I think our ship simply idled off shore last night as the distance from Bonaire to Curaçao is only 72 km! But when we awoke we were docked in the capital city of Curaçao, Willemstad, population 163,951. Population of the whole island is 192,645.  Curaçao is quite a bit different than Bonaire! It is the largest of the ABC islands, with 121 square miles of land. It is noted for its colorful buildings and beaches. Curaçao is autonomous but part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as are the other two ABC islands.

I again relied on Viator and booked a two hour morning walking tour of Willemstad that turned out to be delightful. There were only 4 of us on the tour, including two ladies from Amsterdam, one of whom had a grandfather who had lived in Willemstad. Fun fact:  I have always been confused whether the proper name for their country was Holland or is it The Netherlands. The ladies from Holland said both were correct and the terms are used interchangeably. So now you also know.

The area near the waterfront is simply lovely! Our tour guide lady was delightful . She led us through the local streets where we saw the many murals painted on the walls of buildings and homes. They proudly encourage it. We saw homes that have been restored to their former beauty and learned a bit about their history and life style. It was a marvelous tour.

Yvonne returned to the ship after the tour and I wandered over the Queen Emma bridge that spans the St. Anna Bay to take pictures of the buildings on that side and looked for mementoes to bring home.

Bottom line: I really like Curaçao and wish we had more time to explore the city and its surroundings.

The afternoon was spent in the usual manner: late light lunch, a shower, more book reading, perhaps a short nap, pre-dinner music and drink (still free!), and more card playing. Tough life but someone has to do it!

Tonight’s entertainment was two fold. The show in the theater featured a US singer (Amy Jo Slater) whose show was entitled “A Night with Adele”, which was spectacular because if you closed your eyes you would swear you were listening to Adele herself!  The second surprise of the evening was we wandered over to the atrium after the show to see if the scheduled dance contest was worth watching. It definitely was! Most couples were from the Spanish speaking countries but there was one young couple from California who put on quite a show and made the finals. Another couple who made the finals had only met right before the competition. It was a fun filled event. BYW, the California couple was voted #2 but we thought they were the best of the lot!

Today’s activity announcement also said there would be a “White attire dance party” on the pool deck after the dance competition. We had not known about it before arriving on the cruise so we had little/no white clothing in our suitcase.  We were very surprised how many of the other passengers came dressed all in white for the evening! They obviously knew about it ahead of time. Needless to say, we did not go to the dance party!

Tomorrow we will be in Aruba.