Willemstad, Curacao

Willemstad is a UNESCO heritage-listed town and a very easy place to explore on foot directly from where cruise ships dock.

The Rif Fort provides a lovely way for disembarking tourists to make their approach to the old town and is lined with all of the usual elegant shops offering special prices for cruise passengers (300 per cent markups).

Approaching the Queen Emma pontoon bridge, the boys spied crabs on the rocks below and so we sat for a while, the boys watching the crabs and Nath and I watching the movement of pedestrians over this floating bridge to the colourful and quaint Punda side.

Later in the day, we watched the pontoon bridge opening up to allow the passage of small motorboats, luxury cruisers and even a massive oil tanker.

The entire bridge swings open and we watched the spectacle from the Punda shoreline and then from the free ferry boat that offers a way around the temporary impasse.

We explored the Punda side for a couple of hours, including time in a local playground.

The floating markets offer food and wares brought in mainly from Venezuela but weren't what we were expecting.

(If you've been to the Damnoen Saduak markets in Ratchaburi, Thailand and came here expecting the same, you would be disappointed).

Away from the streets catering to the majority of the tourist traffic there was a marked drop-off in the pleasantness of people and the clean, fresh facade.

We got the impression that while Willemstad has an incredibly beautiful waterfront, with colour and history worthy of boasting, if you peel back the veneer, not everyone is benefitting from the tourist dollar.

Butterflies in Aruba

In Aruba, the second stop on our Caribbean Cruise, there is a Butterfly Farm across the road from Palm Beach.

Here we had an unprecedented opportunity to observe exquisite butterflies up close.

While wandering the gardens, an occasional butterfly would land on us but mostly we watched them fluttering through the air and settling on the trees, plants and feeding stations.

A guide explained to us the butterfly life cycle and showed us the egg, caterpillar and chrysalis for a number of species.

We were able to check out an entire cabinet full of chrysalis just waiting to hatch.

After leaving the Butterfly Farm, we wandered across the road and swam at Palm Beach, watching watercraft action and listening to the beats from the beach bar of the nearby Westin Resort from where we caught a taxi back to our ship.

To see our gallery of images from Aruba click here.

Getting the snip in Colombia

For months we had been talking about it but we never imagined we'd get our chance while roaming the narrow lanes of Cartagena, Colombia.

We were visiting Cartagena for just one day, the first of five port stops on our 11-day Southern Caribbean Cruise.

Wandering through the walled old town, I spied una peluqueria and let the kids decide.

Indy wasn't keen at all but Dash gave a resounding 'Yes'.

And so it happened that Dash got his first 'professional' haircut at the bargain price of three US dollars.

It was just what the doctor ordered too, given the stifling heat and humidity.

Within Cartagena's old town, brightly hued buildings with overhanging balconies and tropical draping plants preserve the look of another age.

However after walking for a couple of hours, the boys had just about reached their limit, as had we.

While Nath and I love the raw nature of South and Central America, the inherent dangers you can minimise quite easily as a couple are magnified ten-fold with kids.

After the hundredth time of telling the boys NOT to drink from the bubbler and NOT to run down the street away from us and NOT to pretend to 'pow pow' the locals with their fingers, we took some time out for ice creams before catching another taxi from the edges of the walled city to Castillo San Felipe de Barajas.

This 16th Century fortress is fun to explore and provides a great way to catch the breeze high above the heat of the city.

It also makes a great vantage point to see how the old and the new of Cartagena knit together as a whole.

We explored the dark underground tunnels and climbed the fortress at leisure before returning to the port.

There we were delighted by the tropical birds and monkeys fed for the pleasure of the countless tourists swarming off the ships.

Once back on board, we reflected that it was refreshing to visit somewhere a bit gritty, having been firmly ensconced in the first world since the kids were born, but that it's way too early for us to contemplate taking them on an extended trip to anywhere in the third world just yet.

More photos from our day can be found here.

Savannah, Georgia

On Georgia's border with South Carolina sits Savannah, the sleepy grand dame of America's east coast cities.

More than 20 city parks or 'squares' lie within the downtown area alone and each are resplendent in the green-grey hues of the spanish moss that drapes itself from every bough of every tree.

The Savannah Historic District is one of the largest national historic districts in the nation and boasts so many 17th and 18th Century homes that most don't even rate a mention in the tourist brochures.

The driving part of our visit involved motoring up and down the beautiful tree-lined avenues at slow speed, looping counter-clockwise around all of the squares along the way.

We parked close to City Hall, taking the elevators down to River St and the Savannah Riverfront.

The free Savannah Belles Ferry took us from City Hall Landing across to the International Trade and Convention Centre and back to Waving Girl Landing, offering views the entire way of the historic waterfront.

We walked back along River St, paralleling the streetcar line as we strolled past former wharves and moored paddle steamers.

Later we drove out to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, just across the border in South Carolina.

There we drove the four-mile nature trail, seeing more examples of glorious tunnels of oak and spanish moss.

We also spied an alligator or two, including a baby stretched out on a log in the lingering afternoon sun.

We are happy to be heading back to Florida for Christmas though, not only because we'll be with dear friends, but also because the weather forecast for Savannah predicts a minimum of minus four degrees Celcius from the day after tomorrow.

Historic St Augustine

This place is dripping in history. 

St Augustine was founded in 1565, making it the oldest continuously inhabited town in the continental United States.

Castillo de San Marcos, a fort completed by the Spanish in 1695, is the centre piece.

The boys roamed the bastions and delighted in pretending to launch cannon balls at unfortunate pirates.

The town itself and its cobblestoned streets made for a delightful late afternoon stroll.

Buskers in several locations provided a chill soundtrack as we window-shopped through the quaint laneways.