48 Hours In Curacou

Curacou is part of the Dutch Caribbean  which is made up of  six island countries that are located north of the Venezuelan coast sometimes also referred to as the Caribbean Netherlands. The most known island in the chain is Aruba.

I came here for a music Festival called Paradise world which took place in Willemstad’s harbor with a beautiful back drop of the colorful Dutch architecture Curacou is most famous for. Luckily I got some free time and visited three of the islands beaches.

My first stop was Cas Abad Beach  This beach had everything! Perfect powered white sand, a cute little beach bar, dive center, sun beds and umbrellas for those who just want to kick it in the shade. The water brought me straight back to memories of the Mediterranean sea during long summer months.  Taking a refreshing plunge in the crystal clear cool water was a real treat.  An excellent spot for snorkeling or diving with the the reef so close to the shore you can almost touch it. The island is full of iguanas, which undeniably look like miniature dinosaurs aka mini Godzilla. Although they’re a bit scary at times they were still curious and stunning. The bright green ones are female, and the more colorful ones with darker purple hues are males. Don’t get to close, they do bite! This beach was by far my favorite it had rustic beauty, and felt very far away from the more crowded beaches.

The Second stop was Kenepa Grandi.

it was about a 30m minute drive Northwest  from Cas Abao. This beach has an amazing lookout point with panoramic views. The beach had white powered sand with a small dock to swim out to. The reef was quite far out so you have to be a good swimmer to reach it.  On this occasion there was a baby screaming so loud we could hear it from the lookout point so we decided to bask in it’s beauty from afar.

Next we stopped at this small cove which was a really popular dive spot. The beach wasn’t the best but it did have a great lookout point, with a small cafe where you have to scale a steep staircase to get the views.

These trees were painted by a group of locals referred to as the Rastas.

Can you spot the orange octopus?

This is traditional local stew made from okra and pigs tail.

They serve it with a side of cornmeal and lime aid to was it all down. I tired a spoon full and it was pretty tasty but the lime-aid was defiantly the star.

The famous rainbow buildings of Willemstad’s Harbor