Willemstad Curacao: Finally, Cheap Eats!
We relocated to a very interesting hotel, Kura Hulanda, in Otraband Willemstad (Otraband is like an area or community, similar to Douglas Glen or Riverbend).
The Hotel:
Okay, this is by far one of the coolest hotels Bryan and I have ever stayed at! You walk into reception, kind of thinking, "uh oh, this looks sketchy!". It's old, it's filled with sculptures and art and really old, uncomfortable-looking furniture. The floor creaks...
Well, then you get your room key and go through reception to the actual hotel area, and walk out into this courtyard that's cobblestoned, with quaint little French-style bistro outdoor tables. You look right and it's like being in Italy all over again - narrow, curving walkways between rows of hotel rooms.
The doors to the rooms were narrow double doors like you see in Europe. With shutters! Our room was this big square (not a long rectangle) with 5, yes 5, huge windows throughout! We think our room was a standalone building aside from a little closet / storage room outside.
I loved staying at this cute little hotel.
We even had a hotel cat who wandered around and let us pet him (her?). And I enjoyed the scenery enough to get some good photos of myself, too! I love the Caribbean background!
One of the highlights of Curacao were the colourful buildings. When contrasted against the beautiful blue of the sea and the gorgeous sunny days, these buildings were almost alive. This will always be something I want in my life - color. I want a colourful home one day, much like in Curacao!
Another major bonus for Curacao, once we got into the heart of Willemstad, was that there were cheapish restaurants and drink specials! Sure, we chose a couple of pricey, lovely joints for dinner, but breakfast and happy hour were very, very reasonable.
Bryan and I frequented a small, quaint breakfast place with only 6 things on its menu - burritos, pancakes, etc. and got breakfast for less than $20 US for both! Yay! And the 4 of us found a couple of happy hour pubs with lots of beer specials that made us all happy.
I like to think that I am adventurous, too. Before we hit Willemstad, I researched cheap places to find food and drinks. And dive shops. I found this dive shop along the beach I wanted to hit because they seemed to have good reviews. During this, I found a place called "City 88", which was a new beach bar and pizza place. I decided we had to go there on our first full day in town. We split up with Dave and Lexi, and Bryan and I started our trek.
Okay, I admit, it was a fairly long walk (but aren't they all the first time you go somewhere new?). And things got sketchy pretty quick once we left the touristy area. I felt okay, but I could tell Bryan was a bit concerned! But, keep your head up, look people in the eyes and look confident, right?
As we quickly walked down this beaten up street with many, many crumbling houses, we almost missed City 88. But, we found it and were thrilled! