Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine April 2017 | Page 178
Curaçao
by Shana Jones
Read her Blog at www.roamingaviatrix.com
5 Days, 5 Ways
Day 1: Island Tour
Curaçao. The word had only come
to my ears once as a child when
my mom mentioned something
about the ABC islands. Other than
that, I knew nothing of the place.
So, when work called one day
and said I’d have to cover some
flights there for 10 days, I leaped
in the air with excitement at the
prospect of going somewhere
different, not necessarily to
Curaçao.
It turns out there was plenty to
leap about. Curaçao reminds me
of one of those multi-coloured
quilts of a million different
hues and patterns: it’s a cultural
patchwork of varying skin shades,
diverse languages, and titillating
sights and sounds destined to
enrapture the curious tourist.
Discovering this early in my stay,
I packed my days with as much
sightseeing and entertainment
(oh yeah, and some work too!) as
possible. Here are my 10 days of
gallivanting shrunk into a 5-day
to-do guide for the soon-to-be
Curacao lover:
This is a nice way to get around
and see different parts of the
island. My tour people picked
me up in front of my hotel in
an air-conditioned bus. There
weren’t too many people on the
bus so it was a bit like a private
tour. My tour guide was quite
knowledgeable and in the casual
conversations between site visits,
revealed that she spoke close
to 5 languages and that her
young daughter was following
in her footsteps. Apparently this
isn’t uncommon for the average
Curaçao native, who primarily
speaks Dutch and Papiamento
(Dutch-based Creole spoken in
the Dutch islands). The presence
of tourism makes English
important from an early age
and immigration from nearby
countries introduces Spanish,
French and Portuguese. Enter the
“cultural patchwork” reference
from before!
Back to the tour: we visited
several historical and cultural
sites like The Genuine Curaçao
Liqueur factory, where a
walk through the history and
production process of this 121-
year old spirit ended with a
sampling of its different flavours.
We cooled off at a quick beach
stop and for lunch delighted in
(depending on how you look at
it; later on, it wasn’t so delightful
for me!) the sampling of some
iguana meat. And yes, it tasted
like chicken!
Photo Credit: David Turner
The liqueur factory,
home of Blue Curaçao!