The Islands of the Caribbean

Another beautiful image from Aruba.

Curacao: fascinating cobble of contrasts

An interesting story on Curacao, the home port of the Freewinds:

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao — The fruit of the laraha orange tastes so bad even the island's wild goats don't bother it. I really don't blame them. But the peel — ah, that's a different matter.

Kathryn Clayton, Deseret Morning News

An example of highly detailed architecture of the building in Willemstad, Curacao. Structures must undergo frequent upkeep.

First, you use a wooden knife to cut the peel away and slice it into sections. It has to be wood; a metal knife would ruin things. You dry the peels in jute bags. Then, in a small copper still, you cook them until a clear liquid condenses. Color it, bottle it, seal it — everything's done by hand — and you've got the real thing, a liqueur that can only be made on Curacao, the original "Curacao of Curacao," so named to shame all pretenders.

Its old-fashioned bottles look better suited to sailors' grog: a long neck tapering up from a canteen-shaped bowl. They've gone around the world, these bottles have, each one an ambassador of this small Caribbean island, every sip an invitation: "Come and see us. Come and see us."

>> Continued

Rain in LA

"Sunny" California is about to enter its grey stage.

My sister says that if we didn't have some winter (in other words some rain) we wouldn't appreciate the summer as much. I don't think that's true, though. I'd love it to be hot all year round.