Friday, August 18, 1995 - Curaco

An old Dutch skipper who's familiar with Cura‡ao told me about a very large supermarket that has everything under the sun, so I decided to check it out. Roy was still expecting a call from Customs, so he stayed on the boat. I took the bus into town, went to the Post Office to mail my postcards, went to an ATM to augment my moolah supply, picked up some free newspapers at the Tourist Information Office, and then returned to the bus terminal to take a minibus to the market. Saw a minibus with a sign, "Schottegat Rond," which is what I'd been instructed to take, but before getting in, I showed the slip of paper with the store's name to the driver and asked her if she went there. Cura‡ao isn't as totally dedicated to tourism as Aruba is, so fewer people speak English. Apparently, the bus driver didn't. She said something to me in Papiamento. I couldn't understand what she was saying, but I gathered from her tone and expression that she either didn't go to the supermarket or she didn't have the remotest idea where it was. It's a good thing I had endeavored to learn a few words of Papiamento. Feeling very stupid, I managed to come up with, "No ta bai?", which isn't even a real sentence. It just means, "No go?" Yet my feeble little attempt to speak Papiamento made all the difference. The driver's eyes lit up, she smiled and said, "Si," so I got in the bus. She took me right to the market for 1.75 florins. As I'd been told, it was a very large, well-stocked market. I even found our favorite cereal, that I hadn't been able to find since leaving Aruba, so I stocked up on it. Filled two shopping bags with groceries, found a bushalte, and caught a minibus back to Punda. On the way, I saw a large, nice-looking Kentucky Fried Chicken, a Burger King, and a more attractive McDonald's than the one downtown. Also saw a billboard saying there was a Denny's next to the Holiday Inn. As in any other large city, you have to get out of the downtown area to find the nice stuff. Ate lunch at McDonald's, bought some insect repellent at a drugstore, and returned to the boat. Customs still hadn't called.