Day 25 - 12/14 - Willemstad, Curaçao

Before 7am the Volendam sailed into the Willemstad harbor past the now open pedestrian floating bridge and under the Queen Juliana Bridge to the turnaround basin by the refinery. The Captain then sailed back out and moored just short of the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge and across the channel from the yacht Tatoosh, built by Craig McCaw and now owned by the estate of Paul Allen.

We joined a group led by Dan and we headed off the ship after 8am and found a taxi driver that would take us on a 5-6 hour tour west to visit a list of sights that we wanted to see. The cost was $50/pp. A little ways out of the city we stopped at a former plantation which is now the Tula Tuseum and listened to a presentation on early life on Curaçao. The gentleman presenter demonstrated a number of things about daily life for the Africa slaves brought here.

From there we headed up to Shete Boka National Park where we enjoyed the sights of a rugged coast line and more lizards. Our driver even took us to a Natural Bridge which was quite scenic. There we also found more iguanas.

We looped around to the west coast and found what is deemed to be the most beautiful beach on the island. It was pretty. Just beyond there was another beach where people were swimming with turtles. Yet further down the road we stopped at a Gallery with yet another giant iguana (a sculptured one, of course!)

Our final stop was at the salt ponds and the collection of beautiful pink flamingoes. Back near the ship, Maria Jose dropped most of us off near the pedestrian floating bridge. Angela and I walked across it and wandered into the colorful shopping area and spotted a McD's sign. Sometimes only a McD's burger will only do, and today was one of those days as it's been nearly 30 days since our last McD's burger.  

About this time I noted that I had lost the lense cap for my new camera which was a bummer. When I replace it, I'll be sure to replace it with one affixed to the camera with a short tether. We continued our stroll through the shops and souvenir stands and made it back to the floating pedestrian bridge just in time to ride it as it was opened to allow a pilot boat pass through.  

Back on the ship, we ate a quick dinner before attending a Ben Franklin re-enactment by a couple of passengers in the Hudson Room. It was very good and the fellow looks just like Ben Franklin. While watching the performance, the Volendam silently slipped away from its moorings and sailed past the now open pontoon pedestrian bridge out into the ocean and past the Zuiderdam. For the next few hours the ship's officers and technicians performed rotating ship maneuvers to adjust the ship's magnetic compass. That adjustment is needed periodically to compensate for the magnetic effect of the ship's metal hull on the sensitive magnetic compass.

Since we had missedk the early show at 7:30pm, we attended the 9:30pm Joseph Réohm magic show. It was quite good and he's from Seattle.

Our day concluded with a stop at the buffet for the 10:30 feeding. It's a relaxing sea day planned for tomorrow. For most of the ship's passengers, their cruise is almost over. For us, another is about to begin. Stay tuned.

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