Boarding, day 1, Miami,
Panoramic of the Port of Miami from
the Splendour's star gazing deck. Grandeur
of the Seas , our
ride for the last cruise, is parked in front and follows
us out of the harbor.
Sunrise over Key
West on day 2. The red building
actually in the process of being built and is
entirely brick. Very interesting. At the end of the day,
a old world sailing vessel passed by
as we churned up some mud and left
port.
Day 3 and 4 were at sea, leaving us at Curacao
on day 5. Look a little dutch ?
The island
is an independant part of the Netherlands. Boats enter the harbor
through a swinging, floating bridge
which is opened several times a day. It was common for people
to blame their late arrival to work
on the bridge, so a new bridge was
built for auto traffic. Several hundred feet over the harbor, it
offered a great view of the city on
one side and the Splendour on the other.
Docking at the pier felt a little like Benecia
with all of the oil tanks. A tour of the city started
with the Curacao Liqueur factory. This is the distilling
tank used to produce all of the product.
The local aquarium has plenty of life including, flamingos
( picture2 ), huge
eels , stingrays ( picture2
),
trigger fish , and Herby
( picture2 ) the Jewfish.
Sharks were fed
by the tourists. A finger count
was required by those brave enough to feed the sharks by hand!
In town, we stopped at the Temple
Mikve' Emanu-el ( picture2 ), the
oldest temple in the western
hemisphere. The inside was simple, yet pretty, and the floor
was covered with sand (sorry, pictures
were prohibited). Another temple
( picture2 ) was located nearby.
A quick pass through town
yielded a pair of old cannons and
an interesting view of the ship .
Some parting shots of Ortabunda ,
the newer part of town, is on the right side of the port canal.
It literally means 'the other side'.
Day 6 was on Aruba . Like Curacao,
it is a desert island. Pictures during our off-road jeep adventure
reveals the constrast, cactus and golf
together. Also, the California Lighthouse
, a Catholic church ,
natural bridge , beautiful
coastline , a gold foundry , and even
a lizard . Mt.
Arubius :-) , the highest
point on the island, was the last thing we could see as we left the
port.
