Travelin' Tuesday: Curacao & Aruba

Our final two stops on our Southern Caribbean cruise were Curacao & Aruba - where we had pre-booked tours with local guides (as in not booked through the cruise line).  Get ready for a picture heavy post!

The famous painted buildings

The tour in Curacao was with Irie tours and for $20 per person we enjoyed a 3.5 hour tour around the the island on an open air bus with unlimited drinks (water, soda, beer), photo ops, a stop at a beach and some wonderful commentary from our bus driver.

The pontoon bridge

Our ship in the distance

One of ours stops was at the Curacao Rum Factory where my family enjoyed free samples of the various flavors.

The later part of the tour was spent relaxing at the beach before heading back to the port area.  We took some night time pictures in front of the painted buildings and the welcome sign before making a beeline back to the ship for dinner (and a bathroom stop for this preggo).

Our tour in Aruba got off to a wet start (thanks Caribbean rain showers) but we lucked out with a mainly sunny tour with our tour guide Sonny.

The ships in port from afar

Our first stop was the rock formation which we all climbed.  The climb wasn't so bad to begin with, but then the steps got steeper and I'm not ashamed to admit I was winded by the time that we made it to the top.

We drove along the coastline making our way to the famous natural bridge, or what was left of the natural bridge. 

As you can see in the shot below, the natural bridge collapsed back in 2005.  Luckily it fell in the early morning time frame when there were no tourists or others on the bridge. 

There is a "baby" bridge not too far from the remains of natural bridge that we were able to snap pictures in front of (it was pretty windy that day so I didn't want to tempt to walk over it) before checking out other landmarks such as the chapel and the lighthouse.

While our tour guide was very friendly and informative in Aruba, we all agreed that our best tour of the trip was Curacao hands down.  We had an active bus full of fellow passengers, there was a party type atmosphere and our guide was just so passionate about his country.

All around this was a wonderful trip and I'm so glad we were able to make it out of the country one last time before baby boy gets here.