When you’ve driven from one end of a country to the other (even if that country is a constituent of a larger kingdom), I think it’s fair to say you’ve earned some rest. So, with three days left in Curacao, our agenda wasn’t exactly packed: beaches, pools, eating, the occasional run, and sleep. Not a bad way to spend a few days if you ask me.
Way back in 2004 Katy and I went to Portugal. It was our first international trip together and we had a great time. Though it took a few years for us to finally accept it, that trip probably proved that we could make a good couple over the long-run. Why? Because we rented a car and that car had a standard transmission. No big deal, except of course that I’d never driven a standard car before. I have a few good stories I could tell, but I’ll save that for another time. Suffice it to say, we nicknamed the car “peely polo” and we haven’t rented a car outside North American since… until now. Fortunately, Katy still married me.
With an area of 444 km2 Curacao’s not a big island, not that much bigger than Malta, and only has a population of around 140,000 so traffic isn’t that bad. Based on our transfer from the airport and our taxi ride to Willemstad, we figured we could handle the driving. Renting a car would also mean a car seat for Ella and that we could set the schedule for the day. Hell, they even had automatic cars. Ours came in the form of a pint sized Picanto. How’d we fair?
The inner city and harbour of Willemstad have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site which made it a pretty good place to start our exploration of the island. If you google Willemstad, Curacao’s capital city, chances are you’ll find a picture of the colourful buildings lining Sint Anna Bay, so I’ll save you the trouble.
Of course, before we could explore Willemstad we had to get there, which just might have cost us our ‘parents of the year’ award. Continue reading “Exploring Willemstad – A missed opportunity for Iguana Soup”
It turns out that we didn’t book a hotel room in Curacao, we booked a house. Ok, we knew that what we had booked was a separate little villa, but it’s way bigger than we would have imagined and definitely bigger than our old condo. We also had no idea how many families with babies we would find here. The place is literally crawling with them. (Bazinga!)
Ella’s just turned 10 months and we’re off on our third vacation as a travelling trio. Having tackled Turkey at 4 months and a long weekend in NYC at 8 months, we decided the third and final trip of Ella’s first year on earth would take us south to Curacao and Panama.
