CURACAO DECEMBER 2012

We decided to try a new place for our post-Thanksgiving trip.  So we headed to Curacao and a Hilton resort on the island.  Curacao is an island 2000 miles south of New York, close to Venezuela, and part of the Netherlands Antilles, which includes Aruba and St Martin.  As we landed after a 4 ½ hour flight, we saw an extremely arid, undeveloped side of the island, not unlike Aruba.

We cleared immigration and headed by taxi to the Hilton, a 25 minute ride away.  Development looked sparse, houses for locals looked medium.  As it turned out we needed to go farther  to see the capital and more dense housing.

We were welcomed to the hotel and were sent up to the executive level.   From our balcony we had a good view of the capital to one side and the coastline to the other.

But we heard exciting music and could see costumed natives on the hotel property and we went to see.  It was the employee family Christmas party with a Caribbean Santa, clowns, acrobats and dancers.  All of the children got a variety of gifts with lots of food and music.

As we looked around the clientele was European and heavily Dutch.  KLM, the Dutch airline flies a 747 to the island 4 times per week. The US sends 1 or 2 737s.  And the KLM crew overnights in our hotel.

 The beach is small and in a natural cove, so it is great for swimming.

 We had wine and appetizers in the club and then dinner on the beach, in fact a Mexican buffet with items prepared to order as well.  There was a lively bar scene afterwards.

 After breakfast in the club we went to a private palapa on the beach.  We explored after lunch.  There is a very long beach going towards the capital.  There is a huge Marriott complex and some public parks for the locals.  Very calm water on this side.  There is a Hyatt resort on the other side of the capital.

We played tennis 3 times and I jogged in several directions to explore.  We had two  more themed buffets.

 Birds were plentiful and colorful.  Lots of iguanas.  Frogs that sang all night.

 We finally got to the capital of Willemstead.  It is a mix of the old and new.  Old included Dutch facades, a produce market and a floating bridge that opens and closes for traffic.  New included a very new, splashy shopping center and  hotel complex.

To make some observations about the country: it is of mixed ethnicity, origins in slavery as it was a slave trading center.  It certainly has a European population and is moderately prosperous.  There is a local language, Papamiento, that is taught in the schools along with Dutch and English, and is the sole language of some.  It is mostly a tourist dependent economy especially with cruise ships.

Fuel, water and electricity are very expensive.

We had a good time, found interesting people to speak with, and would definitely come back.