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(not) A WHITE CHRISTMAS

Swapping snow for sand in the Dutch Caribbean

By Where We Wander

January 1^st, 2010

We've never had a tropical Christmas before, but this year was a game changer: we made last minute plans to celebrate the season on a tropical island in the Leeward Antilles! We didn't even know Curaçao existed until our friends told us they were moving here. Like the neighbouring Aruba, it is an autonomous country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and all citizens hold a Dutch passport even if Amsterdam is 10,000 kilometres away. However, unlike Aruba, it is still an enigma to the tourist masses.

The island is a surprising mix of cultures with Dutch, Hispanic, Portuguese and Creole influences, which creates a unique Euro-Caribbean vibe. Colonial buildings are brightly coloured to suit the tropical locale, eclectic music is streaming from the island’s 27 radio stations, and the variety of available cuisines from Thai to Italian to Indonesian puts a lot of other places to shame. Home to just 150,000 citizens, the tiny nation recognizes English, Dutch and the melodic local dialect of Papiamentu as three official languages.

There are plenty of beautiful beaches on Curaçao, but they are totally different from the long sands of all-inclusive Caribbean. Most are small and cozy, protected from the ocean by quiet bays and coves. They are a dream for anyone who isn't fond of waves, with calm clear water and beautiful snorkelling just offshore. But not to fear, there is also a long stretch of white sand within easy reach. Klein (Little) Curaçao, is an uninhabited island two lazy hours away by catamaran, where one can spend the day chasing turtles underwater or lounging under a palapa surrounded by pure aquamarine seas.

These are the same waters that inspired the name of the electric Blue Curaçao liqueur used worldwide to ramp up the exotic appeal of fancy cocktails. While its taste is in fact attributed to a unique species of bitter orange grown only on Curaçao, its colour is achieved in a way that's quite banal – by adding an artificial food colourant. But no matter, because Mother Nature has the real deal right here. Blue is definitely the perfect word to describe Curaçao.

Curaçao is not the greenest island, but the surrounding waters make up for it with rich marine life and exquisite colours. The island sits in a fortunate spot where the seafloor suddenly drops into the blue abyss only 60 meters from the shore. The plunging wall called the Blue Edge, creates a blue line all around the island, separating the shallow turquoise waters from the bottomless indigo depths. It's the deep side of the ocean that puts on a real show at Shete Boka National Park, home to several impressive blowholes, underwater caves and three different species of turtles that nest within the park.

We didn't see any turtles at the park, but we did run into a few impressive iguanas that someone later told us occasionally serve as a tasty ingredient in a local type of stew! Whether that's true or not, the real star of the park is the water. At times blue or green, black or foaming white, it attacks this ragged side of the island and carves its cliffs into jagged shapes, peculiar arches, and slippery inlets. We spent the day here getting a nice sunburn and not eating any lizards.

As we were waiting for the final countdown to the end of the year, I couldn't believe that we almost decided not to take this trip. Three weeks earlier, we had made a semi-permanent move from Canada to California. There was every reason to spend the holidays setting up our rental apartment, unpacking, and shopping for furniture so that we could stop spending evenings at Starbucks next door simply because they had comfortable chairs. But how could that compare to ringing in the New Year in the Caribbean?!

All around Curaçao was an unexpected, vibrant surprise that made this trip into a perfect Christmas gift and I think I would be lying if I said I missed the snow. When the fireworks lit up the sky above the island's capital city of Willemstad, we popped the champagne in the street full of people and toasted the New Year and the decision to leave that unfurnished apartment behind. There would be other days to shop for couches, chairs and dishes, but only one day to start 2010 right.