Curacao
One of the Caribbean’s best-kept secrets, this port stop offers many thrilling outdoor fun activities and is an excellent diving venue. In addition to the pastel-colored colonial architecture that you will see as you come into the port, you will see the Queen Juliana Bridge, which is the highest in the Caribbean and not to be confused with the famous floating Queen Emma Bridge. Having been to this island before, I have always wanted to visit Shete Boka National Park and Playa Lagun. Prior to my arrival, I contacted Bettina at info@curacao-actief.com. (https://www.curacao-actief.com/) for a tour that her company was offering. We met our guide/driver Howard then loaded into a jeep for a bouncy ride through town. As we headed onto the rugged terrain of the island, we rode through the desert for a few hours, stopping at various points, throughout the trip. Howard was hilarious, professional and very informative. We visited two awesome blowholes and a voodoo cave with bats. A picnic lunch was provided before our final stop which was swimming with turtles and schools of fish. An awesome day filled with adventures.
If you are looking for high adventure; On another visit I contacted Albert Schoop (verticalfuncuracao@yahoo.com). Albert is a climber/rappel expert; all I can say is that I had the time of my life learning how to rappel from a building upside down. In addition, Albert took me INSIDE the Queen Juliana Bridge. At 185 feet this is the highest bridge in the Caribbean (and one of the tallest bridges in the world.) The bridge overlooks St. Anna Bay as well as Willemstad. Imagine you can also rappel off the bridge – do yourself a favor and contact Albert; easy town to navigate.
Snorkeling ; prior to another visit I had contacted a few vendors to arrange for a fun snorkel trip to the Tugboat area; however, vendors I had contacted informed me that the ship port arrival was too late for the vendors to accommodate my wife and I plus a few friends. I decided to try and see if there were any vendors at the port offering a snorkel trip, so immediately after the ship docked, I searched with no luck. My wife and I decided to then walk into town to see if we could locate a dive shop and maybe just rent snorkels. We lucked out and located “ Divers of the Caribbean” http://www.diversofthecaribbean.net)located at the end of the Archways in downtown Williamstadt. At the store we met Juanito and even though a snorkel trip was not scheduled, Juanito decided to take us to the Tugboat. To make a long story short, we hit the jackpot with Juanito. We gathered our gear and were taken to a great location where we went snorkeling over the sunken tugboat; we got to feed many schools of large fish and snorkeled over a party of scuba divers inspecting the Tugboat. Juanito then continued taking us to other snorkeling areas were the visibility was terrific. After about 2 hrs + we returned, but we were not done – Juanito took us on a small sightseeing trip to various vantage points, and we stopped for homemade coconut shakes. Simply awesome day, thank you, Juanito!
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