Curaçao

Literally ran into a Miss Caribbean contest one night.
Ring from We Dream In Colour.
A busy city by night. So glad we had a car, almost a must to get to experience all what the island offers.
One of the many beach clubs.
Oil refineries in abundance.
Curacao Yacht Club where we stayed. Excellent place.
Miss Bolivia and Saint Lucia. Have more photos of them all if you wanna see?
I did it, sporting short shorts in public! Jeezus... someone stop me next time.
View of the colorful waterfront.
one of the many five star hotels.

I have so many photos from Curaçao that I have yet to show you, here's a few. Curaçao is a really interesting island with a wonderful mixture of people. Many sailors and other people had recommended for us to not go, because of security reasons and for the fact that it's "too rough", but it aroused in us a curiosity instead.

Curaçao is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and thus part of, what was earlier called "the Netherlands Antilles", now Dutch Caribbean islands - just like Bonaire, Aruba, St Maarten, Saba and Statia. Curacao lies just 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela, which helps to add a dash of Latin spice to the island. The architecture of the capital city Willemstad is Dutch traditional in brilliant pastel hues which somewhat reminds about the waterfront of Amsterdam.

Curaçao has one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean, ranking 46th in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita and 28th in the world in terms of nominal GDP per capita and this shows. The island has a very well-developed infrastructure that is centered around oil refining (see image #5), as well as tourism and financial services. You can feel how busy it is, naturally the many cruise ships helps the local economy to thrive but you can certainly feel that business is being made here. The restaurants, which are in abundance, are full every night, there's hundreds of fashion shops in different price categories and fast food chains scattering the streets and roads. A very non-Caribbean Caribbean island but a refreshing alternative indeed.

 More Curaçao stories coming up..