Sunday July 28– Curacao

We have now learnt that the ship that the three people we rescued sank before we arrived.  The bright lights of the ship that we could see was a tanker that had its lights blazing for us to see where to go, although we did have the GPS of the sunken ship.  The tanker did not have the necessary equipment to pluck the people from the raft.  It was too high for them to climb into the tanker.   The ship that sank was a supply ship taking provisions to the oil rigs.

Because of the events of last night we were seven hours late arriving into Curacao, but nobody minded.  We were just so happy that we had saved three lives.  When somebody from the ship said to a local that they would lose money because we were too late to do any tours, the response was that they were just happy that we had rescued the people.

The houses in Curacao are painted in a variety of pastel colours.  We were told that a Mayor many years ago complained that the light from the white houses gave him a headache and he got the people to paint their houses in different colours.  The punch line is that he owned a paint shop.  Rumour or fact?  I love the colours here.  The buses are brightly painted and the people wear colourful clothes.  The sea is a purple bluish colour and is so clear that you can see to the bottom.

The town looks very prosperous with upmarket shops.  We came here in 2010 just before the island gained its independence from the Dutch.  We walked on the Queen Emma Bridge which opens out, not up, to allow ships to pass. It was very hot and we both enjoyed a local beer.

We saw an iguana in the park, and there was colourful artwork and music everywhere.  The captain gave us till 6:30 before we had to be back on ship and was apologetic that he could not give us longer but we have to be at the entrance of the Panama Canal at our allotted time, so it will be full steam ahead.

Tonight we had a Brazilian mezzosoprano singing Brazilian inspired songs.  She only boarded the ship at 3 pm and had 30 minutes practice with the orchestra who had never seen her music previously. Then together they put on 2 great shows for the passengers. Very talented.