Curaçao is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the southern Caribbean , about 65 km north of Venezuela. Owing to the island's history of colonial times, the majority of the Curaçaoans are of African descent, including many of "Mulatto" descent (mixed African and European descent). There are also significant minorities of immigrants and Curaçaoans of Dutch, French, Portuguese, Latin American, South Asian, East Asian, and Levantine descent on the island.
Curaçao has a population of 158,000, with an area of 444 km2 ; its capital is Willemstad. It is the largest of the 5 islands of the Dutch Caribbean. While tourism plays a major role in Curaçao's economy, the island is less reliant on tourism than many other Caribbean countries.
The historic centre of Willemstad is a World Heritage Site.
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Tuesday, December 24. Curacao. A slightly more leisurely start to the day with breakfast in the marquee. Then off for a 3 to 4 hour outing at 9:30 am. The bus was full with 40 people and the first stop was at the Curacao Factory where they produced their liqueurs. The visit was done on the cheap with just a small screen showing a silent video on how the Liqueur was produced and then a tasting of three minute portions of the blue Curaçao, 35% proof, and also the tamarind and chocolate varieties which were approximately 20% proof. David thought that Silverseas should have provided a far more upmarket version of his tour.of this tour
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We then progressed to the Haka caves which were above ground and necessitated 49 steps up to get there and several more steps down inside. Here again there were about 42 of us , far too many for one guide to take care of. But the caves themselves were impressive.
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The next stop was the photo stop for flamingos from the bus. They were just dots on the water, and this was a poor "photo opportunity."
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Then finally to the Curacao Museum, this been the highlight of the trip for me. It was housed in an old military hospital and furnished with period furniture in two of the rooms. Also a wondrous musical instrument that I had never seen it before and called a Kai Orgel. The local born guide that we had on the bus made the whole trip very informative and worthwhile
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We got back to the port at 1:30 and walked straight into town via the old Fort and the swing bridge which opened on demand for ships. We enjoyed the walk round town and back through the fort to the ship by soon after 2.30. We went to the Marquee for lunch as this was the only restaurant still open, but we had a big problem there as no food arrived within half an hour: this was blamed on the new chef, but the waiters could have kept us informed on what was happening The maitre d’ smoothed it all over in the end and I enjoyed my filet minion.
Then I had a swim , with more people in the pool then on other days. Back to the suite for a coffee and a read on the balcony before indulging in several cakes from the Arts Café around five, smoothed down by a glass of white wine. We watched the beginning of the Carol Concert from Westminster Abbey on the television before going down to the atrium to listen to Christmas carols aboard: this was quite magical.
Afterwards we returned to the cabin for another hour before going down to the lower bar for a glass of champagne. At 8:40 we ventured in to the Atlantide main restaurant for a Christmas Eve dinner of goose and Christmas pudding. Unfortunately, the Russian restaurant manager was quite rude to us which rather put David off the restaurant and she tried to seat us on a terrible table. But eventually we were shown to a delightful round table and the waiting staff themselves could not have been better. The evening was rounded off by a delightful Christmas show in the Venetian theatre - a really good Christmas Eve.
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