Day 5: Curaçao

In October, Curaçao became its own country, breaking away from the Dutch Antilles Islands, of which it was previously a part. The Dutch influence is pretty evident in the main part of town where the buildings are closely packed, tall, narrow, and brightly colored. 

There is a story that all the buildings used to be white until one of the rulers of Curaçao, who was prone to migraines, claimed all the white was reflecting too much sunlight and intensifying his headaches. He demanded everyone paint their houses and businesses in different colors.  It turns out he owned the paint store on the island.  In any case, the tradition continued and the buildings are bright and cheerfully painted.  

Jewish cemetery

There is a good bit of history here, with remaining bits of a great sea fort and enormous cannons. A major channel runs through the middle of town and my nerdy-self watched, transfixed, as enormous tankers and other freight boats were  guided through by sturdy little tug boats.

We took a tour around and saw upper, middle, and lower class neighborhoods, visited a liqueur factory, a fancy manmade beach, and other sundry places.

Each morning on the ship, Handsome Cruise Director Dave makes announcements about the day’s events.  On schedule for today was the steel drum band from Trinidad called Island Magic slated to perform popular classical and Broadway tunes. As per his usual hyperbolic enthusiasm, Cruise Director Dave said, “The audience will simply go wild after hearing this amazing group.” Well, with a description like that, I had to see for myself, though I was skeptical of the power of Island Magic to affect the audience so strongly that they collectively lose their minds.

We arrived 45 minutes early, which was apparently none too soon. The house was soon packed (and carefully parked).

Island magic opened big – Cats and Evita. With each announcement about the next song to be performed, the audience gasped the gasp-of-familiar-love and enthusiastically bubbled to each other. It’s a fact: white people love their show tunes.

They rounded out the show with Beethoven, Offenbach and Glenn Miller. Though I went to the show sardonically, I cannot lie; Island Magic enchanted me. Their performance apparently deeply moved the man next to me who leapt out of his seat in repeated standing ovations during the middle of the show. Trust me when I say he was hardly alone in his Island Magic fervor.  By the end he was ferociously bellowing, “ONE MORE TIME! ONE MORE TIME!”

Handsome Cruise Director Dave was not exaggerating. The crowd went absolutely nuts. I’ve never seen anything like it.  Even now, the next morning, as I write this, I’m in a lounge where Island Magic is doing a Q&A and the place is jammed by older individuals plying the band with questions about how they avoid carpal tunnel and tennis elbow.

Today I learned to never underestimate the fetching accent of those from Trinidad & Tobago, the power of the steel drum, or Andrew Lloyd Weber.

These videos are for you, Jo Katherine Fatzinger: