Mòru!

It seemed as though every passenger including us, were ready to charge off of the ship. We just wanted to stand on solid ground.

As soon as we hit the dock, we all fired up our cellphones. I called Taxi Max to see where we should go, as the ship was cleared early.

He told us to walk around to the Renaissance Hotel. I had everyone to wait, until I walked around the corner, to see where the hotel was. I walked around the corner from the infamous Diamonds International store, and down to the Renaissance Mall. I called Sabrina to tell everyone to come on around.

We all made calls while waiting for Taxi Max.

I saw a guy get out of a Hundai van and looked over at our group. He turned his head towards me and I said, "Max?" He said, "yesss." He told me that I had to give him a hug and a kiss when I saw him, so I did.

Today's temperature was 88 degrees, with a real feel of 98 degrees.

The country's name derives from coração, the Portuguese word for heart.

He loaded us up and drove us over to the Museum Kura Hulanda.

The entrance fee was $10.

The forced relocation of Africans from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean by Europeans from the 17th to the 19th centuries, changed the face of the world forever. Museum Kura Hulanda is situated right at the city-center harbor of Willemstad, where Dutch entrepreneurs once traded and transshipped enslaved Africans along with other 'commercial goods'.

This museum impressively exhibits the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in its totality, from slave capture in Africa through the Middle Passage and the relocation in the New World. The museum Kura Hulanda also demonstrates that the African and diverse cultural heritage has influenced Curaçaoan and Caribbean societies until today.

We spent a few hours there, taking photos and visiting different buildings and exploring history. When I came out, Max was making roses for the ladies. Real playa. We admired a few plants and then headed back to the van.

Then we headed on to see the flamingos. The younger birds escape to Curacao to avoid the large groups of breeding birds in Bonaire and Venezuela.

Flamingos don't breed in Curacao but use the structures of the former salt ponds, called Salinas, as a welcome fast food restaurant. Brine shrimp is their favorite food, and the carotene in these shrimps gives the feathers the famous pink color.

There are three main areas where flamingos can be found. The Salinas near Landhuis Jan Kok and Landhuis Hermanus is one of the best known places for finding large groups of flamingos. These salt ponds have received protection since 1999 due to their importance for the population.

You pass Jan Kok when you drive to St. Willibrordus in the direction of Playa Porto Mari.

Another area is the Salina of St. Michiel, along the road to Vaarsenbaai or Kokomo beach.

The third area is east of Willemstad at the salinas of Jan Thiel. The best entrance to this beautiful area is via the Caracasbaaiweg.

If you are living on the coast or are on vacation in an oceanfront accommodation, you may get lucky and see flocks of flamingos flying over from or to Venezuela. They are a little more difficult to recognize being in the air, as their wings have black flight feathers, which are only visible in flight.

We stepped out of the van to take several pictures. We couldn't get close to the large flock of them. We got close to the lone white one. Taxi Max said that he hasn't eaten enough shrimp to change his color to pink.

We then stopped by a Dominican Bakery and Max brought us bags of cookies. Most were extremely sweet, but I liked the sesame seed cookies, the best.

We then headed on to our snorkeling adventure at Playa Piskado.

We had to pay 50 cents to use the stinky bathroom to change into our swimsuits and there was no lock on the door. We had Clark to hold the door for us, while we changed, or someone would have just walked in on us.

After that, we held the door for Clark and my brother. Crusty place. We headed back to the shady spot Hope and Sabrina had planted themselves for the afternoon.

Max had also changed in the back of his van.

We purchased our snorkeling gear and headed in. The water was soooooo warm, we just walked on in.

Clark had become Aquaman and left us chasing his tail fin. I didn't quite have my mask on right and Max came over to help me and I became Benthesikyme and headed on out.

Max helped Tuwana with her snorkeling and then wanted us all to cross under the pier. The sea turtles were on the other side.

I'm not the greatest swimmer, but it was really fun to see the turtles swimming around and snapping up the fish and scraps that a guy was throwing in, from cleaning a large fish, up on the pier.

The area had become crowded, as Carnival had dropped off a group or two of cruise passengers.

Clark and I were just swimming around for a while and then I noticed Max was working with Gunny, to help him become a little more steady.

We spent a nice bit of time there.

