HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This firecracker explosion was inside the public market, on the afternoon of the 31st! Tradition has it that if businesses let off these firecrackers on New Years Eve, it keeps the evil spirits away! Fireworks are very important to locals here, and it is common to spend a month's salary on them for New Years Eve. All the other yachties anchored in the Spanish Waters Lagoon with us, agree New Years Eve was a fireworks display like we have never seen before!! It actually began a few days in advance, but around dusk on New Years Eve, more and more fireworks were let off, and by midnight, we had displays going off in a full circle from all the houses and businesses around the edge of the lagoon!! We brought in the New Year on the bow of the boat with a bottle of champagne and some local sweets!! The display slowed down after an hour or so, but went on all night long and into the next day...sometimes they even let them off in daylight?!?

shopping in the historic district.

The historic centre of Willemstad, near the pedestrian bridge.