Oranjestad, Aruba - Feb 25, 2015

Shaped like a banana at nineteen miles long and six miles wide, Aruba is "One Happy Island". It is difficult to be unhappy in Aruba, this island has recently emerged as a major tourist destination while preserving a rich and colourful history. To understand the complexity of this island just have a look at its flag. The red star represents the ancient industry of Brazilwood which was brought back to Europe by the first explorers, the yellow strips represents the island's economic history in gold mining, and the white outlining the star symbolizes both the white sand beaches and the purity to the Aruban people. The overall blue background of the flag represents the ocean and the sky surrounding the island. The star itself has four points, said to invite visitors from all corners of the world. Tourism is very important to Aruba as it is the number one industry, check that really the only industry - everything done here is for tourism

Our stay here was short but just wonderful as we jumped on the HAL shore excursion, Kukoo Island Tour and Beach Getaway. With a small fleet of hand painted buses Carlos our guide and driver took us on half island tour, including the first Catholic church on the island built in 1750, the California Lighthouse and then a very nice two hour stay on Palm Beach. This was no ordinary bus as it was open windowed and played Caribbean style music as we smiled and waved at the passerby's all while shacking our maracas - yes a crazy good time. Richard the owner of the company was one strange dude that if you saw him on the street you would think he would have his hand out looking for some spare change. Great Half day….

Today we had the Mariners presentations and lunch so we were able to catch a picture with Hotel Director, Craig Oakes and the Master of the vessel, Captain Colm Ryan. Finally one great picture of our assistant dining room steward from a previous cruise, Willy. Another wonderful day, looking forward to Georgetown, Grand Cayman tomorrow…

Willemstad, Curacao - Feb 24, 2015

The first thing one notices about Willemstad is the pastel skyline created by the Dutch architecture that line the waterfront. The locals say that it was the 19th century Govenor-General Albert Kikkert who is responsible for this colourful architecture. The story has it that he suffered from migraine headaches that he attributed to the harsh refection of the sun on the white buildings of the city. Thus a decree was issued to paint the structures any colour other than white. Buildings were then painted Caribbean hues of blues, greens and reds. Our tour guide takes the story a bit further as she informs us that the Albert Kekkert also owned the paint supply store…

Willemstad is a safe and beautiful place here in the Caribbean. We are docked right next to the city for a full day and then some, 8 am to 11 pm. We wandered the town taking in the floating fish and produce markets taking our photos when we ran into someone from the ship that recommended the Casper Bus tour ($15.00 USD). Timing wise this worked out perfectly as we had just walked the town and the bus was leaving at 12:30. The tour takes you out of the town for a few stops including a taste test at the original factory that makes the Curacao liquor and then a few viewpoints before stopping at a great local beach, staying is optional for a later pick up. Funny thing for us is that we signed up for the tour at noon saying we would run back to the ship for our beach stuff, the representative said we would had to hurry as the timing would be tight, it was at least 15 mins to get back to the ship. So of course we pushed it and went for it. Now for those who have been here before know about the pontoon bridge. Quickly, the pontoon bridge was built in 1888 and as the rest of Willemstad is a world heritage site and is still in operation today. It is a foot bridge that connects the downtown side of Willemstad to the other side, in our case where the ship is docked. This city has a huge harbour where many vessels come in and out of during the day. When these vessels enter of exit the bridge swings open and closes, sometime up to 20 minutes at a time. There is also a free ferry that takes you across during these periods. Okay, so for us we walk very quickly over the bridge to the ship collect our beach stuff and head back. As we are heading back with minutes to spare, I say to Jan, just watch the bridge will be open and we will not be able to cross, ha. Well guess what, I see this huge freighter, fully loaded headed toward the harbour and I am thinking that there is no way something that big can go in there. We come around the corner and there is no bridge crossing, it is fully open, it is 12:25, we are going to miss the tour as I here this opening could last he full 20 minutes. Well I see the ferry just loading down the way and we make a bee line for it. We were 10 minutes late of the tour, they waited for us as they thought that we may have had a bridge problem, hilarious. 

Anyway, great day, great tour, great beach, our guide came back and picked us up as promised and we where the only ones and had the bus to ourselves. So when in Willemstad use Casper Tours, small company, very personable.

Back on board by about 6:30 after using some local bar wifi to get ready for our invitation only Collection Voyage cocktail party on the aft deck under the stars with our steel drum band player. Great night, we met the Hotel Director, Craig Oakes along with our cruise director, Rick and the Executive Chef, Avinash Khatri.

Yes a day behind, sea day tomorrow should help with catching up. Hope you enjoy our day in Curacao…