Sydney to Brisbane via Suez and Panama Canals: 2nd August Curacao

1^st August 2015 – Curacao

From the afternoon shade of our balcony I watched passengers coming and going to and from the ship as they straggled along the wharf hanging on to their hats for dear life as a strong trade wind howled in from the south east. At least in the open although it was a warm wind it had a cooling effect on sweating bodies plus meeting returning passengers were crew members with wet cool face towels a luxury before boarding.

Earlier in the day we docked at Curacao’s Willemstad sea berth at about 0700 Saturday morning. That meant even with the rough conditions whipped up by the strong trade wind we were berthed in open sea but once tied up everything seemed as normal.

Willemstad, Curacao’s main and largest town is situated on the foreshore and spreads back up a steady slope to a high ridge line. The town’s main commercial centre is on the flat nearest the waterfront.

The township is divided by a narrow navigable natural channel (like a river), that allows ships to enter into a large natural basin situated on the other side of the ridge where a substantial port has been established and it also services the large oil refineries that are sited adjacent to the basin shores.

Approximately half a kilometre from the sea entrance a large floating pontoon bridge spans the channel, when shipping approaches gates are closed and this pontoon bridge opens back from the commercial town-side to allow them through. The pontoon bridged is now only used for pedestrian traffic but was once the only way across to the commercial side of town other than a long trip around the large inland basin.

Further up the channel a kilometre or two the channel is spanned by a large high viaduct type bridge that runs in line with the high ridge and carries Willemstad’s traffic, it is plenty high enough for shipping to pass underneath

We did what the majority of passengers were doing and strolled ashore to explore the nearby township, passing by numerous flea-market style stalls selling all sorts of tourist type souvenirs (junk) and hawkers flogging cheap island tours. A large cable laying ship happened to be making its way down the channel so we watched that for a while as we waited for the pontoon bridge to swing back into place then crossed the channel to the main town centre. We strolled up and down narrow streets where every paved footpath or road seemed to be dug up for water pipe maintenance. Nancy checked out several shops (majority), felt every piece of material and clothing, tried on several items of clothing and eventually decided everything was far too expensive.

We wandered past the floating market, that’s a flotilla of boats tied up at an anabranch off the main channel. Several boats were selling a variety of fresh fish, one person would be weighing, someone else would be scaling and chopping them up, someone else would be flapping at flies and they had plenty of buyers amongst the locals. Further along the quay a similar set up but boats loaded with fruit and veges. It was obviously fresh but none of it looked that enticing.

Curacao is pretty arid nothing basically grows there so all fruit and veges are brought over from Venezuela about 35kls away.

Willemstad is geared up for tourist shopping they have all the known brands of everything especially in shoes, label clothing and jewellery, but as Nancy established it is pretty exy. However in the peak period 5 cruise boats a day visit this place where as 2 a week are currently visiting so someone must be buying.

I had a large cup of nice coffee for US$3 I thought that was ok, Nancy bought a medium sized ice-cream in a tub and it cost her US$4 and would have cost another US$2:50 if it was in a cone, outrageous.

Temperature was only around 30°C but the humidity was awful so after aimlessly walking up and down numerous streets and loosing heaps of sweat we wandered back to the pontoon bridge to cross the channel. We knew there was a game fishing boat waiting to go past the bridge but the gate hadn’t been closed so we started walking across along with a crowd of about 30 odd people. Two thirds of the way across the bridge started to open so we had to hurry and by the time we got to the end we had to jump a gap of almost a metre at the narrowest point as the bridge swung, but still had to stand on the inside of the gate that was stopping people coming onto the bridge. It was quite a laugh but there was definitely an element of danger not that the locals were phased in the slightest a lot of them just stood on the bridge itself. As it turned out the bridge only opened a short way to allow the game boat through and then shut again, when a large ship goes through the bridge is fully opened.

So while Nancy snored in the background I watched the comings and goings from the comfort of our balcony high enough to get a nice cooling breeze and sheltered enough not to get blown off the ship and watched those struggling to keep hats on and skirts down.

Looking over the side the water had a beautiful emerald colour and was quite transparent. Waves pounded in onto a man made coral rock wall that stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction and protect the place from erosion although I’d be concerned in a cyclone. As shipping, mainly oil tankers left the channel into open sea you could see the tugs disappearing and re-appearing in the big swells that really put things into perspective.

I forgot to mention, there really doesn’t seem to be much to see at this place but in the town all of the building have been painted bright colours and it certainly is attractive and the old buildings from earlier periods are all well maintained and attractive also.

Today is a sea day and tomorrow we have half a day in Cartagena, Colombia before moving onto the Panama Canal transit on Tuesday morning our time, I think we are 13 hours behind Brisbane but not sure. Apparently they are filming our transit and it will be live on a website

www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html