Today is Thursday and it’s time for Curacao! We have a short port day today, we’re only in port from 8a-5p. Like the other ports though, we’ve been here many times. We have a guy on the island we use every time we come here. His name is Elmer and he’s fantastic!

We debarked the ship and went to the security gate to meet Elmer to pick us up. He’s had a gold Toyota 4Runner so that’s what I was looking for. Low and behold, Elmer got himself a brand new van that can hold a lot of people! When I booked the cruise, I immediately contacted him to book our private vehicle so it was just us in a huge van. We got in the van and off we went!

We had the whole day to ourselves with Elmer, and we knew the island so we just rode around. First we rode toward Baya Beach where we would ride through the neighborhoods looking at some high dollar houses. We got some pictures atop some high points, before riding toward Baya Beach.

Once we got toward the Baya Beach area, we rode over to Fort Beekenburg. Fort Beekenburg was built between 1701 and 1704 by the Dutch. The fort is named after Mr Van Beek between 1701 and 1704 who coordinated the protection of the city. During the 18th century, the fortress was able to stop several attacks by the French and British troops.

At one point the British tried to bypass the fort by climbing the adjacent mountain. However, this was so problematic and took too much time that the plan was halted and it was decided to withdraw before the Dutch gathered their forces. From 1800 to 1803 and from 1807 to 1816 Curaçao was occupied by the British. Fort Beekenburg was attacked several times by pirates, without success.

We enjoyed the fort and then checked out the oil rig that was docked next to it. There are over 200 people who live on this single oil rig. It was massive! After we left this area, we decided to ride up to Kenepa to see the statue commemorating the Curacao Slave Revolt of 1795.

Once we left Kenepa we rode over to the other side of the island to Playa Piskado to snorkel with the sea turtles. This is a fishermans wharf area and has always been very calm. However, cruise excursions now go there so it was a ton of people. It definitely made it less enjoyable, but I was still able to snorkel and see the sea turtles. There’s also a local there now trying to scam people out of money, wanting money to let them see the sea turtles. Elmer warned us of him, so we just ignored him. We spent about an hour snorkeling with the sea turtles.

We were finally tired, so we headed back to Willemstad to do some shopping. I was on a mission to find a lanyard, which I never found. We did walk all around Willemstad though going in various stores. I did drop into the Tommy Hilfiger store and do some more shopping there, as well as a few other stores. We really enjoy Willemstad.

Once we were done in Willemstad, Elmer took us back to the cruise port where we would do a little shopping around the fort area there. I went in the Tommy Jeans store and the Nautica store to shop. We then slowly made our way back to the ship where we would take showers and sit on the balcony and watch us sail away from Curaçao.

This port never disappoints and I cannot wait to see Elmer again in 2025!

To book Elmer yourself, you can contact him on WhatsApp at +599 9 513 1229