Friday, February 15, 2019

Otrobanda: A Bridge too Far

The babies, Candace, and I took a shuttle into Punda this morning. The famous Queen Emma Bridge was our drop-off spot. The bridge had been swung open to let boats cross, so we decided to walk around and go back on the bridge before it was time to leave.

We first walked to the Mikveh Israel-Emanuel Synagogue. It is the oldest synagogue in use in the Western Hemisphere. The synagogue is in the Sephardic style with the him a in the middle and the seats facing it. The floor is sand. It was fun to be there with the next generation of Jews but Abie and Tali were grumpy and just want to get at the Torah platform which was off limits.

We left and fed them plantain chips before coming back to visit the museum. There was a Torah scroll smuggled out during the Inquisition and the yellow star or a Dutch Jew during the Holocaust, among many other items. Bake wanted to be a Daddy hat, meaning sitting on my shoulders, so we couldn't see it as thoroulhly as we would have liked.

We then went to the old market for some food. A woman shoved a menu in our face after we circlee around and wen  to the upper level via a ramp. It worked and we blew most of our cash on the local meal. Tali stuffed herself with mashed potatoes and Abie ate rice and polenta. A woman from the shuttle over ran into us and had purchased shirts for the twins that were in their favorite colors this week : Abie yellow and Tali blue.

We next saw the floating market. Venezuelan merchant dock their boats and set up stands on land to sell their fruit. We found the bridge again just in time to hear the alarm and see the gates close. We never made it to the bridge, but we got to see it swing open. It rests on floats and at least one is motorized. So we spent out last 25 minutes staring at the iconic colorful houses from across the St. Anna Bay.

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