Hoe heet zo’n beestje ook alweer? Hermiet ding? Het loop’.

Hurrah! At least some series survive this blog; numero 100 of pictures.

(Otrabanda)

Willemstad is a nice place with two sides. Punda on one side and Otrabanda ( probably literally other side, but what do I know? ) on the other side and a zillion different neighborhoods scattered around that.

Punda is the rich and more touristy side of town while Otrabanda is more local, moor poor and more ruined. Still the ambiance that the place radiates is great. There are a bunch of cheap eateries and bars (my tip would be the netto bar or one of the many snackies) and almost all the time you can find locals there having a beer and a chat. A lot of time including us.

Curacao doesn’t look like Aruba which makes us happy since we had enough of American tourists and high prices. It’s more a island for living than for tourism. And it’s much much more Dutch. While on Aruba it’s pretty interesting to see Taco Bell, and other all-american stores next to the Bruna and Blokker on Curacao there is even an Albert Heijn ( which we didn’t visit, mind you! ).

After staying for about two and a half weeks with our nearly new grandparents on boat of the trawler in the Aruba nautical club it was time to say goodbye since they were leaving for Brazil ( by plane ). Fortunately we wrote a fairly new couchsurfer coming to Aruba soon after that – by boat – and so we hopped from boat to boat.

Yes dear readers I understand you feel neglected. So little for some many days! Well now, here some more pictures from Aruba, with some captions.

The good

Aruba sports very friendly people. Everybody goes about pretty relaxed although some people work really hard, while others take it more tranquillo. The beaches are beautiful and the water is clear. You can get roti and rolling tabacco. To a junk like me ( on both things! ) that’s pretty nice.