Steve and Cathy's Blog

There are many good reasons why Cathy and I are so intrigued by islands, the most prominent being that each is a distinct culture unto its own.  While Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire share a similar history, geographic location and colonial heritage, each is unique and the guides we encounter are anxious to provide a view of that uniqueness.

Curaçao is very much one of those.  The ship arrives at the Mega Pier at 8:00am as scheduled, Cathy and Steve having eaten breakfast.

We are scheduled to depart the ship on our Curacao Highlights tour at 9:00am, so we meet in the Insignia Lounge on Deck 5 around 8:50.  Many people are already there, so we immediately exchange our large tickets for small tickets with bus numbers on them.  The Destination Services staff is very organized … and patient.  Many, many of the guests on this cruise are, shall we say, in their more senior years.  Following instructions is, let us say, more challenging for them than it might be for younger folks.  So keeping all of them (I should say us) organized and heading in the right direction at the right time is, yes, a bit like herding cats.

Well, we do get off the ship in good time and walk across the pier to Bus 12, one of two 50-passenger buses on this particular tour. Willemstad, the capital city, has two parts divided by a deep waterway.  The old section is called the Punda district, and the newer is the Otrabanda (“other side” in Papiamentu, the local dialect).  We wander through Otrabanda’s narrow streets and eventually arrive at the Queen Juliana Bridge, a new structure soaring to 185 feet above the harbor in order to accommodate the tankers and container ships heading to and from the inner harbor.  It is the tallest bridge in the Caribbean, painted in the blue and yellow of the Curacao flag.  Obviously a phenomenal view and impressive structure.

The tour than takes us through the Jewish district, or, better said, the formerly Jewish district. Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, mainly from Portugal, settled in Curacao in the 17th and 18th century, and have had a very significant impact on the island to this day (I use the term formerly because our guide is quick to note that, while there was segregation in the past, those geographic divisions into ethnic groups is no longer).  In fact, the island boasts the oldest continuously-open synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue and Museum in the Punda district.

As we drive through this district, our guide Heliana explains that most of the houses up until 1900 were built of blocks of coral stone bound by a cement.  Apparently, over the years, the high salt content of this coral stone led to the eventually weakening of the walls to the extent that every building built with the stuff needs to have the siding completely replaced by modern concrete.  Fortunately, the entire city of Willemstad has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and therefore some financing for the huge construction makeover has been available. There appears to be considerable local wealth as well, so much reconstruction has taken place, and the resulting large and small homes painted in bright Caribbean colors makes for very appealing neighborhoods.

We wind our way up through the hills to Fort Nassau in order to get a better view of the island.  We stop to take photographs and are given a chance to sample Curacao Liqueur.  The story behind its development illustrates both one of the impacts of the Jewish community and also the innovative nature of the Dutch.  The Spanish brought the Valencia orange to the island to grow them, but the soil conditions and the lack of rainfall severely impacted the plant, and the fruit it yielded was bitter and dry.  Later on the Dutch tried crushing the skins but still nothing.  Hmmm.  Let’s add alcohol!  And slowly but surely, Curacao Liqueur developed.  Of course, alcohol itself has no color, so they added a blue dye to make it distinctive. The blue liqueur was not in of itself patentable, so they patented the unique bottle in which it came. Now they have a half dozen or so flavors of this delicious drink that’s sold worldwide.

Because we were so high up, we had a fantastic view of the entire Willemstad area, including the extensive inner harbor.  As one of the other guides described it, the inner harbor area was shaped like a hand. The wrist was the deep channel between the two districts of the city wide and deep enough for oceangoing vessels (hence the height of the Queen Juliana Bridge) and the palm and fingers are the different industrial areas.

On that subject: I would almost describe Curacao as the Pittsburgh of the Caribbean.  In 1915, Royal Dutch Shell built a huge oil refinery here – one of the largest in the world. In the 1990’s Shell abandoned the refinery, selling it to the government for a symbolic 1 guilder.  At that point, the economy was extremely dependent on this obsolete refinery, but fortunately was able to lease it to the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, a lease which is up in two years.  The transfer of ownership of this refinery was a wakeup call to the government, and it appears that they have been very successful in diversifying the economy.  Two or three large ship repair facilities operate on the island, the container ship facilities is so large that it leads me to believe it is a transfer hub for the southern Caribbean, and an enormous scrap operation operates in the harbor, as well as some kind of mining operation.

But in the harbor of the Otrabanda district, you can see how they see their future developing: tourism.  There is one pier called the Mega Pier, but we could see at least one if not more piers in various stages of construction.  More economic diversification in the event that two years from now, should the lease of the oil refinery be terminated (given Venezuela’s economic and social turmoil, that is quite possible), tourism can begin to take up the slack.  They have a way to go (more on that later when I describe my walk in the Punda district of Willemstad), but they have all the ingredients for success.

We came down out of the hills to next visit the Curacao Museum, an adorable, self-admittedly eclectic assortment of exhibits.  Here our guide Heliana’s presence was felt, as she walked us through each of them, giving us tons of information about what we were seeing and the historical significance of each room.  The first was the cockpit of the first commercial airplane serving the island from Holland.  Such service began in 1934, took seven stops to refuel between Amsterdam and the island, and the 16-passenger plane took 55 hours to complete the journey.  Today it’s a direct flight – still via KLM – of 9.5 hours.

