We piled into Sweet N Low and headed to Fisherman’s Harbor where we could tie up for free, drop our trash, and find a bus into town.  Spanish Waters is about 25-35 minutes away from Willemstad where we must do our formalities.  We had a “general” idea of where each of the 3 places were, but no map and no idea which bus to take to get us there.  A great opportunity to talk to the locals.  We easily found the dinghy dock, dropped our trash, and were told where to find the bus stop.  A short walk and 10 minutes later, a large tour like bus (with 6A Carracasbaai) arrived, opened the doors and I peered in.  Do you go to Willemstad?  Yes, we do.  Great, we paid $1 each and got back some guilders (Dutch currency which has an exchange rate of about 1.7 to $1) and enjoyed the ride.  Since Wayne had checked out some online maps he led the way to our first stop. Customs.

We did a little site seeing on the way since we are in the capital Willemstad, which is a twin city with Punda on the east and Otrobanda (means other side) on the west.  Punda is the oldest part of Willemstad and is a unique mixture of Dutch and Caribbean influences.  Centuries of Dutch rule, slave trade and commerce come alive when you pass through the streets here.  The heart of Punda is geared toward the tourists and is formed by broad shopping areas with mazes upon mazes of streets filled with shops and small eateries with loads of local vendors selling their wares all over the place.  Reminded me a bit like downtown LA or maybe the cleaner side of Tijuana.  We quickly came across the floating market which sells fresh fruits, vegetables and fish.  This is one of the best produce markets we have encountered.  Venezuelan’s and Columbian’s load up their fishing boats with fresh produce and vegetables (that are not available and do not grow on Curacao) from their home country and come to Punda to sell them to locals and tourists.  They stay in Curacao for 2 months, go back to their home country for 2 months and return again.  They rotate so that there are always boats of food available in Curacao.

They also have a fresh fish floating market every morning. Certainly, a place we will come to often!

After a wrong turn or two and help from a security guard, we found Duane (aka customs).  Normally, Matt goes in alone to clear the boat and crew into a new island (as customary in most countries).  However, in Bonaire and Curacao they require everyone to come to shore.  Customs was pretty straight forward and easy.  Next, we needed to find immigration which we knew was in Otrobanda.  So, we headed to the famous Queen Emma floating pontoon bridge that connects Punda to Otrobanda.  The floating pontoon bridge is made up of 16 floating pontoons and swings open frequently to allow boat traffic through, even while there are people on the bridge.  From 1901 to 1934, people had to pay a toll (of 2 cents) to cross the bridge if they wore shoes.  So, the wealthy took their shoes off and the poor borrowed shoes to maintain a sense of pride.

But as we approached the area, there was no bridge, what?  We noticed ferries were running so we looked across to Otrobanda and saw that the floating bridge was tied up to the side of the wall – must mean a large ship is coming through. So, we hopped on the ferry to get to Otrobanda.   Once across the other side, we made several wrong turns, asked many locals for directions, were sent to immigration, but not for incoming yachts and got a bit turned around.  We eventually found a security guard at the entrance to an industrial dock who took Matt’s passport, jotted some info down, handed us a piece of paper and allowed us through.  Hmph!  Well, we walked on in, walked down a long industrial dock until we came upon a building that looked like a photo we had seen online.  Success, we found immigration.  After we completed that paperwork, we went upstairs to port authority which was in a narrow and cramped hallway, maybe 4’ wide by 15’ deep and it already had 3 people waiting.  So, we waited, and waited.  Luckily it was air conditioned and the lady was really nice.  But she did have to educate us on anchorages.  Evidently, we cannot move from our current anchorage in area B to the any other area A, C, or D without coming back to alert port authority, paying 10 Naf ($5).  What?  Why does it matter if we move around the same bay?  But at this point we were so tired, we did not want to make a stink or cause any more delays.  She then informed us that if we wanted to go to any of the other island anchorages (Fuik Baai, Piscadera Bay, Santa Martha, or Santa Cruz), we had to come back to port authority (PA) and tell them our schedule.  We could only stay 3 days at each anchorage and it costs 10 Naf per anchorage.  Wow, they don’t make it easy to be a boater here.  But, either way, we were cleared in after 4 hours.

We were starving so we grabbed lunch at a Latin fusion restaurant called Kriollomania.  We ordered a mixed grill for 2 people which had 2 pork chops, 2 sausages, a huge pile of chicken, huge pile of beef, rice, and french fries.  I mean who can eat all of that?  It was pretty tasty but we had to move on as we had a tour booked.  We headed to the Maritime Museum where we met our tour group and then proceeded down to the ferry dock to start our harbor tour.  Our tour guide gave us a lot of great educational information about the history of the harbor.

Fort Nassau is an old fort that has been turned into a restaurant situated high upon a hill at the harbor entrance giving its diners a 360-degree view of Punda and Otrobanda.

After a long day ashore, we caught the bus back to Caracas Baai (6A) and decided we earned a well-deserved cold beverage at the Pirate’s Nest which could easily be a place we frequent often!