"Travel and Travail to see the Pontoon Bridge 2006" Curaçao Travelogue by grandmaR

Large sailboat coming into the harbor from Lido

When the boat docked in Curacao I was very disappointed. The Crown had gone up the river into town and turned around after they went under the big high bridge and docked just past the ferry dock. The Maasdam was way out on a pier outside of the river away from town.

I heard that the pontoon bridge was still not in operation, so I decided not to get off the ship at all. We ate lunch in the Lido because the main dining room wasn't open. We saw a big swimming pool on our side of the harbor with swimmers doing laps. Later, I asked a taxi driver about it and he said all children were required to learn to swim.

Also at lunch I saw a big sailboat go into the river and when I glanced over at the town again I saw that the pontoon bridge was there. So naturally I had to go and take a picture of it. But Bob said he didn't want to go.

Bob's picture of the parking lot by our dock

I don't know if he wanted me not to go or if he just wanted to be pleaded with to go or if he really wanted to stay on the boat. He said he'd take pictures of me on the bridge from the Crow's Nest. So I got myself together and walked out onto the pier. I wanted to take a taxi to the closer end to the bridge and then walk over it, do some shopping, and then take a taxi back to the boat over the fixed bridge.

The minimum taxi fare is apparently $8.00 but if there are several people, they can split the fare. So I linked up with some other folks who were going over to town and the taxi driver agreed to drop me on the near side of the bridge for $4 which was the same price as the other people paid..

Bob took pictures from the Crows Nest , but I wasn't on the bridge yet because the bridge had been pulled aside.

Freighter passing at the end of the street

The taxi driver apparently changed his mind because he said it would be better for me to get a taxi back to the boat on the near side and he showed me where there was a taxi stand on that side. While he was doing that, I saw that there was a tanker being towed into the river and the bridge had been pulled out of the way, so I couldn't walk over it right then anyway.

When we were driving down one of the narrow streets toward the bridge, we saw the boat go by at the end of the street.

Bridge almost back in place

After he let me off, I sat at the edge of the river and took pictures of the bridge being moved back into position. There were two Caterpillar engines - one on each side of the bridge (at the free end) and they had like an outboard engine to push and pull the bridge.

Playing dominos

I went into some of the shops and eventually bought a couple of items and then walked over the bridge taking pictures along the way. I got to the taxi stand and the drivers were playing dominos (quite aggessively), so I sat there a little while and watched. Finally another lady and I asked a one of them to take us back to the ship, which he did.

Shops on cruise ship dock

As I got out and watched him drive away, I realized I didn't have my hat. I couldn't find it. One of the other drivers took me back to look in the other taxi, but I never did find it. I've had that hat for more than 10 years. But it was gone. I bought a similar white hat at the stall there by the ship for $5, but it is just a sun hat, and not a rain hat. There's no structure to it.

Bob asked why I didn't use the HAL hats that we won at trivia, but I didn't think of it. I was so late getting back, that we missed going to trivia.

On the first cruise (11 days), we played trivia four or five times out of 9 times it was offered (they didn't do the first or last day). The other days we were off the ship in port when trivia was played. We didn't win any of them.

On the second cruise (13 days) they didn't have trivia the last day or on Jan 2nd. We did not play twice (Curacao and Barbados). Of the 9 remaining times we've won 6 times.

Sunset at dinner

We didn't leave until later that night. We watched the sunset from our table in the dining room. The cabin steward did a sting ray towel animal and used the chocolates that he puts out every night as the eyes.

Next: Barbados