October,  2011
Curacao, ABC Islands. Netherland Antilles 
(50 miles north of Venezuela)

The capital of Curaçao is picture perfect Willemsted.  You may have seen a picture of it even though you've never visited here.
The island stretches 43 miles long by 10 miles wide with 130,000 residents.  Here is it's history in a tiny nutshell:  Arawak Indians first settlers, 1499 Spanish, 1634 Dutch, 1807 British, 1815 Dutch, 2010 granted local autonomy by the Dutch.  The amazing thing is the locals speak 4 languages with ease.  Even the children switch from one language to another.  Papiamentu is the local language, along with Dutch, Spanish and English.  To me, the papiamentu language sounds like a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, English and a few Indian words mixed together which has a delightful sound.  The local greeting at the airport is 'Bon Bini' or welcome.  Bon dia or Bon tarde is good day or good afternoon.
 This little boy knows 5 languages.  Well, he's still working on them a little.
One of the hotel complexes and our anchorage bay.
 A restored church.  The buildings are made from wood from Amsterdam and stucco.  If a building hasn't been restored, it is a sad looking building with concrete blocks cemented in its windows so that it doesn't collapse.  These photos are the result of some of  the restorations.
 The center building in a state of decay.
 A main street before the floating bridge.
 
 Another view of one of the main pedestrian streets.
 Across the river.  This whole bridge moves to let traffic in or out.
The bridge is coming in our direction in this photo.  The ferry is on the right.  When the bridge is open, pedestrians hop on the ferry to cross.
The bridge is back in place after opening.
Vegetables boats that come from Venezuela to sell their food at the open market shown below.
The best place to buy vegetables.
The Kura Hulanda anthropology museum that focues on the different cultures in Curacao.  These are chains used to keep slaves in place on the cargo ships.
Cargo ship model.
A restored street which covers many buildings for the museum.
Notice the curlers on this statue?  This is a real hairdo on the island.  Just roll your locks in pink curlers and away you go.  Sounds good to me.
Music is great here.  The jazz musicians are playing on the top of the bar.  
Our friends gave us the scoop on where to hear the best music.
Music at the marina on Sunday afternoon.  The person on the left turns on crank on the self-playing piano while the man on the right gives it a little extra rhythm.

There are many beautiful sandy white beaches with blue water surrounding the island.  I have been challenged by the high heat and try to stay out of the sun.  It is 88 degrees here inside the boat which is the coolest spot I can find with the 15-22 knot breezes running through the hatches. So I either jump in or dinghy ride to the nearest snorkel spot for a couple of hours in the afternoon avoiding the hottest times of the day from 11-3pm.
Dinner on the beach and a nice way to end the day.