The next two rooms are set out as a dining room and bedroom of one of the wealthier residents, with gigantic wardrobes, dining room tables and European-style four-post beds all made out of mahogany.  Mahogany was used because the wood resists termites.  All built by local artisans, some pieces old enough that they were constructed by slaves taught the trade by local artisans.  She next led us through the kitchen area, where the walls were painted in burgundy covered in 3-inch diameter white polka dots.  Why the polka dots?  It turns out that insects become disoriented when they see these dots, and therefore stay out of the kitchen. Clever, eh?

In describing the local building of furniture, our guide also discussed that an unfortunate part of the island’s history is as a center of the slave trade.  Slavery was widely prevalent throughout the Caribbean up until 1863, and Curacao was where the slaves were actually bought and sold, mostly to the Spanish and Portuguese in South America.  The local dialect, Papiamento, was very much influenced by the existence of Africans.  More on languages in the next post about Bonaire.  This one is getting pretty long – a consequence of my fascination with this island’s economy, which is a consequence of my upbringing in industrial Waterbury CT.  Thanks for your patience with that part of this post of you aren’t as “into” such things as I am.

We arrive back at the ship in time for lunch, and we decide to take lunch at Waves because Cathy has had a gander at the menu and found it far more elaborate than just the burgers and hot dogs she envisioned.  In fact, we both had hamburgers, but they were made from Kobe Beef!  Do you believe it?  Well, this was some burger, I can tell you.  We’ll be back for more of their delicious food soon.

Next exhausting activity was – yes, you can guess already by now – naps.  Post nap, for pretty much the first time since we boarded, Cathy and I split up.

Steve wanted to get some more photos of the city of Willemstad, especially the older Punda district, so he took off around three.  Within ten minutes, having past the Renaissance Curacao Resort and Casino and Renaissance Mall (the shops were closed, probably because it was Sunday), I came upon one of my destination goals: the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge.  As mentioned before, the city is divided by this inland waterway that leads to the rest of the inner harbor.  Within the city center, the main method of crossing from one district to the other is on this pontoon bridge, designed by an American and opened in 1888.  There is a great deal of boat traffic, and this pontoon bridge swings aside to allow passage when needed – which is apparently around thirty times per day.  The bridge is several hundred feet long and is for pedestrians only.  If the bridge is open for any length of time, a free parallel ferry service operates.

I arrived just in time to see the bridge close, and took it across to the old part of the city.  As mentioned before, stores were not open.  There were two reasons for this: 1) it’s Sunday, and 2) in these islands, an annual celebration probably linked to Three Kings Day (Spanish influence) takes place in these islands.  In Curaçao, there is a huge meeting of boats on another part of the island.  These two reasons meant that the city was largely deserted.

I walked through the streets for about forty-five minutes, taking some photos.  The impression I got was that, while the Dutch-influenced pastel-colored buildings were adorable, and the streets were well-maintained, many of the shops looked worn.  It reminded me of Main Street in Memphis in the 1990s.  That city had installed, at great expense, a wonderful Main Street Trolley with antique cars, and it ran along Main Street.  But Main Street was full of, well, shop-worn stores filled with very pedestrian wares.  In other words, the city’s attempt to revive their downtown was in progress, but it would take years for the Trolley and other attractions to have the desired rehabilitative affect.  This may be an unfair assessment, as indeed the shops were closed and the streets empty.  Open stores and streets bustling with shoppers would probably have presented a much livelier and prosperous scene.   Hopefully the revitalization has happened in Memphis, and the increase in the cruise and tourist industry will have that same impact on Punda.  It’ll take a few more years, and we trust it won’t be another Aruba-like glitzy shopping area but more like that of Bonaire (see next post).

So I headed back toward the Queen Emma bridge and crossed over to Otrabanda.  Still looking for photo ops by the water, the bridge began to open to allow one of the ferries through.  The entire bridge swings open from the Punda side, apparently by a large inboard engine that pushes the entire structure open and toward the Otrabanda side.  Here’s a 30-second video:

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After witnessing that, I spied some elaborate Christmas decorations.  Cathy and I had been discussing how disconcerting out was to see large Christmas trees, snowmen, etc surrounded by palm trees and us in shorts and t-shirts.  They still had many up in a square beside the river, so I took a few.  A peculiar sight for us Connecticut Yankees.

By then I had been out in the heat for ninety minutes, and despite the fact that it was 4:30, it was very warm and humid.  A quick walk back to the ship was in order.  It felt good to get back into air conditioning.

Now while I was in town, Cathy stayed on the ship and attended afternoon tea at 4pm.  She will describe that in her post.  Following that she attended another Enrichment Lecture with Peter Coyle where he continued his discussion of the European colonization of the region, as well as what to expect in Grenada and St. Vincent.  He is “growing on her” to use her phrase. He is a very nice person enthusiastically brimming with information that he is anxious to impart.  As we’ve mentioned before, his lectures could be hours long what with all he knows, and they are accompanied by great maps and photos.  Very informative and a great way to be introduced to a place before arrival.

Of course we are looking forward to dinner, especially because Cathy has checked out the menus on the television in our room – yes, there’s a channel for that!  Off we go to the Grand Dining Room, where Cathy dines on rack of lamb and Steve on Coquilles St. Jacques (possible spelling error on that, of course).

Another evening ends early and the ship sails for the island of Bonaire around midnight.