On our first full day in Curaçao we went down to Otrabanda (the city centre of Willemstad) and crossed the Queen Emma Bridge to Punda. The bridge is the only pontoon bridge in the world. In Punda we strolled the streets, stores and markets. The buildings are beautiful and they didn't disappoint. There are 700 buildings in this town that are protected for their heritage. The whole city centre is a Unesco site. It is very hot, even when cloudy but the constant breeze helps.
The vendors in the markets and stores are willing to barter, something I'm not very good at. We did have one interesting incident while walking past a stall. We were looking for towels for the beach and Mary asked the woman, "How much?" She answered, "Ten U.S. dollars." I said we
didn't have that much, as I only had $8. So as we
walked on past a young boy piped up, "How about $8?" (Not a smart thing to do as we later learned.). I took out my wallet and gave the money to Mary who then passed it to the boy which is when the woman (mother?) came over and got the towel down, took the money from the boy, started yelling at him and gave a quick slap to his face. She straightened up, turned and gave the towel to Mary with a sweet, "Thank you." and then when back to her spot. We took our towel and left.
We finished the day with a trip to Centrum, the largest supermarket on the island(they sell wine too) and returned home for dinner in and an early night(fireworks still flying).
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Location:Corriweg,,Netherlands Antilles
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