Jan 16 - Curacao
Bon Bini a Curacao! Curacao (pronounced “kur’a’sow”) is well known for it’s pastel buildings. It’s been a UNESCO World Heritage site for many years, and it’s really a treat to see in person. The colors are so bright and fun and happy, yet the architecture is very reminiscent of Holland - it’s a very neat island.
Here we had booked an excursion called Curacao Experience. Our first stop was to the home-museum of Yubi Kirindango. Yubi is an internationally known artist whose claim to fame is seeing treasure in another man’s trash. Mostly know for his car-bumper art, Yubi has many unique pieces surrounding and inside of his home - which we allowed to freely roam about. The art was really very interesting. His house was also home to many animals including three hairless dogs from Peru. They were very happy to have visitors.
Our next stop was Kueba di Hato which is an above ground cave formed thousands of years ago under the sea and eventually pushed up to the surface by a volcano. The cave was also home to many bats which flew around above our heads while we were in the cave.
While the rest of our tour group was freshening up from exploring the cave, M and I ran down a trail marked - Indian carvings. It was well worth the detour!
Our next and final stop was to be dropped off in Otrobando (lit. the Other Side) where we explored some of the city and went to the Kura Hulanda Slavery Museum. The Caribbean islands played a very important role in the slave trade industry of the 1700s - especially the Netherland Antilles which were of course frequented by the very famous Dutch West Indies trading company. The slavery museum was a real eye-opening and horrific experience. The entire museum was brought together by one man - a dentist and inventor of the one hour photo - who took one year to acquire all the artifacts inside - some of which were beyond priceless.
After the excursion we crossed the pontoon bridge to Punto (the point) and did some shopping and grabbed lunch. I honestly preferred Otrobando with it’s locally owned shops to the boutiques which lie in Punto. There are also forts - one of each side at the mouth of the port canal - which have been turned into shopping and dining facilities but have returned their fort structure and are really cool to walk in. We enjoyed walking around Fort Rif. As we sailed away we got a good view of the tallest bridge in the Caribbean.
Tags: caribbean 2009