Tour guiding on my native island

I had the pleasure to tour some friends (who were on a cruise ship) around my native island Curaçao.

Image source

They would be on the island for 7.5 hours, for touring on a tiny island this would be enough time right? WRONG! When planning the day I had to arrange and rearrange.

Image source

Just the day before their arrival I came up with a schedule that I was satisfied with. Now I had to just arrange some local snacks and drinks and I would be ready to receive my guests.

The day of their arrival was a sunny day. The waves at the Megapier were ready to bring the cruise ship closer to the shore.

Meanwhile my sister and I were making a plan. A big surprised awaited my friends, because they did not know that I was on the island (they left me working at home) and they expected my sister to pick them up.

The ship arrived on time, so that was a relief.

After a pleasant surprise and a lot of emotions, the Blue Squad Tours was ready to hit the road.

Following a short stop at downtown, Punda and Otrobanda and a quick walk on the Emma Bridge, we headed to Fort Nassau were we had a view over the entire harbour.

Well... enough of the town ambience, up to the West country side we went .......
After experiencing the wild water of Boca Tabla, my guest enjoyed the brown sand of Playa Forti, Westpunt.

When they thought that Playa Forti was the place to be, I put them in the car again. With the promise that something better was to come, we arrived at Playa Kenepa. Two minutes after viewing this beach from above, my guests dragged me downstairs to the beach. Swim, swim,swim!

Image source

Once on the beach, the clothes were taken off within 5 minutes and everybody was enjoying the blue, warm, salty water and the hot sun. My guests enjoyed snorkeling, floating on the water and even had the luxury to enjoy some beer while chilling in the beautiful Caribbean Sea.
The beach was phenomenal but I still had some places I would like to visit, so up we went on the road again.

I thought to give them to opportunity to have a quick view of some flamingo’s on the salt pans of Willibrodus. But these exotic birds thought ″go jump in the lake″.

As we wanted to catch the sunset, we rushed to Hilton Hotel. Unfortunately we came just in time to see the last rays of sunlight in the sky, but the atmosphere was still ideal to enjoy a great cocktail.

I could not let them leave without showing them downtown by night, as we say in Curacao
: DUSHI!

Finally I walked along with my guest, back to the ship. My friends were very excited to see their cruise ship by night for the first time.

After a much exited day full of activities, it was time to say goodbye.
My poor guests didn’t even have the opportunity to buy a souvenir, but I am sure they will keep nice warm memories of my island in their mind and in their heart and to me that is the best souvenir one can have.

Image source

In a sneaky way that is my technique for saying this island is a real doubloon, so hope to see you back really soon....