The final island in the Dutch Caribbean- Curacao

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Our final destination on our Caribbean cruise was to Curacao the last of the Dutch protectorates. The buildings are definitely Dutch heritage and the place is pretty and clean with lots of pedestrian walkways. The two halves of the island are spanned by a high bridge for cars but pedestrians cross over by means of a floating pontoon which has to be floated to one side when big ships come in. If the pontoon is not available there is a ferry to take people over. Both sides of the island are full of shops and bars catering for the tourists and there is a very nice fruit market on the Punda side which has some great fruit for sale. Everyone wants to sell you some! We bought our souvenirs and then stopped by a water front bar to rehydrate. It is extremely hot here with the usual NE breeze. We saw the little tourist train which you can take to show you the sights and get the history but we just flunked out. The heat is very tiring.

This is our final new destination before we sail back to Barbados tonight. It has been a very low key sort of cruise with only the Trivia quiz and the singers at 10pm for entertainment. It has been too little for some people and just right for those who wanted just to relax. We have enjoyed it but will not be coming to this part of the world again. One of the best parts of the day is a long lunch in the restaurant and the wonderful staff know what we want to drink. We have come 2nd in the quiz again and still hope to win but only two more goes.

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