Curaçao-February 2019

Day one, which is actually day two.

We have travelled to many places, with many airlines, of course had the odd 2 hour delay. But this was different, all started out well. We boarded our Westjet plane on time, got out the iPad, the headphones, the phone charger, the bottle of water and even taxied out to the runway...and then sat. At first the pilot said, we are just checking a fuel light..then, we have to go back to the gate, maintenance is going to look at it...and finally, Sorry folks, we are looking for another plane. They didn't have one. All 300 passengers got off, realizing we weren't going anywhere today.
Everyone got on their phones, trying to rearrange car rentals and let hotels know they would be a day later. Westjet customer service gave out hotel and food vouchers. And within half an hour, a plane had been found, seats rebooked and everything was set for 6 am the next morning.
I felt bad for the people with only a week trip booked.
But I want to say, how impressed I was, with the people on this plane. They were calm, and polite. Sadden yes, but understanding. By the time we all squashed on the airport shuttle, to our hotel, there were jokes, talks of beer and drinking..in fact even a song broke out, lol. I am proud to be Canadian :)

Fast forward.
Today we reached the beautiful island of Curaçao. 29 degrees, sunny and with a great cooling breeze.
Now it is extremely rare for me to return to a country, I mean,  there are so many places in this world to visit, and only so many vacations. But I really wanted to visit Bonaire ( coming next week) and the easiest way to get there from home, was to fly to curaçao, then take a small plane over.

The Curaçao island is in the middle of the "ABC islands", most people know about Aruba, a few have heard of Curaçao, not many know of Bonaire.

The last time we were here, was our 20th wedding anniversary, that was 6 years ago. We are really hoping it has remained the same. The island is 40 miles long, 6-8 miles wide and has a population of 150,000 people. Most of them live in the main city of Willemstad. As we flew in, we we're glad to see that it hasn't become too built up, at least in the north..

Picking up our rental car was easy, Rob remembered a lot of places from last time, me on the other hand, has a memory like a goldfish. He found a large grocery store easily and we stocked up on esstentials, milk, bread, margarine and beer. The bakery was filled with great colourful desserts...I can never pass a bakery without buying something! The signs are all in Dutch..but the people here are so smart..they can speak 3,4 or more languages.( The official languages are English, Dutch and Papiamento) so with a little help, we also got a few savoury treats.

Our favourite was this meat and potato filled batter ball, it was delicious, I fed it to Rob as he drove on. It cost us fl 2.75, which is the local currency, the florin, or Netherlands Antillean Guilder NAFI. When you purchase groceries or food, they will tell the price in florins and in US $, they happily take both. For us, we figured it out to be $2.03 Cdn for our lunch. This is how we usually do our meals, breakfast at the airbnb, we can sit relax and enjoy our coffee, takeout lunch from a bakery and supper out, at local restaurant

We arrived at our rental, everything is lovely, we were met by our Dutch host and shown around. Our place is new and modern. The pool area is great with places to to sit and relax, shade and an outdoor shower. There are two dogs here, one is a fully trained police dog, the other failed training lol. They look at us from behind a fence, they don't bark, one sits with a ball in his mouth, just hoping we will play. We are not allowed, I'm not sure who is more upset, us or him.

A few hours of sun later, quick shower and a 5 minute drive down the road, we reached Williwood. Here there is a convience store, and outdoor cafe, it was busy. Lots of locals, cheap beer and food bringing them in. The special here is the Williburger, Rob ordered it. It was tasty, came with sweet pototo fries. I tried it, not bad, a little dry, but maybe that's the way it was supposed to be..we have never eaten goat before!

Time for sleep..

Day two...the south side.

I woke at 8.30am, Rob had been for a run. He said he saw many dogs and a pack of sheep, not sure I believe him about the sheep..lots of goats here, even wild pigs, never seen a sheep..

I finished my writing on yesterday and he decided where to go today.We are staying in the north of the island about 15 minutes from the capital of Willemstad. It is pretty up here, cactus and flower bushes. The roads remind me of home, quiet and empty. Easy to drive. His pick for today was Jan Thiel and Spanish water, a location in the south we never got to last time. 

Of course this journey, like so many others just happened to pass a bakery, I swear this man has a bakery app! In he went got his cookies and we set off again. Perdita was being difficult, anyone who has read my Italy blog, knows Perdita. She is the google lady, a source of much frustration on many occasions, this time it wasn't all her fault, the google play app wasn't connecting to the car monitor all the time, so Rob had me directing from  his phone.  Not a good idea, it was bright and I needed my sunglasses, but I also couldn't see..so I needed my glasses..plus the app was behind..finally I had enough, he pulled over and I said, forget this app stuff, where are we going...? 

South, follow the road and we will see the signs. Technology,  sometimes  takes longer than common sense.

We headed over the tall bridge, we could see the 2 large cruise ships in port. Definitely not for me. The further we drove, the more built up it becomes. We saw a KFC and a McDonalds, a mall and a cinema. Times are a changing. New resorts were going up, multi million dollars homes being built, fantastic boats in the small harbour. There is a lot of money here. We finally reached Jan Thiel beach, it was a complex, shops, restaurant, a spa. We paid the entrance fee of $3.50 and found a parking

space. There are two places to set up here, one is a man made beach and the other a small inlet. Both have bar service and chair rentals if you want. We set up on an inlet,  beach towels a few feet from the water. I was the first one in! That never happens..Rob fell asleep, lol.

On the way out, there was a little pond, with fish and baby turtles..of course I had to pet one, they are well used to people, all 4 came up swimming for food. Rob said I shouldn't touch them, he was worried about the germs in the water..huh?! 

By this time it was 3.30pm and although we both had loads of sunscreen on, we knew it was time to call it quits. It was a quick drive back, both of us agreed that we much preferred the north side, I don't think we will be back. We sat by the pool, under the man made pergola, I sat in

wicker hanging chair, loved it. Our host Peter,  came out to see if everything was alright, we told him it was perfect. For the next hour or so we chatted about places to eat, beaches to go to, and asked him questions on how they decided to move here. The couple are from Belgium oringinally, he explained how they both worked many long hours and were always tired. They needed a change and started looking at places to open an airbnb. They looked at France, Spain and Greece, but everything was complicated. It was just by chance a young man studying here, thought to mention Curaçao to them. 

3 days into a vacation here, they started looking for places to buy.  It's only been a couple of years, but they have created a little piece of paradise, and have started on a new building. You can find them on airbnb Kas Amigu, or at www.kasamigu.com 

Tomorrow will we get ourselves sorted out, it always takes a day or so to get into a routine. We have been eating at strange times and so far haven't been to any of the great restaurants we want to have supper at. Tonight my husband made cheese and ham toasties, with creme caramel for dessert..well he  bought it anyways, it's called Quesillo here. He is doing a great job, love this man..