Back in Curacao

You'd think by now we'd have learned to check on our flight schedule the day before! We arrived at the airport at 6 AM for a 8 AM flight and found our intinery had been changed to a 6 AM flight to Charlotte. CheapOAir didn't notify us. The name says it all. U.S. Air very nicely rescheduled us but couldn't get us into Aruba until late in the evening. Too late to catch our Tiara Air flight to Curacao.

So, hotel reservations to postpone and new ones to make, a new flight the next day thank goodness available. Still, four flights instead of three AND an unexpected night at a hotel in Aruba. By the way The Town and Country Hotel is near the airport and a good value.
Our boat is up "on the hard" at Curacao Marine (see photo). It's hot as hell too. For the first time we've chickened out and are staying at a hotel until she's in the water. The air conditioning is heaven after a day working on the boat.

And the repairs on the boat are taking much longer than we expected. Our new propeller, a folding Gori, needs a retooled shaft and realigned engine. We won't be in the water before next Monday. There are a million other projects ongoing of course so the boat's a mess. Scott's happy not living on the boat as he can leave all his tools and projects in place.
Our hotel is the Plaza and is in the Waterfort, standing a quarter of a mile around the entrance to the harbor. It was originally built in 1634, but redesigned in 1826 to protect the enlarged city. During WWII the Dutch installed anti-aircraft guns and it was used as a base to protect the Shell refinery.

Steel cables were also placed across the entrance to Willemstad in St. Anna Baii in an effort to deter German submarines. Our room overlooks to the harbor and the lovely Queen Emma floating bridge (see photo top). Big and little ships are constantly going by our window! Another shot (just above) is taken looking at the hotel from our boat when it entered the harbor.
Last night we walked along the fort wall where a series of restaurants have been built in the arches. They have decks on the ocean side where the waves crash only feet away from where you're sitting. But we were attracted away by some lively music. The tourist board was putting on a cultural evening in the square.

The music came from a Ka'i Orgel and a Wiri, or metal scraper. The Ka'i Orgel is a Cylinder Piano - an vertical piano without keys that plays from a big cylinder made of mahogoney with a crown of 64 teeth. This means the operator needs to turn it that many times to finish the composition. There are 5,000 to 7,000 nails determining the melodies - up to 8 on one cylinder. The deeper the nail goes into the cylinder the finer the sound. These instruments were already popular in England at the beginning of the 18th century but originally came from Italy.

An Englishman Joseph Hicks produced many of these in the years from 1805 to 1850 and is usually credited with inventing it. The sound is reminiscent of a piano, kwarta, bass and guitar (a richer sound than a hurty gurty).
We had seen one of these being played last fall at the Harvest Festival. There are more than 40 of them on the island, 20 of which are still actively played by musicans. Each Ka'i Orgel has it's own name. The national museum's is called "Rais di Pueblo" to symbolize that it is rooted in the folk culture of Curacao.

A series of dance groups performed traditional dances. They asked for a volunteer to turn the cylinder for one dance and of course Scott was up there in a minute. He is so tall that in order to keep his back straight, he had to bend his knees - up and down to the beat. The crowd loved him. One dance group pulled up members of the audience to dance - very sexy moves! Both of us were chosen and did solo dances with our partners for the audience. Of course Scott was hysterical. Honestly, I was in tears laughing. Later when he won the grand prize everyone was delighted; a nice cloth cooler bag with a radio filled with gifts - a hat, three china traditional houses and a china Ka'i Orgel, DVD on Curacao and a hot/cold vacum cup. They served traditional foods as well - goat stew, rice, green beans & beets, and plantains. It marvelous luck to come upon it.

Labor Day in Sami, Curacao

I LOVE A PARADE!



Luckily for me there are a lot of them around. We saw the small notice quite by chance, that the fishing village of Sami north of Willemstad was having a celebration on Labor Day, May 1.


There were no other details so we just hopped in our rental car and navigated our way up there. On the outskirts of the town traffic came to a halt and costumed families walked down towards the water, so we just parked the car on the verge of the road and joined them.


The costumes were really beautiful and clearly all hand made. There was a lot of applicaye work with pictures of the harvest and the small colorful houses of the past. The costumes are modled on those actually worn a century ago. Several of the groups performed traditional dances during the parade.

