Celebrating in Curacao: A couple’s anniversary trip to the Caribbean island

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao — Sometimes, as an airline employee, I find travel plans don’t always come off as intended. After 22 years, I’d have to say I’m pretty much used to it; I’ve learned to be flexible.

Recently, my wife and I were to celebrate our fifth anniversary, and our gift to each other was a vacation.

Our original destination of choice was Jamaica. We wanted to stay in an all-inclusive resort and be pampered by the staff. Flights, however, did not work out for standby travel.

Our second choice was Costa Rica. We planned to experience the Arenal Volcano up close and personal by staying in an opulent hotel at the foot of the mountain while enjoying the soothing hot springs. Again, flights did not cooperate.

Our third choice was Curacao. We were thankful the flights worked out, and we wondered during our entire stay why the Dutch Caribbean island was not our first choice. It should have been.

Sitting just a few miles north of Venezuela and out of the path of hurricanes, Curacao hosts a wonderful mix of people, languages, history and fun.

The 6-mile ride from the airport to the capital city of Willemstad was not the element of the trip that convinced us of our wise choice. Other than chaparral and cactus, there really wasn’t much to see. But then the charming city center of 17th-century colonial Dutch buildings with typical gables in every possible color came into view, and we became Curacao-loving converts.

We felt as if we had opened a box of pastel-colored sidewalk chalk.

Our reservations were at the Kura Hulanda Hotel on one side of the St. Anna Bay. The recently restored Dutch colonial village of over 80 buildings was centrally located for everything we wanted to see and do in Willemstad, and we were pretty excited to find that we were staying in a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Just a short walk out the back of the property is the Queen Emma Bridge, a pedestrian pontoon bridge spanning the narrow part of the bay between the Otrabanda and Punda sections of the city. When small boats or very large ships need to pass through, the bridge simply motors to one side just like a door swinging open on its hinges.

It was across the bay from our hotel that we boarded the two-mast sailing ship Insulinde for a half-day cruise along the coast of the island. Built in 1931, the Insulinde is 120 feet long, and it was very comfortable for our scheduled cruise to both snorkel and swim.

Kim, my wife, wasn’t sure about snorkeling. She had never been, even though she spent most of her years on California beaches. But the promise of seeing colorful fish and a sunken tugboat, along with prodding from me, eventually got her into the warm Caribbean water.

The water was so clear she was disconcerted after sticking her mask in for the first time and seeing the bottom of the sea so far below. But after a few minutes, she relaxed and we both had the time of our lives. And because of the salt content in the water, swimming was effortless.

A tugboat wreck and the nearby coral reef are the home of hundreds of different types of spectacular fish.

We saw blue angelfish, blue parrotfish, grey triggerfish, anemones and corals of many varieties. My only mistake was not taking an underwater camera to capture all their images.

We could have stayed there for hours snorkeling and exploring the tugboat and reef, but our hosts, Captain Phil and Laara, had more things for us to do on the aquatic schedule.

Farther down the coast, we moored the ship to the land and were free to swim or snorkel as we pleased. We were allowed to dive off the ship, swim to the land or stay on board out of the sun while eating the fruit and finger foods the crew provided, along with drinks.