When my friends and I decided to take a Caribbean cruise a few years ago, one of the ports that was listed was the island of Curaçao. I had never heard of this place and so just shrugged my shoulders and said ‘sure, let’s go’. Because I had never heard of it before, I went in with absolutely no expectations of it. Afterwards, it was hands down my favorite place that we went on that trip.
When we pulled into the port, all I could see was spots of color everywhere along the riverfront. It was so pretty and I couldn’t wait to get down there and walk along those buildings. Curaçao is the largest of the Dutch Caribbean islands sitting only 50 miles from Venezuela.
Curaçao is part of what is called the ABC islands along with Aruba and Bonaire. The name Curaçao comes from a Portuguese word, Curaçãos, that was used in describing the indigenous people who lived there. At first this island was considered useless because of the difficult agriculture landscape it offered. But later it became a thriving cattle ranch area and known for its mineral mining.
Curaçao has had an interesting mix of cultural influences in hundreds of years of history from the Portuguese and Dutch colonization, a failed attempt of Great Britain to gain control over it, being a major port in the slave trade, a large influx of Jewish communities fleeing persecution in Europe, and their proximity to South America. While Dutch remains the official language, there is also a lot of Spanish, Portuguese, and English spoken.
Curaçao shores are full of bays and inlets just off of the Caribbean which are very popular for visitors and locals alike to enjoy. There seem to be endless amounts of perfect beach spots to wile away hours soaking up the sand and the sun and the warm blue waters.
In 1997 the main area of the harbor and city of Wilemstad became a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the beautiful cultural influences seen throughout the city and the candy colored buildings set against the Caribbean waters.
We spent hours just walking up and down the riverfront completely mesmerized by the colorful buildings sitting next to the brilliant blue waters of the Caribbean. We just couldn’t get over how beautiful it all was. We would walk up one side of the river then cross the bridge to the other side. We took many laps this way never tiring of the views.
I left Curaçao with a slight ache in my chest. There was so much more I wanted to see and experience here. For not knowing anything about it at first, it quickly became my favorite place we visited that whole week and all the sudden the time there felt insufficient and wanting more.
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