The men were really wonderful - very much into the moment. Can you imagine those handsome men at the top left marching in those costumes in the U.S.? Well, maybe in Key West...
We had a brief shower mid way but very few even bothered to use umbrellas or get under cover. These children however caught my eye!
Later we walked along the small harbor. It was packed with local stands selling food and drinks


Two men provided music under a tent. One turned the handle of a huge "hurdy gurdy" machine while the other did the percussion.

Queen's Day "Koninginnedag" in Curacao

It's an Orange Thing!

This national holiday is celebrated not only in the Netherlands but on the islands of the Netherlands Antilles; St. Martin, Aruba, Saba, St. Eutstatis "Statia", Bonaire and Curacao. It is the actual birthday of former Queen Juliana but Queen Beatrix, at her Ascension in 1980 wished to continue the holiday on that date as a mark of her respect for her mother.

It was first celebrated on August 31, Queen Wilhelmina's (Queen Beatrix's grandmother) birthday, when she was only a princess, but at the death of her father King William III it became a national holiday. That was in 1891. The color orange symbolizes national and royal pride in the family name - The Family Nassau - House of Orange. The Netherlands has been a monarchy since the French were driven out of the United Netherlands in 1815, but royal powers were limited to a parlimentary constitutional monarchy in the 1848 Constitution.





Most people wear something orange and some people wear everything orange. The holiday is celebrated with parties, street markets, concerts and special events. It's a combination of giant flea market, state fair (without the animals) and non stop live concerts. Fun, fun and more fun!
For the children there are amusements, games, and street food. For the adults there are open bars everywhere and shopping of every kind. Stalls with food, drink and a multitude of goods line every street in Willemstad. Cars are not allowed in town. Stages are set up in various locations for bands.

There's nothing like a little green to set off all that orange and our favorite was the Mojito stands. To find one just look for the long lines. It takes a while to make these from scratch. Lots of fresh mint gets muddled in the bottom of the glass with sugar syrup, then ice and rum. Delish!

After a few of these, while watching some great drum bands (lots of choreography), we were ready for some lunch. Luckily a local "food court" was nearby. Lots of choices! Scott had conch meat with "funchi", sliced corn meal mush fried up crisp, local veggies called "provisions" and salad. I had the mixed grill, chicken, ribs and pork with "moro", fried rice and beans with the same provisions & salad. Happily they added fried plantain to mine. Needless to say we couldn't finish it all - even Scott!

Celebration Week

This was a week of celebrations! Scott and I started it off with our 30 year wedding anniversery on 4/14, then Sean's birthday on the 15th followed by mine on the 17th. Sean and I are 40 years apart so we turned 24 and 64 respectively!

We wish, of course, that we could have been with our family at this time, but in lieu of that we celebrated with cruiser friends. Sixteen of us went out to dinner at "Der Heron" in Curacao and it was a fun evening. Cars were a bit scarce so 6 of us piled into one very small economy car for the ride. Jackie, Hilary, Val and I shared the back seat. Or rather three of us did -

Jackie lay on our laps on the way over and Hilary on the way back. No problem as they are both light as feathers!
We were able to talk to Sean on his birthday. He had celebrated with friends on Saturday night thank goodness as he had to fly to Detroit on his actual birthday, as usual exhausted from work. Will organized the party and James came with some of his friends.

On my birthday Scott invited our three closest cruiser couples here for drinks on the boat;"Miss Charlotte", "Feisty" and "Angel". He put up streamers and we had our special plastic birthday tablecloth (that's seen a bunch of parties). I made a platter of middle eastern appetisers - huumus, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, feta cheese, olives and pita bread. Again, it was a lovely evening.

Usually when we're in Curacao we're here for work on the boat or putting it up while we go home. So this week we made a special effort to see and enjoy the island. Scott and I drove up north to Daabooi Beach for an afternoon. We swam and lay on the lounge chairs. Nice and relaxing. Scott's demonstrating below.

Tropical Storm Omar played havoc with the beach sand here on Curacao's west coast last fall. It took away the sand at the edge and left coral bones. So it's a little hard getting in the water gracely. But once your there it's heaven.

At the end of the week Jackie & Mel from "Feisty" (that's them at the bottom of the page) invited us to join them on a trip north to the Kura Hulanda Hotel in Westpunt for lunch, swimming and snorkeling. This beautiful hotel is set on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and a small white beach.
We had a wonderful lunch and then lazed about their fantastic facilities.
Business seems very light around the island now so they seemed glad to have us - if only for the day. A lot of the large hotels are very fussy about using their facilites if you aren't a resident but this charming place was very welcoming.

