The TL:DR is that I had a great time in Curacao. It was beautiful, with the many shades of the water and the beautiful beach and the colors on the buildings everywhere, and it was a really nice break from reality. Buckle in: even in parts, this will be a long one!
I will leave the travel part of Sunday to your imagination. The main points were getting up at 3AM, to be picked up by a car share with friends, to get to where the bus was leaving at 5AM*, to get across the state to Miami for our 10AM flight. A flight where I was in a middle seat. Nothing catastrophic went wrong (I woke up out of a dream that I had overslept and missed everything), but it was a long day that started way too early.
*It had been impressed upon us very strongly that the bus would be leaving at 5, do not be late because the bus will not wait for you. So every person was there before 5...and only the bus was not. Sigh. It came along shortly thereafter.
At the airport, proof of arrival:
My hotel room. We were at the Marriot Beach Resort.
View from the room.
I didn't end up sitting outside here, but it's nice to have that space. I'm glad I wasn't on the section that overlooked the pool and restaurants, just for the noise factor. And some people reported looking out to dumpsters, which is definitely not a nice vacation view!
View over the pool at sunset.
Monday morning view!
Some flowers.
This giant set made me wish I played chess! I did see a family playing with it, later in the trip.
View over pool to the water.
I had breakfast outside at one of the restaurants, and they had these sort of wicker ... things ... around the light fixtures. I heard a bird and looked up to see this guy looking back.
Someone used a bird ID app on the picture and said it's a
Venezuelan troupial.
Judging by this angle, he was not in the mood for any shit. Kind of like the
burrowing owls. I love a judgy bird face.
I was pleased to discover that my phone automatically kept track of time zones for me. Very handy for preventing the what-time-is-it-back-home confusion.
After breakfast, I joined some of the group who had staked out chairs by the pool, on the side overlooking the beach. I sat under an umbrella and (of course) brought out my knitting. I was happy to see that the colors I chose as suitable to Caribbean waters were in fact a good match.
The colors of the water were just stunning. All those shades of blue!
I joined a group for lunch at the poolside bar. Which, I'm sorry to be that person but I can't turn off my editor brain, had fresh "ingridients"...
...and "vegatarian" options.
The food was good, though!
I spent a few hours sitting there, but started to feel like I'd had enough sun, even indirectly. (This proved to be true [only mildly ominous foreshadowing].) I went up to the lobby, where they had swinging benches, as you can see here, from
their website:
I sat there in the wonderful breeze, alternately reading and knitting, the rest of the afternoon. It was so relaxing.
Both Sunday and Monday nights, we ate dinner at the resort, with tables in the two restaurants at the resort and "assigned" groups so we would spend time with different people. The food was good and the company too, though the service was, well. On island time. Very friendly and pleasant and very, very slow. I guess that's better than quick service but not good food!
Tuesday, I woke up to find I was a little red from being in the sun even indirectly, more on the right side than the left (the water side must have reflected more). It wasn't painful, just sensitive, so for instance on the bus, I sat on the left side to avoid feeling the sun on my right arm. I'm lucky it wasn't worse: I should have put on sunscreen more frequently than I did on Monday. Live and learn. I haven't spent that long outside in quite a while, and I simply forgot. Too busy looking at the water.
On the walk over to breakfast. Don't these trees look like they belong in Dr Suess?
There was a group outing Tuesday morning, so here are scenes from the bus. One of the three cruise ships that was in for the day.
First view of the iconic houses on the harbor in Willemstad.
The floating bridge, moving aside to let some boat traffic by.
Apparently it can move a little out of the way for smaller traffic, but has to move all the way over when something this size needs to leave.
Willemstad is beautifully colorful.
Heading onto the flyover bridge for car traffic over the harbor. Cruise ships are so mammoth.
We toured a distillery, and even though I'm not a drinker, it was quite interesting.
Pretty colors!
True enough!
This was in a corner of the courtyard. Doesn't it look like it leads somewhere interesting?
Back on the bus for a tour of downtown, and all right, this is silly, but the bus had a call button with a cup of coffee on it. Did they used to have bus attendants who came when called?
There are those houses again!
Street art. Iguana, maybe?
The floating market, from the water side.
Color, color, color!
Part of the old fort wall.
Views from lunch! A group of us ate at
Ocean House, at the mouth of the harbor, which had delicious food and a view you can't beat.
Then we wandered around the shops a bit. I'll show you what I bought in a later post, but I wanted to share these little Delft figures, because I appreciated that in addition to the classic pair:
You could get boy-boy:
Or girl-girl.
View up another fort wall, seconds after a cat disappeared around the corner.
Now there's a view of the houses!
Cropped for the best shot of the row.
Walking across the floating bridge.
Street art everywhere.
Front and center in this display was a little ostrich! Since I was planning on seeing the ostrich farm, this seemed like a good idea. (This is not ominous foreshadowing, I promise.)
Back at the resort in time to see one of the cruise ships leaving.
I joined a group going to dinner just down the street/beach, at
Pirate Bay Restaurant, where we sat with our feet in the sand, and watched the sun go down.
There was a couple out on the jetty, and while he appeared to be taking photos of her, at one point it looked more like he was proposing! But no.
Dinner was so nice. I was with five women who knew each other better than I knew any of them, and I felt so welcomed and included. It was such a lovely experience. I came across this
Loose Parts cartoon shortly after returning from the trip:
And sometimes that's just how I feel. It's so hard, isn't it, judging our own insides against other people's outsides. Sometimes even when a group doesn't mean to, it can be hard for another person to fit in. But this group in particular, as well as on the trip as a whole, I didn't feel that way. Everyone was so friendly. It was great.
The trip recap is not done! Tune in next time when we go to the ostrich farm.
They also had some emus. 
They're slightly smaller, from Australia rather than Africa, and have three toes versus the two of an ostrich. Now you know as much as I do about them. Oh, and they both kick to defend themselves.
Back to the ostriches.
Reptile in the grass.
Those feathers were sooo tempting. I badly wanted to stick a hand in there.
I mean, look how fluffy!
But still cute!
There was one large pig in a pen, and a bunch of piglets running loose, cleaning up the area where they let you feed the ostriches (now that was an experience---they aren't aggressive, but they are powerful in their interest in the bowl of food).
They also have a couple of crocs, for cleanup. Handy, right?
One last sunset.
We had dinner on the beach, the whole group of us, and to my surprise, fire dancers performed!
I was, honestly, a little unsteady walking barefoot on the sand, so watching how well this performer did, on stilts, while juggling fire, was something else.
I didn't try it, but someone I know who once lived over there said it's actually quite good.
