Sep 032011
 

We ended up sleeping in a little bit, and sitting around the pool taking it easy before heading to the airport for our early afternoon flight to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.  Initially, when we were looking at this ticket on LIAT‘s website, it was around $100 one way plus another $150 or so in taxes and fees.  When I came back a week later to buy it, however, it only charged me the $100 with no taxes!  So, I was definitely expecting some drama at the airport.

Got to the airport plenty early, and being another prop plane they made us check our rolling bags.  No big deal, was nice not to have to roll them through security and around the airport anyways.  Through check-in, no issues at all, and was thinking maybe we’d get lucky!  However, right before security was the “airport improvement fee” desk.  They hit us for around $28 each in fees which was still much better than we were expecting to pay, so all in all a pretty big win!

We stopped for a bit in the Plesman Lounge (courtesy of Priority Pass) which wasn’t good for much more than spotty internet, a diet coke, and some potato chips.  Oh well, better than waiting it out at the gate!

There was some real concern about when this flight left.  Our booking said 13:00, boarding passes said 12:40, and the gate display said 13:15.  Nobody seemed to really know!  Regardless, we started boarding just before 12:30 and were off before 1.

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Sep 032011
 

The Hilton is located a few miles out of the main part of Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao, and on a Sunday evening there was no way to get there other than taking a taxi – so we had the Hilton call one, and managed to make it to the downtown area in 15 minutes or so.  We had the driver drop us on the Otrobanda side of the city so we could walk into the main area across one of the two big bridges.

There are two main bridges crossing the St Anna Bay which divides the two main districts of the historical town centre:  Otrobanda (where we were dropped off) and Punda on the other side.  The pedestrian bridge is known as the Queen Emma Bridge, and is nicknamed “The Swinging Old Lady” because when boats pass the bridge actually swings sideways to open up!    The other bridge is the Queen Juliana Bridge, which is the highest bridge in the Caribbean and is vehicle traffic only.

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Sep 022011
 

The airport in Bonaire is pretty strange – check-in is under a roof, but there are no walls – it’s an open-air check-in area.  Check-in however was very quick and nothing terribly exciting.  We opted to wait in a cafe that at least had a mild breeze to cut the hot temps outside which was better than nothing.  In retrospect, we should definitely have gone straight through security to the gate, since the one-room gate area was air conditioned and nice and cool!

Boarding was roughly on-time and soon we were on the plane for the short 15 minute or so flight between Bonaire and Curacao.

Insel Air Flight 306
Bonaire (BON) to Curacao (CUR)
Depart 11:40, Arrive 12:15 – arrived 10 minutes early
Fokker F-50 Prop Plane, Registration PJ-KVG, Manufactured 1991
Seats 1A and 1C

This flight featured open seating, so we made sure to be first on board to grab a decent seat. Not that it mattered for such a short flight, but was still nice to be in the bulkhead row. It was a short flight of 15 minutes tops, and I was surprised we actually went up to 6,000 feet for the short hop. Soon we were in Curacao, through immigration and to the hotel.

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