I originally booked the Best of the West excursion in the afternoon. Twice they moved me to the morning which finally I canceled because it conflicted with my Curacao Walking Tour. I found this Discover Curacao Island Tour  which had the Hato caves as a stop so I booked it at the last minute.

One of these lines should be my tour.

That’s my tour on the right. The reason I couldn’t see the sign is she’s holding it down instead of up.

I’m counting 27 people and hoping for a big bus because I’m at the back of the line and don’t want to end up in a jump seat.

This should work.

There’s plenty of space in here. I have my own row. There isn’t anyone in front or behind me. 

We have USB, a cup holder, air conditioning, and a place to hang a bag.

This is our tour guide.

The “mega pier” was built in 1999. In 2017 the pier behind the mega pier was added.

He is the Colorado Rockies hitting coach.

Our first stop is the Curacao museum. This building was originally an army hospital for yellow fever in the 1850’s.

The old hospital is now the museum. Their new hospital has 500 beds, 7 operating rooms and does all surgeries except for open heart.

This is a mesquite tree.

These rooms have antique mahogany furniture from the 1800’s. The furniture was donated to the museum by families. 

The corner cabinets belonged to a doctor.

They lit candles on special occasions only. 

Now we are heading across the hall to the bedroom.

Maracas

Bowls

This is for corn meal stirring.

Curacao was the first island with a hand mixer.

This is a carillon which plays bells on the roof of the building.

Our last stop is the kitchen.

This tour did not have flamingos in the description. There was another tour that did have them. I believe this is something extra they did for us. I know we went a little out of our way to come here, then we turned around so the other side of the bus could see them.

The Hato caves are next on the agenda. At this point I didn’t realize how close I was to having the tour ruined. As I mentioned this is the only reason I booked this tour after having to cancel my other one due to a time change. I found out after the tour the cave owner’s wife had passed away so they were closed for the day. They opened up just for our tour. I didn’t notice the closed signs going in but I noticed they turned the lights off when we left.

To go inside the caves you have to be able to make it up and down the 49 steps.

If you go on this tour and you stand along the rails of this lower chamber for a presentation, try to get in front of one of those fans. It is warm in here.

This is the window room where bats enter and leave the cave.

Back there is where the bats are sleeping.

They actually turned the lights out behind me. The caves are closed today because the owner of the bar/restaurant there’s mother passed today. They just opened the caves for our tour

They had free lemonade on the way out.

We are going over the Queen Juliana Bridge.

Our final stop is the Curacao Liqueur Distillery.

Unlike most of this equipment, this original copper still is still in use.

There isn’t any bottling going on today.

We did get to see some packaging though.

After the tour we had an opportunity to taste a few different flavors. I took a couple shots of each.

After the taste test area there was an actual bar where you could purchase cocktails.

I’m going with the Rum Rum Raisin.

Rum Rum Raisin cost $10 and tastes a lot like a vanilla milkshake.

There is a gift shop but at this point I have to get on the bus. It was a long wait for that drink.

The cup holder is coming in handy.

This is the view on the other side of the Queen Juliana Bridge.

When we got back to the port the security guard came on and checked everyone’s ship card.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this tour. I did get to see the caves which was cool. The museum was mostly just old furniture. I did like the carillon. Then the distillery tour was mostly just about trying to sell you their alcohol. Outside of the caves, my favorite parts were the ones that weren’t in the tour description: seeing the flamingos and going over the Queen Juliana Bridge.