We were spoiled by our Dominican Republic guides who had
such passion for geocaching and for showing off their country, and by our
knowledgeable enthusiastic Bonaire guide. Alas, our Curacao guide didn’t
measure up, not even close. He was pompous, made anti-semetic comments, and
gave such useful information as “look out the window and you will see…..” (without
specifying which side of the bus to look out of). He took an amazing island and
made it, well, disappointing. On the positive side, the bus did allow for
amenities such as space to put one’s knees so that was a bonus.
The island itself was nice. We got to visit the factory
where blue curacao is made, along with many other flavors. We got to sample three
– orange, tamarind, and chocolate. One of the (few) souvenirs I bought on the
trip will provide tastes of 8 flavors. We also visited a seaside fort which was
impressive, had an interesting lunch at a very windy spot, and concluded the
tour with an hourlong visit at an amazing sand beach with clear blue-green
water and a reef that was home to many fish.
Upon arriving at the beach, Sue
and I immediately headed for the edge, plopped down our belongings (having left
valuables in the bus), grabbed our snorkel gear and entered the water quickly
albeit not exactly gracefully.
It was well worth it! Lots of parrot fish, puffers, trumpet fish
who were swimming just below the surface, sergeant majors, butterfly fish,
angelfish, and so on. Quite the water wonderland, and both of us would have
been happy to stay there for quite some time.
After what seemed like a mere 20 minutes in the water we agreed we should get
out to check the time just to make sure. Oops, only 12 minutes to gather everything, shower,
change, and return to the bus. Ok, we can do this. Alas, we were told that the
showers cost $.75 so we borrowed $1 from fellow geocachers to accompany the 2
quarters in my pocket and for the $1 received two shower tokens – apparently
the price varies. We showered the salt and sand off and made a beeline for the bus,
still in our wet suits, and weren’t even the last ones to board.
We actually had 14 hours ashore in Curacao. Decided to clean
up and have dinner on the ship, then decided to take “a short walk” in
Willemsted (the capitol city) after dinner and our expedition turned out to
have 10 people. We found the first two caches near the ship, then crossed a pedestrian
bridge over the water to find another. One thing led to another; six caches (and
several kilometers) later we returned to the ship tired and happy, though
apparently having inadvertently thwarted some plans to sit, listen to music,
have a drink, and relax.
I started on the cruise recognizing that it would be a “sampler”
to let me know where to visit in the future. Bahamas was so “sanitized” it
doesn’t feel like I got to see any of it, so I would need to return. Dominican
Republic was never on my bucket list and having had a wee sample I have
confirmed that status. Bonaire was always on the bucket list but I feel like I’ve
seen most of what there is to see. Curacao has increased on my bucket list
because it was interesting and it seems we just scratched the surface (though
it would be useful to know the name of the tour company so I can patronize
others on future travels). To foreshadow, Aruba feels too much like Honolulu – beautiful
but so built up it isn’t a good fit for my sense of what I like to explore.
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