02/16/10
Early this morning, shortly after we docked, we heard a helicopter and went out on the deck to see what was up. There was a naval ship cruising past our starboard side with the helicopter circling it. Once past us, the ship fired its guns toward shore. They were small, pathetic, muffled booms, probably part of the Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras celebration. We saw nothing more of Mardi Gras, tried to no avail to find bead necklaces, and found that the parade is late today, after we set sail. So, no excitement for us. We even stayed up late, almost 11, for the ship’s Mardi Gras party, which turned out to be a limbo contest. It seems as if we are getting a message to go to New Orleans.
Willemstad, Curacao is a bright and clean little town, one of the nicest in the Caribbean in our view. The Dutch influence is obvious in the buildings and bright colors. There is an old town and a new town divided by a canal. The old town caters to tourists and the new town seems to cater to locals. A unique foot bridge on 15 pontoons spans the canal and opens up to 30 times a day for boat traffic. One end of the bridge has a powered pontoon that swings the whole assembly on a pivot point on one shore. It does not need to open very far for a small boat, and can open the full width of the canal for a large cruise ship.
There is another ship in port, the Eurodam from the Holland America line. It moored quite a way from our ship. The closer we got to the Eurodam, the more pairs of men we began to see. There were fewer and fewer man/woman couples and more and more pairs and quads of guys, laughing and having a good time and taking pictures of each other. Was there a cooking or knitting class on the Eurodam that the women could not pass up? Was there a virus on the Eurodam that affected only women, not men?
Sadly, we saw three ambulances meet our ship today, two as we got off in the morning and another as we returned to the ship.
Tonight we sail for Trinidad and Tobago, quite a ways to the east and almost part of South America. It is just off the coast of Venezuela and Chavez wants it for his country. It is far enough off that tomorrow is another ‘at sea’ day.
Colleen & John
Early this morning, shortly after we docked, we heard a helicopter and went out on the deck to see what was up. There was a naval ship cruising past our starboard side with the helicopter circling it. Once past us, the ship fired its guns toward shore. They were small, pathetic, muffled booms, probably part of the Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras celebration. We saw nothing more of Mardi Gras, tried to no avail to find bead necklaces, and found that the parade is late today, after we set sail. So, no excitement for us. We even stayed up late, almost 11, for the ship’s Mardi Gras party, which turned out to be a limbo contest. It seems as if we are getting a message to go to New Orleans.
Willemstad, Curacao is a bright and clean little town, one of the nicest in the Caribbean in our view. The Dutch influence is obvious in the buildings and bright colors. There is an old town and a new town divided by a canal. The old town caters to tourists and the new town seems to cater to locals. A unique foot bridge on 15 pontoons spans the canal and opens up to 30 times a day for boat traffic. One end of the bridge has a powered pontoon that swings the whole assembly on a pivot point on one shore. It does not need to open very far for a small boat, and can open the full width of the canal for a large cruise ship.
There is another ship in port, the Eurodam from the Holland America line. It moored quite a way from our ship. The closer we got to the Eurodam, the more pairs of men we began to see. There were fewer and fewer man/woman couples and more and more pairs and quads of guys, laughing and having a good time and taking pictures of each other. Was there a cooking or knitting class on the Eurodam that the women could not pass up? Was there a virus on the Eurodam that affected only women, not men?
Sadly, we saw three ambulances meet our ship today, two as we got off in the morning and another as we returned to the ship.
Tonight we sail for Trinidad and Tobago, quite a ways to the east and almost part of South America. It is just off the coast of Venezuela and Chavez wants it for his country. It is far enough off that tomorrow is another ‘at sea’ day.
Colleen & John
posted by Colleen and John | 7:08 PM
1 Comments:
Bummer about no fun celebrations ... did you do the limbo??
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