Been away

Just got back from a week in Curacao.  What a lovely island.  One that we (my sister, niece and I) were in no hurry to leave.

The photos below are from our day in downtown Willemstad.  

We walked on the pontoon bridge to get to the other side (otrobanda).  We did have to make a mad dash to get off the bridge once the warning bells started going.  Not long after we got off the bridge, it opened up to allow a boat to pass through.

This is the punda side of the downtown.  The buildings are so colourful and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  If you want to read more about this special place, go here.  In this photo, you can easily see the pontoon bridge.

 We had lunch at a seaside restaurant in part of the old fort.  Can you see how thick the walls are?

What a view we had for our lunch.  We were close to the harbour and there was much activity with boats coming and going.

All we had to do was lean over our table and deck railing and look at what the waves brought in.   We saw an octopus.

We saw crabs.

 Is this a sea snake or an eel? 

We also saw a small shark but couldn't get a photo of it.  What a splendid day it was.

We did an island tour; went to an Ostrich Farm and did a cave tour.   There was still much to do but we just ran out of time.  I won't be posting photos of these tours.  You will have to go there yourself to see what we did.

If you think that iguanas are harmless .... think again.  This guy was seen around the hotel and beach.  We saw the hotel staff making a wide berth around him and we did the same.  One man didn't and when he leaned in too close to get a good photo of him, the iguana jumped up and bit his finger.  We saw it happen and screamed.  That quick action sure caught us by surprise.

Our trip started off on a sour note.  Our plane out of Toronto was delayed by 8 hrs.  A few of the passengers were not happy about the delay and were rude and obnoxious .... but putting this into perspective, I'm just so thankful that our pilot had the experience and knowledge to recognize there was something wrong and called in the mechanics.  The plane couldn't be fixed and so we disembarked back into the terminal for 8 hrs. until another plane could be brought in for us.  We were all exhausted by the time we arrived in Curacao.  Going through customs was a tad tense and one young male adult lost his cool with customs.  He was lucky not to have been arrested/detained for harassing the customs staff.  I'm not complaining.  I'm just so thankful to be here today alive and writing this post.  Enough said.  Get on with life.

I bought some hand work with me to work on, but it was packed in my checked baggage.  It would have kept me busy while waiting.  Oh well ....

It was too windy on the beach to do any sewing and by night time, I was too tired to do much.  A few petals got done but mostly one panel of petals (on the left) got done once I came home.  This is shaping up very nicely.

 Some triangles came along with me too, but they got worked on at home instead.

There is a fabric store (Ackerman's) in Willemstad and instead of strolling inside, we just kept on walking.  Did I really need more fabric?  Nope.

Even though our trip started off not too well, we didn't let that stop us from having a good time.  It has been a good week.

Have a great day!