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It was a few years ago now but we remember like it was yesterday, my wife and I like to take a holiday just the two of us . Mommy and Daddy time 😉 . We normally book time off and don’t know where we are going for our well needed week off. Sounds strange right ? Well we have had smoking deals by doing this. We did Cabo San Lucas for really cheap, we have done Jamaica and our most recent trip and one of our best was to Curaçao ( Cure-ah-souw ) yes there’s a liqueur that comes from the island. We were searching 2 days before our planed time off and we found a Air Canada deal, We had our flight/hotel/taxes was $675 each = $1350 for both of us. We flew to Toronto first then to the small Dutch Caribbean island Located off the coast of Venezuela and covering just over 400 square kilometres of beauty

Means Welcome the Aruban language, Papiamento, which is only spoken on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao or other wise know as the ABC islands. Everywhere u go this phrase is heard from all the happy locals.

Our hotel was called Floris Suites, it was a quaint little boutique hotel, the pool was spacious with lots of room. To be honest, We went in the ocean more than the Pool. We ate a steak night dinner for $35 each at the Hilton across the street on Friday night, we lucked out and got to do it twice. It was amazing, met some great people and chatted up the night watched the sun go down

We rented a car $100 US for 4 days to explore, it was a new car not anything we heard of but new. It was also a standard. I have not driven a standard in 20 years or more, the man dropped it off to us at the hotel. I took the keys, my wife got in the car. I get in and start it, The man stared at me in horror as I grinded the gears trying to move . I stalled it 5 times at least, his horror turned into Laughter as I now had 3 people around me chuckling. It really took some getting used to but after a day of driving I was all good, like riding a bike as they say. Found the national park and did some hiking, there where so many beaches to see. Best one we found had pigs 🐷, they were really friendly guys. You could pet them and everything. We went snorkeling, I can’t swim at all and I could go 100 yards out no problem still touching the bottom. The water was so different than any that I’ve been in before. I don’t know if the Caribbean Sea is more buoyant? We could both just float around and take in the view. Even had a turtle swim right by !

A little history

Dutch Settlers arrived in 1634, they built forts at specific locations around the island to protect from foreign powers, privateers, and pirates. Six of the forts can still be seen today.

We went to a little island called Klein 1.7 square kilometre island. There was phosphate mining in the late 1870’s and early 80’s, once that was mined out the island became inhabitable. The Dutch West India Company brought slaves to Curaçao. But Before they came to mainland Curaçao, the sick were placed in quarantine at Klein island. The slaves, sick and other passengers who did not survive the rough sea voyage were buried at Klein. There are several graves still on the island. The first quarantine building can still be found as well. The reason we went to Klein was for beautiful day of snorkeling, this island has the best coral reef to snorkel. We had a BBQ that the tour company put on for all of us . We walked the whole island, bring water . The climate on Klein is like a desert. On our walk we found ship wrecks, even a small tanker being pounded by the waves, a 20 metre tall light house built in 1870, now converted to solar power LED. You can go up the old, narrow winding staircase to the top and get a nice view of the island .

The iconic images below were once white stucco, it was so blinding when the sun hit the building that they changed the colours of all the shops . Lots of great food, great shopping and they took US and Canadian dollars ! Bonus 👏🏻 Everything was very reasonable cost, nothing was crazy. If anything it was on the cheaper side. We went to see a movie in there huge mall. To see the movie, 2-pops , 2-popcorn and M&M’s was $14 US . The walk way in the image below is a bridge that opens up to allow ships to enter.

Thanks for reading , I’m dreaming of a holiday again. Quarantine has me dreaming of sand and beaches ❤️

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