Sunday, August 20, 1995 - Curaco

Fun day! We took the bus into Punda, walked across the pontoon bridge to Otrobanda, and rode the bus to Westpunt, which is at the far northwest corner of the island. It must have been twenty miles or more. Took an hour to get there, even though the driver was driving like crazy. We went way out in the country and past the famous Mount Christoffel, which is the highest point on the island, 1239 feet. It's in a lovely national park. I want to go there, walk the trails, and climb to the top. Roy probably isn't so keen about that. The beaches on Cura‡ao can't compare with those on Aruba. They're smaller and rockier. Actually, the "rocks" are coral, but "coralier" didn't sound so hot. We walked along the beach at Westpunt and then walked along the road a ways. I was looking for the fort that's shown on the map but eventually found out the only remnant of the fort is an old cannon. A restaurant has been built on the site of the fort, so we ate lunch there. The food was mediocre, the service was worse, but the view was superb. We sat on a shady, breezy verandah, overlooking the bay and the Caribbean. We could see out over the water for miles. It was very calm. People were swimming in the bay. Three teenage boys kept climbing up to the cliff near the restaurant and jumping into the water. It was quite a jump. Must have been at least 40 feet. We caught the 4:15 bus back to Otrobanda. Got there at 5:05. I was anxious to catch the 5:30 bus to Spanish Water, because on Sunday the buses only run every two hours. I didn't want to get back in the dark. I zoomed to the bus terminal, but Roy stopped at McDonald's to buy shakes! What a nut! He made the bus, though, with time to spare. The shakes were delicious. Just what we needed -- cold and wet. When we reached Spanish Water, the sky was full of huge black clouds. Looked like a real storm was on the way. We paddled as fast as we could to the marina. Our timing was perfect. The rain hit while we were filling our water jugs and standing under the overhang of the roof. By the time we were ready to leave, the rain had quit. The wind was actually blowing out of the west, which is very unusual, so we blew all the way back to the boat. Took showers and relaxed.