Curacao, Bonaire, and home

In Curacao, our ship docked at Willhelmsted, a UNESCO world heritage site, a Dutch colonial city. It is considered to be part of the Netherlands. The town has its original forts, as well as a unique appearance. Think tropical colors with architecture from Holland. We arrived about 2 PM, so decided to limit our explorations to the city.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the town is the pontoon pedestrian bridge, which swings out of the way to let ships pass. The bridge effectively has a motor driving a propeller at one end, and a hinge at the other. When they want to open the bridge, they start up the motor, and power the bridge off to one side. For smaller boats, they open it partway, but for ships they open it all the way. They run a pedestrian ferry when the bridge is open.

The forts have been redeveloped into shops and restaurants, retaining the original walls. We noticed a Greenpeace ship in the harbor, apparently for repairs.

We chatted with a local artist, who was working on a mural.

We liked Curacao better than any of the previous islands that we had visited.

In Bonaire, our ship docked at Kralendijk, the only sizable city. The entire island has a population of only 19,000 people. The main street had a range of shops, and was tidy. We were met by Renee, our snorkeling guide. She is an older lady who first arrived in Bonaire by sailboat from South Africa, with her late husband, and fell in love with the place. She says that life on the island is expensive, and that if you see something that you like you buy six of it, as it may not be available again anytime soon. She was an excellent guide, snorkeling with us, pointing out various fish, and even a Moray eel. The turquoise parrotfish were spectacular. One interesting animal looked like two small sea fans, anchored in the sand. When they sense any motion, the fans suddenly disappear, as that is how it captures food. She only takes out four people at a time. Bonaire is known for snorkeling and diving off the beach, and that is what we did. One odd coincidence was that Clayton and Donna, who usually sat next to us at dinner, were also on the tour! There is less than a thousand to one chance of that happening.

We walked around the town a bit, and bought a small painting by Janice Huckaby, a lady from Texas who moved to Bonaire. The shop was recommended by Renee. The main street was tidy, with various shops, including a good gelato shop. The whole place was laid back; we loved it. This was definitely our favorite island of the tour. The Dutch islands, as part of the Netherlands, are more first world than third world.

On Wednesday morning, we woke to 3 meter seas, and an uncomfortably moving ship. It was tricky to move around in the morning, but the seas calmed down in the afternoon. We enjoyed a couple of talks during the day, including the captain's talk, and a talk on crossing the Pacific in a catamaran sailboat. We took a Rumba class in the afternoon.

Richard took a behind the scenes tour of the ship, including the galley, the engine control room, and even the trash sorting and handling facility. They separate and recycle almost everything, incinerate most foodstuffs, and have their own waste treatment facility. I learned that the ship has two gas turbines, which generate electricity to power the two azipods, which hang below the ship and provide propulsion. The ship runs one gas turbine at sea, which provides enough power to move the ship at about 19 knots, but can use both turbines if they have a need for speed. They use a boiler and steam turbine to recover waste heat from the gas turbines, and have two diesel generators that they use while in port. They also have a small emergency generator. Wednesday was our final formal night.

On Thursday, we woke to moderate seas. We can see the coast of Cuba to our south, although our cabin was on the other side. We took another Rumba class. We have really chilled out, after ten days on the ship. Richard, ever frugal, admitted the merits of the balcony room. We took another rumba lesson. We packed up to get ready to leave the ship. Sandi, at least, was sad to leave.

On Friday morning, we got up early to leave and head for the airport.

Nice sunset from Atlanta airport

We changed planes in Atlanta, and arrived in Colorado to find cold weather.

We each added six new countries to our country count, and found one place, Bonaire, which we would like to visit again. Sandi goes back to work, and Richard will start applying for paddle permits.

Looking back at our trip, we learned some things and formed some conclusions. Unplugging from email and the internet is a good thing. We were not able to check our email 20 times a day, and that was OK. We did not buy the ship's expensive internet package, which many people complained about, and used free WIFI in ports. Richard realized that balconies are nice, at least in warm weather. We did not like "mytime" dining.  It seemed rushed, and the wait staff was not able to be as attentive as in traditional cruise ship dining.  They turn over the tables 2.5 times, instead of twice in traditional dining.  We were seated with different people, as often as not.  

The continuing problems with the Venezuela economy are likely to affect these islands, as they are closely tied to Venezuelan oil and other commodities. The cruise ship is a very international world; the crew came from 60 nations, and the passengers from 40 nations. The cruise ship had many “Save the Waves” signs; the oceans are worth saving, and snorkeling reminded us of that.