Curacao is in the Dutch Antilles, and while they are an autonomous state, they are still a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands… apparently. But buggered if I had ever heard of the place before I saw it on this itinerary. It is in the Caribbean and that is good enough for me.
The only thing I knew about this place was that the capital city of Willemstad has a very unusual waterfront that looks like Amsterdam, but it is painted in bright Caribbean colours, so I was quite looking forward to seeing that.
Today I had organised a group tour to take in 1) the ‘Mysterious’ Hato Caves; 2) the Flamingo Lake; 3) a guided snorkel beach stop and 4) a chance to see the aforementioned colourful town of Willemstad. We met our guide Nell, (superfluous story about people not being where they say they will be, omitted here) and found ourselves crammed onto a shuttle bus and half of us sitting on jump seats! Not an auspicious start – but those who had been on tours with me previous were pretty damn happy that, uncharacteristically, the air con was working… so off we went on our island adventure.