January 26 - “Curaçao”

Ah, bright and early rising once again.  This time we were leaving the ship again after only a night on the seas.  Curaçao is just not that far from Aruba.  And once again we opted for the pure tourist package.  That meant piling into a bus (air conditioned, thank goodness) for a tour of the island’s hot spots.

Our guide was a tiny little old lady with very short gray hair.  She spoke the four languages that most everybody speaks there: English, French, Dutch, and Papiamento.  That one the local dialect that is a blend of the other three plus some Spanish thrown in.  Fun to listen to.  Impossible too understand unless you grew up there.

Our first actual stop was on the side of the road next to a lake.  Why?  Because the lake was ablaze with the color pink.  It was full of pink flamingos having breakfast.  Apparently they do breakfast and lunch in. Curaçao and dinner over in Venezuela.

We saw an old Shell Oil plant.  They left in 1989 though.  Some foreign outfit runs it now.  I think somebody out of the Netherlands.

Next stop was called the Hato Cave.  It was one of a series of caves on the island.  Some of them are still used in Voodoo rituals, especially surrounding death in the family.  We were warned that it might be a little chilly inside the cave.  Nope.  It was just a shot and humid as it was outside.  It was beautiful though.  Stalactites and stalagmites and rock formations that looked like a donkey head, a mushroom, a sleeping giant, and our guide’s personal favorite, the Virgin Mary with child.  Pretty amazing.  Oh, and we saw bats.  Batman and Robin were apparently out on a call, though ...

Next stop was a tour of the Curaçao Blue liquor factory.  Not much of a tour.  We saw a brief video and some artifacts before they ushered us into the gift shop.   Some of the liquor was available for testing as well.  The unique thing about this product was the different colors it comes in ... and they all taste the same.  They have started making it in three other flavors, though.  Chocolate, coffee, and some kind of citrus.  The most interesting part of this one was made from the alcohol’s byproducts.  Our tour guide was smitten with this one.  She assured us every family on the island had a bottle in their cabinet.  It was good for ... well, what ails you.  Especially aches and pains.  A real medicine oil.  She was so excited about it that she sprayed some on anybody who would step up.  I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.  She sprayed both my knees.  Felt like some of that icy spray athletes use.  Or maybe like if you spread mentholatum all over. Oh, and she had some advice.  Our biggest problem when we have a pain is we tend to rub it.  That just rubs the pain in.  Instead you need to pat it - “Pat the pain out.”  I’ll try to remember that one Miss Sheila.

The bus dropped us off downtown for some shopping.  We were going to follow the directions of the information kiosk lady to get some food, but the closer we got, the seedier the area became.  It would probably have been some good food (I was personally hoping for some iguana), but we turned back and eventually ate on the ship.  Not before doing a little shopping, though.  And we managed to rescue Freddy Flamingo.  Come on, how could we not?  He had the same name as our little Freddy back home ...

Back on the ship we headed for another day at sea.  At dinner we were seated with some random people again.  One lady in particular was ... well, quite entertaining.  She let us know that she had already had a few beers, and the glass of wine was probably going to be her last for the evening.  At one point she jokingly asked, “Well, are going have anybody say grace?”  To her surprise and perhaps chagrin, I said, “well, that’s something I can do,” and started praying.  When she realized what was happening, I heard her whisper, “Oh. We’re really doing this?”  A little Christian humor there, I guess.

We finished up dinner and went to the juggler show.  He was pretty impressive at juggling.  Pretty funny, too.  And after that we hung out with Jim and Pat at the Mardi Gras party.  Not much of a party, really.   Just played some line dance songs, shot off some streamers, and gave away beads (no throwing.  Kind of lost its punch).  Jim and Pat should have been given some kind of award, though.  They went to WalMart in Galveston before the cruise and brought along some beads that lit up.  Definitely the only ones with that little accessory.

1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love.”

Father, Please touch those families we met at dinner last night.  Amen.