Continuing our Curaçao adventure:  Scenery from the bus window as we head to Lagun.

Oops, we missed our stop in Lagun as we were expecting a town based on the size of the printing on the map.  The bus driver let us off on the way back from Knip, the end of his run.  It turns out that Lagun is but a wide spot in the road with a turnoff to a narrow inlet that is good for snorkeling and diving.

 
The picturesque Lagun...

 
We headed up a steep set of stairs to a restaurant and a dive shop. We had empathy for the divers who were shore diving here--they had to climb these stairs with all of their equipment.  After a dive, we have trouble just climbing the 4 or 5 steps up to the deck of the dive boat.

 
There were beggar iguanas up here. One of the workers enticed them away from the restaurant area with stale bread that he pounded on the deck.  They scurried after him. 

     
We split a sandwich and enjoyed our locally brewed Polar beers.

This iguana speaks with a forked tail.

 
We had more than an hour to wait until the next bus, so we explored the community.  There is a small church with jalousie windows and a mini-mart.  

 
We splurge with another 2 beers.

 
This tiny puppy kept us company under the corrugated metal roof in front of the mini-mart while we drank our beer.  We fear that he'll have a hard-knock life as the resident dog of the market. We walked back to the lagoon area just in time...

 
... to seek shelter from the downpour. Note how iridescent the flotation vests are in the rain.

 
After the rain stopped, we strolled up the hill to the bus stop past another dive shop with this turtle sculpture.  We wiped the water from the bench and got only damp pants.

 
A couple of yellow birds seen from the bus stop.

 
Who knew that iguanas were agile tree climbers??

 
We watched a chicken cross the road just before the bus went by in the other direction.  We knew it would be only a short time before it turned around in Knip to pick us up.

 
From the bus...

 
We'd seen this church from the ship and saw on the way our to Lagun that there was a large cemetery next to it, so we got off the bus here to explore and then we'd walk back to the ship.

 
Coral beach stones adorn this grave.

 
The school behind the church was filled with kids at recess.  We like the rainbow of colors on these structures.

 
As we head down toward the ship, we saw this nice container garden arrangement around a tortured tree trunk.

 
Another bumper sculpture--this time it's located in a reception area of a building that looks like a department of motor vehicles where people were taking numbers to wait their turn. A reflection of an old-style Dutch building in the glass of this modern one.

 
From the ship: It was so windy that a tanker going into the inlet is being towed and pushed by 4 tugs.  By this time in the late afternoon, the Royal Caribbean ship is gone.  Note the resort in the foreground with its raised beach and sandy-bottomed pool. It's time for some dinner--the staff has prepared a nice barbeque out on the back deck.

 
After dinner we went back out.  We checked our email at the nearby Starbucks and went on to see the city lights.

 
The swinging old lady bridge is in the open position--parallel to the shore.

 
The blue lights are animated to look like raindrops.

And we come back to the Noordam.  What a day!!

Tomorrow is Aruba, the third ABC island and our last stop on this cruise. (See the itinerary.)

Aruba

We decided to take a ship's tour called Aruba's Natural Wonders, so we have plenty of time in the morning since we meet at the bus at 8:45am. First a panorama of the town at sunrise. For a completely different take on the island see our Aruba page from our Panama Cruise last year. 

From west (left) to east... This is a small cruise ship, the Fairwinds.

The gaudy pink castle is a shopping mall.

 
...and finally to a nice sunrise.

A little while later, a Princess ship pulled in behind the Noordam.

 
First stop on our tour is the butterfly house. Our tour guide wears an appropriate shirt and did a pretty good job explaining butterflies and what they are doing.  The only big gripe I had was that he urged people to plant invasives--butterfly bush and lantana. 

  
There were several chrysalis cages with their doors open to allow newly emerged butterflies to leave.  There is a black butterfly emerging at the back of this cage.  The chrysali have been pinned into the cork in nice even rows. The legs of the cages stand in water to keep out the ants and other crawling predators.

The butterflies dine at the rotting fruit tables.

 
A butterfly lands on our fellow traveler's wrist. The guide said that each time a butterfly lands on you, you get to make a wish. There may have been a lot of wishes made on this day.

 
There are a couple of water features in the butterfly house.

 
We head through the gift shop and back to the bus. Our driver explained that this windmill was imported piece by piece from Holland, but it has never been used to grind grain or sugar, it's always been a restaurant, but now its new owner will turn it into a museum.

 
This is a typical country house in Aruba.  The style is called Aruban Kunuku or Cunucu.  Our bus headed down to the dirt road along the shoreline. The driver paused to show us some of the very few lava rocks on the island where the lava had oozed from the side of the island.

 
Our final stop on the tour is the "baby natural bridge", which is right next to the large natural bridge that collapsed a few years back at 4:30am. No people were hurt, but the tourism for the island took a hit.  We both walked out on the baby natural bridge, but none of our fellow tour-mates did so.

We went down the stone stairs to the old bridge.  There were several buses and 4x4 tour groups out here, so there were probably about 100 people, but most stayed on the parking lot at the top. There was a gift shop and snack bar.

 
We loved the fossils and the succulents growing in the rocks.

From ground level, the area inside the collapsed bridge looks kinda like a Martian landscape.  

With that we head back to the ship and, after two sea days, get back to Ft. Lauderdale, and then try to readjust to our own planetary environment.  Another of our excellent adventures.