I woke up a few times through out the night and did not get back to see so I finished my book "the colour of our sky" which was pretty good. I did squeeze out a tear at the end. I finally fell back to sleep about 4 and so when I woke up a 8 an Margie was already up and dressed and ready to go to breakfast it did not surprise me. The sun was shining and when I looked outside was rewarded with seeing land , the first in three days. Curacao, we were excited.
We went to the grand pacific , the main dining room for breakfast and then back to our room to watch the ship dock. It is lovely having a balcony. We put on our sunscreen grabbed our hats and purses and made sure we had our money, room cards and passports.
The ship docked and we were in the line up to get off the ship by 1045. As we would be allowed out at 1100. We decided not to do a ship tour abut to try and do our own. We had hoped to take a tuk tuk tour and asked at information about where we might get one. 
And they told us that one usually has to book them online prior to arriving.
OK we went for the 20 dollar 2 hour, free beer and water bus ride around the island with 2 photo stops which we could could grab right at the dock side. Our guide was a lovely young ma who introduced us to the islands culture, history and its’ curaçao factory.
We both really liked the curaçao, all of the flavours we tried were very good. Margie bought curate to take home as her family is large and this would make really good souvenirs she said, but I think it is because she really liked the curaco. A stone at the washroom, a few funny photos and back on the bus.
There were old buildings still in use that used to belong to the slave owners and there were buildings in use that used to be homes for the salves. All painted very bright, pretty colours. It seems that the governor of the island way back when had all the people on the island paint their houses with bright colours as white gave him headaches. Then they found out that he owned the paint stores. Pretty funny really. 
Back on the bus for the east side of the island and our photo ops of the marina from the top of a cliff and the east side of the island. It was very pretty. After that we headed back through town and we got off, actually the whole bus got off at the shopping district. 
So that is where our tour ended. He told us exactly which way to go to get back to the ship and We thanked him and gave him a tip, put on our hats as it was getting very warm and headed off across the Queen Emma bridge. It is a very cool pedestrian only, floating pontoon bridge that has been around since 1840 or so. It spans the river which divides willemstad in half . the other side of the river had the lovely colourful buildings constructed in the dutch stye like in Amsterdam only with brighter colours. It was very pretty. We found a washroom and then found a restaurant for lunch in a charming courtyard with wonderful carved animus in relief on the walls around the courtyard. I had a veggie wrap and Margie had a crab wrap. I bought a t shirt and some post cards while we were waiting for our food to come.
After the lovely lunch of warmed wraps we headed off to find the jewelry stores where we could get our free gifts. We did find them and when we went to go back across the river they had opened up the Queen Emma bridge and there was a tugboat pulling a very large tanker ship up the river.
The boat was going through the middle of town. It seemed quite funny. Once the large ship was past the bridge they moved it back into place and opened the gates so the the pedestrians could walk across again. There was a lovely breeze which kept us cool but it was still hot out and so we tried to stay in the shade. We found the gate that we had to go through, it was into the old fort which had been turned into a shopping and entertainment area for the tourists and cruise ships. We found another few stores where we got free things and some things we bought too. A nice walk along the sea wall and we were back on the pier for our ship.
Through security where I was told I could not bring my gingerale that had not even been opened. I could drink it or I could chuck it, so I drank it. I got the signature of one of the security people from Nepal for the scavenger hunt and Margie had purchased some curaçao and had to turn it in for the rest of the cruise. She will get it back the last night on Deck 12 in the library. We headed back to our room to drop off our things and just relax on our balcony with a glass of ice wine. It was very good after the heat of the day. We uploaded some photos to facebook but not the videos as the internet time is dear and they take too long.
We decided not to go to the show tonight and to go back to the Magenta for dinner and so at 6 we were inline at the magenta. They sat us with two ladies from New Jersey. Peggy and Kathy. Sisters like us. Peggy was a semi retired school teacher who spoke and taught spanish and English. Kathy tasted cookies for her retirement part time job. I love meeting new people. We chatted and ate and chatted and the time went very pleasantly but quickly.
We then parted ways. I went to get some more signatures for the scavenger hunt and Margie to get info about the next days excursion in Aruba. Then back to our room to drop off things. Margie worked on her payroll that she had to get done and I went and got other signature from the room steward from Haiti.
While Margie input her payroll I typed up the days activities so that we would not forget what we did and when we did it.
We turned on a movie and set the sleep timer on so that when we fell asleep we would not have to worry about turning it off. The next day was going to be busy again with an early start so we needed our beauty sleep.
Towel animal - Frog
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