This post will be brief in it's entirety... although here for a week we have mainly concentrated on our impersonation of Sloths... after seeing some in Panama we too wanted to chill out all day, every day!
After the early departure from Panama following a flight change, we had a smooth uneventful flight back-tracking to Bogòta airport. Once arriving we thought it all seemed quite quiet for such a large airport... until the PA system advised the airport is closed!
Hence the answer as to why our flights had been changed, some scheduled infrastructure work closing down the runway over a few hours. This meant we now had 7 hours to fill in inside the airport as transit passengers, but all good.
Flight into Curacao was a bit late, which meant it was 9pm by the time we arrived at our apartment after collecting rental car... drive a little stressful in the dark, first time driving for 8 weeks and it's left hand drive, and a bit of typical "island driving" by the locals is evident!
Why Curacao... and what is it....
The reason we are spending a week here is due to Home exchange. A couple utilised our Arrowtown cottage 18 months ago, and we are owed time in their holiday apartment. We have been able to work it in with this trip, why not!
Curacao is part of the former Dutch Antilles territories, or often known as the ABC Islands. Aruba is probably the most well known, then Bonaire and Curacao, which is now an autonomous Netherlands region in itself. Lying north of the Venezuela coast in the Caribbean Sea, Curacao has a large port located at the main city of Willemstad, which is an historic fort site guarding the large natural inland harbour. The population is over 160,000.
Due to it's Netherlands association the island is very popular with Dutch holiday makers, evidenced by the large number of families here during the current school holiday period... a little surprising given it is the Northern Hemisphere summer.... because.... boy it's hot (29-32C, 24/7), makes us realise how cold Panama was😎
Historically the influences show from Europe (various kingdoms having control), the picture postcard houses and buildings have a definite European look. Many date from the 1700's although you wouldn't necessarily pick it as they are brightly painted, and always have been.
Early export earnings were salt, which was in itself the reason other ventures failed as various crop growing experiments didn't like the salt levels. These ventures hinted at by the large historic plantation houses located across the island. In the 1700's slavery was a large industry with slaves transported ex Africa, and spent 2 years here being "educated" before being onsold to the USA etc.
More recently oil has been a major industry, mainly on the refining side. This has had a turbulent history but still operates with Venezuelan connections/partnership. The dubious honour of being in the world top 5 locations for CO2 emissions!, although we didn't notice that.
Tourism is large, and growing, including a mainly short stop point for cruise ships. This island group, being close to South America mainland, has advantages as it is out of the hurricane belt.
Spending time....
As hinted, not much to report on. We spent our time exploring the island or just slothing at the apartment. The complex has 6 apartments, surrounding a lovely pool area. As it is off season (hard to believe) we are the only holiday guests so got the largest apartment and the pool to ourselves😁🏊♂️
A resident, very friendly, cat along with resident Iguana's.... who don't necessarily get on. The cat, optimistically, stalking an Iguana which results in the Iguana diving in the pool, waiting it out underwater then climbing out when "safe"!
Around 1 1/2 hours drive from one end of the island to other. Explored various beaches, the downtown bit etc. Went back to selected beaches on a couple of different days. Got sunburnt!!, not sure how but snorkelling was captivating so probably overdid it.
Great dining options, many of the scattered beach resorts have a range of choices.
Language was easy as everyone multi lingual, they would initially start in Dutch or the native language.... and then seamlessly switch to English on seeing our blank faces.
A very relaxing time.... but we are looking forward to getting back into more active touring. An interesting country to have visited.
