Colorful Curacao
Usually my headlines are written just for the alliteration but this one really is true. We thought things were pretty colorful the day before in Bonaire, but Curacao really takes the colorful cake. It appears that this town loves color. We took a short tour on the town’s trolley and our guide told us the real reason that Curacao’s capital Willemstad has so many colorful buildings is that about 100 years ago, the governor of the island decreed that houses could no longer be white. That they had to be painted one of a set number of colors. After he left office it was found that not only was he the governor but he was also part owner of the only paint supplier on the island ?.
But it has served Curacao well as you will see from my photos. It’s a photographer’s paradise. Besides all the colorful buildings my photos benefited from one of the bluest skies I have ever seen.
But before I show you the photos I want to tell you what we did to tour. First, when the ship arrived there was quite a bit of discussion between the ship and the port. It went on for a while. So long that many people were waiting for the Captain to announce we were going to have to skip the port. But finally, almost an hour later, the port allowed us to disembark. There was one big change though. We were originally scheduled not to leave the port until 11;00 pm but because Willemstad had a 9:00 pm curfew for everyone in the town they moved up our all-aboard time to match up with the curfew and let us off.
Our included (in our Have It All promotion) shore excursion for this port was the aforementioned Old Town Trolley Tour. We were actually picked up by taxis (vans) and driven across the Queen Juliana Bridge to meet up with the trolley and our guide in downtown. Our tour was in a three car trolley pulled by a gas-powered engine that looked like a train engine (bell included). We saw lots of colorful architecture on our about 90 minute tour which started and ended at the old town fort. Our guide was good, the driver a great guy but I can’t recommend this tour. The fumes from the engine were horrible. By about halfway through we were either nauseous or getting there or we had a horrible headache. This trolley engine needs a tune up or a replacement before anyone should try and take that tour again. But it was interesting (when you could breathe). What we saw is in the photo captions. Funny but it was one of the few times we were thrilled to be wearing masks. Can’t imagine how bad it would have been without them.
After we were done they gave us the option of either walking back to the ship or taking the taxi back. Kathleen had a bad headache from the fumes so she headed back. I wanted to take more pics of downtown so I elected to stay and walk back across the fabulous floating bridge.
So here’s the pics that explain everything else. Remember, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
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- Sunrise!
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- Took this as we crossed the Queen Juliana bridge
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- This one of downtown as well.
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- Also taken from the cab on the way downtown
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- A walking drawbridge
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- This used to be a floating market but now it is held on land.
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- Another view of that drawbridge
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- I love what this says. A great piece of street art.
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- Some houses are in total disrepair
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- But most are gorgeous…
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- …and in glorious color
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- With all kinds of decoration
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- Statues galore
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- And color everyplace
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- We were told many of the founders of the city were Sephardic Jews
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- This house is very famous as a restoration.
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- More statues
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- We stopped at the Catholic cathedral. Nothing like Europe.
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- From the outside is is beautiful
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- When we got downtown, Nieuw Statendam is peeking out
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- The swinging/floating bridge opens to let a Coast Guard vessel out
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- The inside of the old fort. See the dot between the two vertical strips on the left. Cannonball from Captain Bly’s ship.
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- Downtown Willemstad
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- More downtown Willemstad
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- Loved this sunflower mural.
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- Loved this statue
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- It seems like every tourist town has not copied the IAmsterdam sign
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- More downtown Willemstad
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- More downtown Willemstad
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- This seemed to be the trademark of the old town. They were everywhere.
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- Love this sign
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- Saw a band playing Caribbean music. Tipped them well and then shot their photos.
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- The guitar player was the most animated
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- See what I mean
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- Now I am cross the floating/swinging bridge
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- Looking from one bridge at another that we had driven over on the way to the trolley.
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- Looking back at downtown.
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- This is the signature view of More downtown Willemstad
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- And here’s a panoramic shot from the middle of the floating bridge.
That was about it for downtown Willemstad. From the bridge it was about a ten minute walk back to the ship, back aboard and after a nice evening (more about entertainment and food coming soon) we went to bed and woke up sailing into Oranjestad, Aruba. More about that tomorrow.
What makes things memorable is that they are meaningful, significant, colorful. —Joshua Foer