May 4, 2025
CURACAO
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Another fun day with the Miller's exploring Curacao! We started by exploring the bustling port and capital city of Willemstad. This is a Dutch Caribbean Island with a large Dutch community. Known for its old town center with pastel colored colonial architecture. The floating Queen Emma Bridge connects the Punda and Otrobanda neighborhoods. The old Rio Fort has been converted into a shopping center. After walking and exploring most of the morning, we taxied to KOKOMO BEACH to chill for the afternoon. It's a private beach club with a bar and restaurant and a nice calm swimming area and beach.
Ternate, Indonesia, which is both the name of the city and island, and is part of the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia. It is a port that sees maybe 3 Cruise ships a year. However, they really made an effort to show us the best of what they can offer. It's mainly a Muslim country, and we knew we had to dress discretely, but we knew little else. We didn't have our typical port talk prior, due to a technical issue with the AV equipment. Ben a fellow resident, organized an island tour, with about 8 stops, for 90 of us residents.
Cebu greeted our Ship with a big warm welcome, despite having just been rocked by a major Earthquake, days before our arrival. The Minister of Tourism arrived with a motorcade and she proceeded to chat with the residents and thank us, for all our support.
Today we were Cave explorers! We went to the one of UNESCO newly classified 7 NEW WONDERS OF NATURE - The Puerto Princesa Underground River.