Dec 21 Curacao

 On to the last of the ABCs (we didn't visit Aruba) for more warm wandering.  We had visited here in 2016 as one of the first ports in the Around The World Cruise. 

http://drdavebradley.blogspot.com/2016/01/january-8-curacao-ho-hum.html

We did, however, have a different parking place than 8 years ago.  It required a walk of perhaps 1/2 mile to get to the center of town, but as expected, there were plenty of places to spend money along the way.

I noticed a certain dissonance with this establishment.  It's always 5 o'clock in Curacao....

...but we don't open until 4pm.

I believe that when Columbus first visited the New Lands he found tanzanite and opened up a Diamonds International store on every island he saw.

Rif fort once protected the harbor and now protects a retail shopping mall.

We were docked across from these buildings in 2016.

The swinging bridge is famous here.  It lies across the harbor opening and moves out of the way for every vessel entering/exiting the port.

Caribbean Christmas

When we arrived the pedestrian bridge was wide open and appeared to be in no hurry to close.  A few steps further was the free ferry, which we figured would be able to go around the harbor traffic and get to the other side quicker.  And it was different way to travel.

We raced the bridge as it started to close.  We won, but just.  It also started to rain.

Street art.  This was the only time we had to get out the ponchos in the 12-day cruise.

Out of the rain and out of the way.

I think this is a great idea.  Lots of bridges are burdened with "love locks" where couples show their commitment by signing their names to a padlock, attaching it to a bridge and then throwing the key into the water.  Unfortunately, that ends up being a lot of weight on the bridge.

Here they've constructed several wire hearts and invited the love locks here.  No weight on the bridge, couples still feel committed.

And by now the 10-minute rain storm had ended.  But we kept the ponchos handy -- the skies were threatening.

Dutch inspired government building

Public restrooms artfully decorated

I find this Christmas art a little frightening...

...and the red M&M has gone rogue.

On our return the bridge was open to foot traffic, but shortly after we started walking across the bells started ringing and the gates were closing.  It had started moving by the time we reached the far side and got off.

Delft porcelain, since this is Dutch

Dec 20 Bonaire

 Surprisingly, Bonaire means "flat" and not the "good air" you'd thing it would be. And our journey today would show just how flat it is.

 We dock after noon because it's a long way from Miami.

This is the Douane, or Customs House. Originally colonized by the Spanish, the island was taken over by Netherlands in 1636.  It is currently a special department of the Dutch.

Artistic view of gangway.

Some burros run wild on the island.

We took an excursion to some tourist sites.  First is Seru Largu, or large hill, with an elevation of 400 feet.  Compared to some other volcanic islands of the Caribbean, Bonaire is indeed flat.

Monument on the hill.

Here's a particularly hardy cactus used as a fence.  Unlike other cacti, the burros can't knock off the spines and push them over.

Church with Christmas lights

Roundabout Christmas tree

The southern end of island was prized for its salt flats.  Cargill continues to extract sea salt here.

The ship pulls up and is loaded with salt.

The parking lot was gravelled with coral.  At first I thought it was extruded concrete, but it's actually dead coral broken up and used as paving.

The salt was originally harvested by enslaved Africans.  When working the salt flats, they stayed in these slave huts.  For sizing, the openings you see are the doors, about 3 feet high.  As many as 7 slaves spent the night in one of them.

In olden days, before large cargo ships and huge conveyor belts, there ware four docks for ships to berth and load salt.  As ship would arrive, the terminal would raise a flag with one of four colors.  That would direct the ship to the corresponding dock marked by a colored pylon.

Flamingoes love the salt flats, or more specifically, the brine shrimp that live there.

About a mile away from where I stood there was a huge colony of flamingos which looks like a long pink beach.

Christmas display along the beach

Final stop, a tourist beach at Sorobon Beach.

Dec 17 Christmas Cruise from Miami

 Hi there.  Attempting to avoid potential  building repairs and just go somewhere, we joined our old friend Oceania's Insignia with a room right next to the one we occupied for 180 days going around the world.  

As is customary for Oceania, particularly in Miami, they royally fouled up the check-in.  The ship was 5 hours late arriving due to storms (we had tropical storm winds the night before).  Oceania helpfully sent out an email saying the ship was delayed, don't arrive until 2pm, which we received at 10:30am, after we had already arrived at the terminal for our 11:00 check-in.

Insignia arriving late, accompanied by two tugboats as it was still quite windy.

To continue to fu, once they were ready to board passengers they did nothing for crowd control.  There were boarding groups assigned by by number.  They were stanchions and ropes to create lanes for people to queue for the check-in people.  But when they called a group number, everyone just stormed the check in desk leaving the queues far behind.  And why you finished check-in, the swarm of people pushing to fill your spot made it near impossible to move away and get to the gangway.

Just a little coordination getting people into the queues would have worked wonders.  When I talked to the Executive Concierge, he blamed it all on the late arrival and refused to accept any responsibility for anything that followed.

But when we got on board things improved.  Lot of Christmas decorations.

The Miami skyline at dusk is always pretty.  They now have Ferris wheel, because every town needs one.

Two days of chugging through the ocean followed.  It's a surprisingly long trip to the ABCs off the coast of South America.  We've spent enough money with Oceania that we get invited to wine tasting events.  This one was French wines.  And cute little bites to go along with each one.  It's all wasted on me, but I enjoy the pomp and ceremony.

Something for everyone to aspire to.