Clark had a run-in with a kook from the Carnival group, who was insisting on going into the bathroom with Sabrina. There was a toilet on one side and a urinal on the other. Each separated by a wall and the door that did not lock. He told Clark that Sabrina could go on one side and he could go on the other. Clark told him, "no, you cannot go in there." Clark was not messing around with these drunks.

We all got cleaned up and put on dry clothes and headed out to an area called Seri Neger.

Curaçao, August 17th, 1795: Start of the slave revolt at the Plantation Kenepa, led by the slaves Tula, Carpata and Louis Mercier.
Approximately 1000 slaves joined and the revolt lasted several weeks. All leaders were afterwards captured, tortured and executed.

Since 2009, by initiative of Foundation National Park, 7 statues were placed marking the trail of resistance.

These statues, white pillars topped by a big fist holding a broken chain, were designed, made and placed by the renowned Curaçao artist Yubi Kirindongo.

The statues can be found at Kenepa, Santa Cruz, Porto Mari, Salina Sint Marie, Seri Neger at the Fontein plantation, Savonet and Rif. At each site a plaque is placed with a short narrative of the event that took place on the specific location.

Slavery in Curaçao was abolished in 1863. In 2013 and 2014 the Curaçao art scene commemorates the 150th anniversary of abolition of slavery, with exhibitions and art events. Initiator is the foundation Arte'99, Pa libertat.Chairman of the foundation is Mrs. Lusette Verboom-Fairbairn. For this occasion artists, museums and art galleries joined forces to organize a year of commemorative events.

We drove around different residential areas and Max asked us if we drank wine or beer. We stopped at a roadside bar/store. He gave me another of the red roses he'd made earlier and told me to give it to the little girl in the store. He said her name was Ching Ching. I asked, "Ching Ching." He said, "yes, Chinese."

We walked up to this spot and I gave her the rose and her mother came over to tell her to say thank you.

Max bought us a bottle of dry zinfandel and a beer. The wine was not cold, so we were given plastic cups with ice. Now, that's some ghetto corner store stuff. The store was run by Asians. There were two Caucasian guys drinking there and sitting at a table and a couple of local guys. There were a couple of stray, malnutritioned dogs hanging around. Everytime Clark picked up a rock, the dogs ran. Clark said, "they must know I'm a mailman."

The two Caucasian guys left. Both were really drunk. As they got into their car to leave, Clark told them, "don't drink and drive." Too funny.

So, we're sitting outside a dusty bar/store. A woman comes and posts a poster announcing some type of pageant this coming weekend.

Max is leaning over the counter and talking to the girls mother. We're watching him and he's flirting with this woman. That craziness went on for a while until we were about to leave and I kept watching the guy inside the bar/store. Kinda wondering who he was and what his purpose was in this scenario.

Finally we left and everyone realized that he was trying to talk to this girl. I asked him who the guy was and he said the woman's husband. I said to Max, "what? Her husband?" You're gonna get us shot. He said, "no he don't care. That's what they do."

It was a long drive back to the ship and he started talking about his wife. I'm listening to this dude and he's even mentioning a son. He never mentioned family, the entire day. He even talked about his crazy taxi cab adventures.

He pulled into a mall and was going to drop us off to do some shopping, but I thought the mall to be too far from the ship, in case we had to rush back. He was going to go home and change and come and pick us back up to take us to the ship.

We ALL knew what he was doing. He was going to go home, change, talk to his wife and head back out, as if he was going back to work. I said, "oh, you're going back to meet Ching Ching?" He said, "no that's too far, to go back there." You can imagine the look we were giving him.

He took us back to the ship, we paid him and we headed to do a small bit of shopping in the port area.

Curaçaoans are perhaps the friendliest, most smiley people you'll ever meet. They're likely the most multilingual, too: they easily flit back and forth between English, Spanish, Dutch, and the local language of Papiamentu, and are happy to converse with tourists about the island's history and attractions. Dushi, a popular word in Papiamentu that translates roughly to sweet, nice, or darling, perfectly describes the people of Curaçao and the spirit of the island.

It was a very long day.

The ship pulled out at 7:30 P.M. and we headed for Aruba.

We'd missed dinner and headed up to the Garden Cafe, as they always have a variety of food.