Curacao, Dutch Antilles

We saw Curacao today. Our ship came in at about 8:00 in the morning and we took a stroll around Willemstad. The town is really beautiful. All the houses are painted in pastel colors. This is the first stop where Rob didn't dive. He tried, but the dive shop kept coming up with excuses not to commit to the booking. Oh well, at 6:00 a.m., when Rob discovered he had a bit of an ear infection (ouch), he finally surrendered and sent them an e-mail stopping the whole procedure. That was that.

The walk around town alternated between 85 degree heat and cold soaking rain. At first, refreshing but then just wet, wet, wet. I managed to find a replacement UV filter for my camera that I broke in Grenada. Rob finally managed to mail a letter we had been carrying since before we left from Madison. It was a thank you note for an elementary teacher who had done an interview for one of Rob's assignments. She teaches fifth grade at Kennedy Elementary in Janesville. Rob will be her Junior Achievement volunteer come March. It will be interesting to find out her response to getting a letter with both US and Dutch stamps on it, mailed from Curacao.

We also picked up some postcards to mail home. This led to a series of phone calls and some missed opportunities resulting in a mad dash to a post box before they hauled up the gang plank on the Princess. Cora and Josie's card got the wrong house number (sorry) even though Rob's dad gave him the right one. Unfortunately, Rob left it on the ship just before we went on the afternoon tour and there was no time to go back aboard to get it.

The tour was to the local Seaquarium and other sights. We went over a bridge that would have scared anyone who has both acrophobia and fear of bridges. Wait, that's me, aaaaaaaaah! It was really high, thin and windy. But I...no, I had my eyes closed...Rob could see Venezuela from the top. After crossing the bridge, we went on to the Seaquarium. We were just in time to become drenched running to the building. The dolphin show was due to start a few minutes after we arrived. Fortunately(?), the sun came out for the show. That 30 minutes was enough to toast my legs and arms to a rather crisp red. It was worth it; the dolphins were great. We sat so close that we could see just how big they were when they slid up onto the platform the trainers were standing on. They did all kinds of spins and flips. They even balanced the head trainer on their noses and tossed him in the air. All this time, in a little side corner, there were children playing with one of the younger dolphins. She was the daughter of the other two and not fully trained. The commands were for her elders only, since she was having more fun playing with the little snorklers at the shallow end of the pool.

After that we got back on the bus and went to a souvenir store up on top of a hill. The view was great and we got some cold sodas and more of the local coinage in change. The coins here are really cool. Two of them are square.

Last, we went to the ruins of a fort up on top of another hill. It was one of the few made of brick. Rob and I opted to stay on the bus for this one since everyone only had 15 minutes to climb up to it and be back on the bus. The air conditioning felt good. We got back to the Emerald Princess at 4:15 pm and the last boarding was at 4:30. Rob guessed at the house numbers for Dave and Cassie's cards hoping that they would get to their destination anyway. We got close for Cassie's (602 instead of 601), but botched Dave's (1560 instead of 2051). Fortunately, Glacier Circle isn't that long. The postman must know the Thomas household. Yes?

We just finished eating dinner and are going to check e-mails before heading to bed.

Merry Christmas again to everyone!