody Sunday and nothing open other than churches and cinemas. Had a nice sleep in before tossing a coin to decide which we would visit and lucky for us it was heads so we headed off to the movies. Managed to see The Hobbit in 3D which was an unexpected treat for such a small town.
Whilst lining up to buy tickets a couple in front of us when buying their tickets enquired “we are the crew from the cruise liner so do we get a discount?” Willemstad is apparently a big cruise liner destination and across from the city “Carnival Cruise Line” has built a huge dock with attached casino and, shopping mall so that people can step off the security of their ship and yet still shop within the precinct of the cruise line company. Seen this in numerous other ports where these ships come in early in the morning, leave that same night, and most passengers if they disembark will still eat on board the ship before and after their brief visit, and
Curacao
Hanging around Curacao about their only expenditure on shore would be a few drinks at a bar and a T-shirt. Here the people can do all of that still within the confines of the cruise line company and not even know it. Despite Statistics showing that tens of thousands of people flow through these ports every month, very little money actually flows into the pockets of the locals. Understandably people in some of these ports are starting to question why they should put up with bombardments of thousands of people at once with next to no economic benefits. In this town we were challenged a couple of times as being “American”, and we took it more as “are you from a cruise liner”. So you can imagine what we thought when some nong from the cruise liner thought just because he managed to walk a few extra blocks away from his beloved ship he should get a discount at the movies. Thankfully he didn’t get it, but if he had of I would have asked “Hi, we have just travelled from Georgetown Guyana, can we get a discount?”
After the movie we walked home and read our books before Shelley cooked up
Curacao
Floating markets from the water a great batch of Spaghetti.
Day 440 Monday 24
th December
It is so nice being able to have a nice bowl of muesli with a banana for breakfast, which apart from family and friends is the thing we miss most when we travel. Having our own kitchen and now fully stocked we can have what we want for brekkie. Before heading out we checked into hiring a car for a couple of days and was told basically we couldn’t get anything till January, so that blew a hole in our plans on seeing the rest of the island. Today we once again headed down to the old town of Willemstad and decided to wander across the small inlet to visit the “carnival mega dock”, which as explained yesterday was the haunt of the cruise liner passengers. To get there we had to cross over Willemstad’s famous swinging, floating bridge. The bridge is built on small pontoons and is hinged at one end and when boats want to enter the channel it detaches from one end and swings open. A bit hard to explain exactly but it is a very impressive piece of
Curacao
Floating markets from the land 19
th Century engineering.
The Carnival mega dock is actually built inside the remains of an old Dutch fort, and is filled with shops that we had little chance of being able to afford or buy from. All the big flashy names were here and so we only strolled around for 5 minutes before heading back across to the old town. Managed to get some more veggies and bread before heading home.
Late in the afternoon we headed back to our small bar for a couple of beers and do some people watching. Of course at night we had to call our families back in Aus who were getting ready to tuck into Christmas Lunch and it gave us a good dose of home sickness….oh well it won’t be long and we will be home. To make it feel a bit more like Christmas we hung up some tinsel that we had retrieved from a rubbish bin in French Guiana…I guess you could call it recycled.
Day 441 Tuesday 25
th December
Christmas has found us once again on the road. Last year we had a great day in Mendoza with two
Curacao
Bridge with liner in background other Aussies, Cassie and Ryan, but this year we were by ourselves, but that’s okay. Cooked up a storm for breakfast and nibbled our way through piles of food and drink all day as if we were back home, which eases the home sickness.
Day 442 Wednesday 26
th December
Should have spent the day driving the island but due to the lack of hire cars we spent the day confined to Willemstad instead, which is okay because the town is great. Spent most of the day wandering around enjoying the vibe as well as seeking out somewhere we can change our excess guilders back to US currency. Discovered that the town does not have any where we could change our money other than a bank and because it is a public holiday they are closed. Probably shouldn’t have bothered getting guilders whilst here as just about shop and taxi accepts US money. Started to panic because we still had 300 guilders left but as it turned out we managed to get rid of most of it at the airport tomorrow. We had a very early rise in the morning so at night
Curacao
Liner and Bridge we packed our bags in preparation for our flight to Venezuela. Curacao has been such a fantastic stopover for Christmas and has been so good we contemplated staying here for New Year’s but opted that it was time to move. As it was to turn out we should have stayed in Willemstad to see in 2013.
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Brett
non-member comment
The island looks great, colourful & fun. Perfect at this point in trip. Envious.