So, The Republic got the complaint that there is not enough basszje on the last series of pictures. While the official guideline is that not a lot basszje is enough basszje, on special request here goes:

Quicky, some pictures of last week, sailing from Curacao to Cartagena.

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

On our last days Miriam decides to try diving again, while I snorkle around and finding myself having about enough lack of air than I generally like to have.

Also Sinterklaas entered town in a parade of motors, nomands, children en zwarte pieten.

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.