Curaçao
Curaçao, the second of the "ABC" Islands we visited, has a warm, sunny climate all year round. The native language of Curaçao is Papiamentu, which is a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch. Most people from the island speak this language in addition to Dutch, English, and Spanish. The ship docked at Willemstad, the capital and a UNESCO World Heritage City, which is noted for its colorful Dutch architecture. We took Royal Caribbean's "Caves and City Center Tour", along with Tanya, Daisy and Stephanie. Our first stop was the Hato Caves, located on the north side of the island.
The caves are home to a colony of long nose fruit bats; because of this, photography is limited. The caves had a utilitarian purpose during the early days of the slave trade in Curaçao. Escaped slaves used them as hiding places and lived in them for months at a time. Even before the arrival of Europeans and slaves, the Amerindian Arawaks used them for shelter and left behind cave drawings or petroglyphs.
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The Floating Market is a fleet of small, wooden boats from nearby Venezuela and sells fresh fish and fruit at low prices.
Behind us is the towering Queen Juliana Bridge, opened in 1974, and named after the then reigning queen of the Netherlands. The bridge is the highest in the Caribbean as well as one of the tallest bridges in the world.
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We are standing on the Queen Emma Bridge, a floating pontoon bridge across St. Anna Bay that connects the Punda and Otrobanda quarters of Willemstad. Called "Our Swinging Old Lady", the bridge was constructed by American consul Leonard Burlington Smith in 1888. The bridge is hinged and opens regularly to allow the passage of oceangoing vessels. It's considered one of the world’s most unique bridges.
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