WELCOME TO CURACAO - DAY 24

A Look At What Is Happening Today:

Visit to Curacao ✔  Dinner At Silk Road ✔ 

Before dinner last evening we sat in the Crystal Cove with friend Elaine.

Anne Marie with Ed (Eduardo).  Before dinner canapés are served in the various lounges.  This tray had fruit and we thought that its presentation was very cute.

We ate in the Crystal Dining Room and these are the menus.

You will see that the theme of the menu was Dinner with Caribbean Specialties.

Our friend Elaine joined us for dinner.

The two of us began our meal with a Caesar Salad which Head Waiter Augusto prepared for us table side.  We enjoyed the taste of the dressing that Augusto prepared and thought the salad was very tasty.

Elaine, had the Papas Rellanas which is Fried Potato Balls Stuffed with Beef Pecadillo.

For our entree we each enjoyed the Jerk Encrusted Fresh Grouper. Keith had it with the Tangerine Butter Sauce and Anne Marie had it without the sauce and with some butter which was served on the side.

We also thought the entree tasted great. The crust added a nice flavor to the fish and Keith enjoyed the tangerine sauce.

Elaine had the West Indies Style, Sautéed Tiger Prawns.

For dessert Keith had mixed berries and Anne Marie had sugar-free Coconut Sour Cream Pudding.  She enjoyed the dessert.

Behind the sugar-free dessert is the dessert that Elaine had which was a Chocolate Banana Tart (she ate that) with Caramel Sauce with Vanilla Ice Cream.

After dinner we attended a Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle Party which was hosted by Crystal Cruises for those members of Cruise Critic who are on the voyage who signed up for the party prior to this segment of the World Cruise.   The Captain, Hotel Director and a couple of other officers attended along with the Cruise Sales Consultant.  We had a nice turnout of Cruise Critic members.  We met several first time Crystal Cruisers and they told us that they are truly enjoying the cruise.  In addition to several first time Crystal Cruisers who booked this first segment of the cruise, approximately 55 World Cruisers are first time Crystal Cruisers.

From L-R, Elain, Gary, Anne Marie and Hotel Director Josef.

Anne Marie with Barbara.

When we arrived back to our room we received a nice card from World Cruise Hostess Elise Ivy along with two magnets.

We slept very well last evening as we were sailing towards Curacao.

Keith was up first so that he could workout in the Fitness Center.  He watched highlights from both National Football League Football Games and was pleased with the outcome.  Sorry, to those who prefer the other teams to have won.  He also caught up on some news.

As is his normal routine he had coffee in the Lido Cafe and spoke with some of the Lido Deck Stewards.  Since we didn't arrive to port until around 2:00 PM today, it seemed that more guests were sleeping in this morning. Anne Marie got in her one hour walk.

We had breakfast in our room, and Rao was here promptly to set it all up for us.  

With our afternoon arrival into port, today the morning was treated as a sea day with a wide range of enrichment activities.

We won't cover them all but just wanted to note that the morning lecture was presented by former White House correspondent Ken Walsh whose topic for today was on the Presidency Of Barack Obama and included the challenges he faces in his second term and how he plans to get things down in an era of polarized politics.  We have seen some of Ken Walsh's lectures in the past when he has spoken about some of the President's he covered and provided a behind the scenes look at some of them.

Keith attended his second filmmaking course on iMovie for the iPad.  It is being taught by Kerry Millerick and Dina Sterr who each have enjoyed illustrious careers.  In preparation for making the video Keith created the mini-script for the video and determined what video would need to be taken.  With the assistance of Anne Marie, Keith and Anne Marie took all of the video today.  Keith will redo one of the video shots using a camera instead of the iPad because of glare that showed up in one scene. He has also incorporate photos (photos will be used in a Ken Burns type of slide show) into the video.   The video will only be around one minute in length.  He showed the video that he has made so fro to the two instructors before today's class and they said he was already 85% there.  There are some items that will be taught in class 3 and 4 which will help in editing the video.

We had lunch at the Lido Cafe and we each made a salad entree.  When we make these salad entrees in addition to the salad items we will select a poultry or seafood items that is one of the featured entrees available.  There are several featured items each day which change either due to the theme of the buffet if there is a themed buffet on that particular day or just items that change from day to day.  For example, yesterday we had salmon whereas today we had chicken.

This was our first visit together to Curacao.  Keith first visited Curacao when he took his first cruise with his family in 1967 and he still has some very nice memories of that visit.  His biggest memory is of visiting the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue which is one of the oldest Synagogues of the America's.  In fact, the current building dates back to 1730.  It was during that visit that Keith's parents bought him a Jewish Tallit (also known as a Prayer Shawl) which he wore back at his own Synagogue for his Bar Mitzvah.

These are photos of his Tallit and Tallit Bag.

The population in the city of Willemstad totals approximately 150,000 people.  Dutch and Papiamento is the language but English is widely spoken.

The town is noted for its colorful buildings and rooftops.

We booked a private tour through Crystal Cruises.

Our tour guide was Marlan.  We learned during the tour that he is married and has four children ranging in age from five to twenty two.  At night he is a musician in a three piece band that plays in hotels and by day he does these tours.  He works to jobs because he needs the income to support his family.  He was very good natured.    He said that he tries to respect everyone with respect and that includes his children and also his parents and grand mother.  

We began the tour by visiting a museum which had furniture, paintings and some other items from the 1800's and 1900's.

Next we visited the Mikve Isreael-Emmanuel Synagogue which Keith visited forty-five years ago.   The structure dates back to 1730 and is one of the oldest Synagogues in the Western Hemisphere.

If you look carefully at the photo you will see that there is sand on the ground.  The entire synagogue has sand as the floor.

There were several chandeliers and they are the oldest items in the interior of the Synagogue.

We then drove towards the Beth Haim Cemetery which is the oldest Jewish cemetery still in use in the Western Hemisphere. It dates back to the year 1659 with tombstones.  On the way we also stopped at another cemetery that is still used today.  This photo is of the Beth Haim Cemetery.

Adjacent to the Cemetery is a very large oil refinery.  You could smell the oil in the air.

While it was not on the original tour, our tour guide asked if we wanted to see the Cave of Hato.  We said sure.  When we arrived there our entrance ticket included a tour of the caves and one of the Hato Cave guides gave us a tour of the caves.  Coincidentally, we ran into three guests from the ship who were also on a private tour and one other person was on that tour.  Originally, she just said she was from Curacao.  More on that later.

To enter the cave we first walked up 49 steps that were quite uneven.  Once in the cave we walked down several steps.  We have to say this has to be one of the most interesting caves we have ever explored.  One area did have 300 bats.  We put our hats on .

In most areas of the cave we could not take flash photography. This area we could and he called this adventure cave.  There were different formations on the wall that looked like people or other objecting including a large and a baby elephant.  This one looks like a pirate.

This woman originally identified herself as a local but later during the tour we learned that her name is Mary Librea Peter and that she served as Prime Minister of Curacao over two different periods in late 1980's and 1990's.  She was a pleasure to talk with.  She said she had not visited the caves since she was of school age.  We all can relate to this.  Often, we don't visit all places that a tourist would putting it off for another time.

An Iguana.

We were very pleased with the tour and during the tour we also drove to many places on the island that Marlan could show us from the car.  

This evening we will dine in Silk Road with two fellow guests who we first met in 2010 and since then have been on voyages with them on each succeeding year.

“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” -  Audrey Hepburn 

Keith and Anne Marie