Yhe end of our holiday in Curacao, so here the (grand) finale

The amount of blogs I've written about Curacao already equals the days we spent on the island.
When I scroll through my photos I think up many more posts, but even for diehard Curacao afficionados that could be a bit too much - this isn't a travel guide after all.

That said, here are the pics I very much want you to see in this - I promise - last blog about Curacao.
My photos are not - as you might have noticed already ;) - about the tropical resorts around Jan Thiel Bay.
Neither about flashy nightclubs or the fancy parties we attended (we didn't).
Not even selfies.
They're all about a very interesting island. So glad we've been there!

Curacao, a tropical paradise?! Strange shrubs and stranger trees

Curacao could have been Paradise on Earth. Really.
Picture a small island near the equator, always warm (don't spoil it by saying: not warm but bloody hot!), a constant wind - that could bring not only a certain freshness but also lots of rain - and - oh well, picture a Tropical Paradise. Lush and green…

But it's not.
There's no sweet water on the island: no springs, no year around rivers, no nothing.
And the stormy winds don't bring rain but more hot air.
There is a monsoon season but the amount of rain that falls during these (three) months is absolutely insufficient to bring the island to life outside the 'wet' season.

It's such a pity - but there you are: the island is quite barren. But not lifeless!

Most of the Westpunt is covered in silvery white, thorny and seemingly dead shrubs the size of small trees, interspersed with cacti: rather ugly, mangled stumps with long thorny fingers reaching above the shrubs. We walked some tracks between this bushy growth, and it was unexpectedly pleasant: light and airy - albeit not the lush green you'd expect in a wet tropical climate.
Only during the wet season the island really comes to life - we came to the island in the middle of the dry.

There's more alive on this island, and that is truly spectacular.
On the north coast, where the surface is made of sharp volcanic rocks, I saw for the first time in my life trees that grow horizontally.

Years and years ago I saw them on a calendar: fully grown trees, roots and trunk and branches and leaves, lying flat on the ground. I never thought I'd once see that IRL, but here I was: in the Shete Boka Park, and here they were, these astonishing, wonderful trees. Alive and kicking!

Inland the trees grow vertically, but, standing alone, they can be rather windswept.
Not all though: we encountered the most luscious, year-round leafy trees imaginable, common in this part of the world and growing along all the beaches we visited.
Those trees are lethal.

They're the Manzanilla, Manzaliña or Manzineel tree. Bark, leaves, fruits - that wickedly look like tasty green apples - are extremely poisonous. Those trees are always marked: either by text (see photo) or a large stone, painted red with a bright white stripe across.

We saw the inju (or indju) tree: the tree where the indigo comes from. They look like they're severely burnt on strange places, but the 'burn' is the indigo that, like a tarry brown-black substance, drips in rivulets from the tree. The indigo really does smell like old fashioned ink!

There's the oldest and grandest tree in Curacao: a kapok tree, a whopping 800 years old. It stands in the Hofi Pastor in Barber. Go there if you ever visit the island because this tree is truly impressive, with 1.5 metres high buttress roots, spreading out in a wide area.

There must be - and there most certainly are - many more amazing trees, but these we saw (and knew the names of!) and now we share them with you. Enjoy!

Willemstad: Otrabanda and the eastern outskirts

Otrabanda, the part of Willemstad on the other side of the Annabaai.
Punda is touristy, neatly renovated, with a lot of Western shops and cafes that serve steaks, hamburgers and fries. Otrabanda has long been a no-go area but is now 'safe' and far more exotic - i.e. much more the 'real' Curacao.

We came to Willemstad on Sunday, to visit the Slave- and Anthropological Museum.
They were closed.
As was most of Willemstad.

But not Otrabanda. The centre of Otrabanda is the famous Breedestraat (Broadstreet) and there we found most of the shops and restaurants open, so we shopped to our hearts content, had lunch, drove all around Otrabanda - enjoying ourselves very much, there was so much to be seen - then went to the Oostpunt, the eastern part of the island.

The photos are taken in Otrabanda and the eastern parts of Willemstad. Btw - did you know it's because of the Dutch the houses are all pastel coloured? Somewhere in the 18th century the Dutch decreed the houses weren't to be painted white anymore because a) it glared too much and  b) it didn't suit the atmosphere of the island. We totally agree!

Curacao has Public Transport. And bus stops...

We thought a small island with 90% of its inhabitants living in the capital would do with less public transport than our crowded part of Europe. Not when we're talking bus services.

The one main road from Willemstad to the Westpunt and back had bus stops (a 'bushalte') every couple of hundred metres - mainly, as far as we could see, in the middle of nowhere - with never a timetable in sight.
We read somewhere that the 'official' bus came by every two hours, and yes: when we saw people standing or sitting near the bus stop we were sure to see the bus soon. No idea how they knew.

Then there were the small vans, converted into mini buses (think the Indonesian idea of bemo's).
I think they also stopped on request, but I'm not sure.

That's not though where this blog is about.
We started to notice these stops around the Westpunt.
Well - apparently it worked, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?