Curacao and Aruba

21st - 23rd January 2016

Again, Happy Birthday Nicola.  We had a glass of champagne in our cabin to toast Nicola, before going to Sindhu Restaurant for a special dinner.  The Sindhu Restaurant has menus that have been designed by Atul Kochhar, a Michelin starred chef, who is a Master of Spices.

Curacao

Next morning we arrived in Curacao immediately followed by a naval ship, giving a 21 gun salute (not sure the salute was directed at us).  After breakfast we strolled to where the American ship was berthed, where near a crowded market where somebody tried to pick pocket Geoffrey's rucksack.  Fortunately, apart from a bottle of water, umbrella and a hat there was nothing worth taking.  However, it was a wake up call of how careful you have to be in these ports.  We crossed the pontoon bridge into the main town area, where we walked around the local markets and up market shops.  We stopped at a restaurant for a light lunch and beer, where upon leaving Geoffrey had dropped his cruise card under the table and luckily Doreen spotted a waitress pick it up and recovered it……. Geoffrey was having a bad day.

A very nice town that we wouldn't mind returning to some day.

Aruba

Today we returned to one of our favourite islands in the Caribbean and decided to catch a local bus up the coast to a place called Palm Beach, where we walked along the beach looking at the luxury hotels, before stopping off for a light lunch.  The temperature was in the low thirties, so very hot, but very pleasant with the breeze.

After a few hours we returned to the town on the bus to visit our friendly iguanas, who posed nicely for Geoffrey's photographs.  After the obligatory walk around the local markets and shops we returned to the air conditioned ship to cool down, and relax before dinner.