On my birthday I talked with James, Paula and Sean. Sean has set up Skype so he and Will called with the video working. What fun to see each other (ours works too) while we talked! After Shabbat we had a wonderful call with Josh, Michal and the kids. They all sang a fabulous rendition of Happy Birthday and Daniel and Ariella receited poems by heart! I'm a lucky lady!

While talking to everyone is great, it's turning our thoughts towards home. Our time here is running out and soon we'll be back with family and old friends. The two sections of our lives are very different and both are fantastic. We feel very lucky to be living them.

Harvest Festival in Curacao'

If you've been reading my blog entries for any time you know that Caribbean and South Americans love parades - and I do too. Every holiday and occasion calls for one and most people must have a lot of costumes hanging in their closets.
The commen elements are an overall theme and perhaps song divided into smaller groups united by color, pattern and their own band.
In the larger events such as Carnival on a big island like Grenada or of course the king, Trinidad, there is a third or even fourth division. For example the overall theme here was celebrating the harvest.

One group chose to illustrate the planting process and then divided this up into four or five groups in varied costumes. Even within the smallest unit there is some individual choices. Women in particular choose degrees of exposure. Unlike our own country, weight or age has nothing to do with how little or tight your clothing is!

That said this was in general a very mostly dressed crew, certainly compared to Carnival celebrations! The individual groups are led by a "King & Queen" and often a baton struting few men or women. The bands travel in decorated trucks that also serve as refreshment locations. Boys or girls get trays of cold drinks and bring them to the marchers.

The festival here in April is to celebrate the agricultural seasons, mainly the harvest, although spring was the theme of at least one of the groups. The marchers carry baskets of fruit and vegetables or mimic the motions of planting.
Every age is represented from the very old to the very young. The parade started in Santa Maria and ended in Otrabanda, the north side of Willemstad. It lasted 4 hours and they walked about 6 miles from 10 to 3. By the time we saw them at the reviewing stand everyone was looking a bit tired! It's really hot in the noon day sun here.

Thousands of people participated in the parade and thousands more watched. There are only a hundred and twenty thousand people in Curacao!
We had just had a four day weekend holiday at Easter the weekend before

and in May there will be another one around Labor Day (May 1) and the Queen's Birthday - with more parades! Scott and I will still be here then as we've been applying for a 90 day extension on our visa. The process has taken much longer due to the holidays. We hope to have our passports back May 4 and if the weather allows, sail for Bonaire.

Back in the ABCs

With a little substitution that is; the Aves (Venezuela), Bonaire and Curacao. Our S/V Scott Free spent a few months on the hard at the Curacao Marine Boatyard this winter while we returned home to Vermont. Scott flew back to Curacao 2/4 and I joined him 2/24. This gave him time to accomplish a long list of projects without cleaning up after himself every evening (as I wasn't there to care).

The most serious and precarious job was removing the mast to replace the step at the base and then rethreading it through the deck. A big crane accomplished the heavy work and a rigging team did the fine tuning.
We really enjoyed our next "door" neighbors, Harold "Smitty" and his wife Jackie on their boat "Windy" from Newfoundland. .
They were lots of fun and we hope some day to get up there and visit. Not sure however it will be for a skiing vacation as they have urged us. Who knew there was a great ski resort in Newfoundland? Jackie returned home to work and "The Judge" joined Smitty (close up above shows Smitty on the right) for his trip west to Cartagena. We hated to see them go.

Just before we left we lucked out when the "Green Boat" was launched out of our boatyard and the party was fun! Free drinks, excellent hors d'oeuves (really dinner) and very short speeches are a great combination. Two young dutch men are sailing around the world to promote environmental issues facing the oceans and reefs.
Early in March we sailed back to Bonaire with one night at Klein Bonaire on the way. Many of our cruising friends were waiting for us and it was a joyous reunion. Hilary & Tony on "Miss Charlotte", Ellen & Cal on "Patience" and Karen & Ralph on "Kara Dream" and of course Bob & Barbara, formerly of "Enkidu" and now living in Bonaire. We met new friends Stan & Maggie on "Inner Wisdom " and Mel & Jackie on "Feisty".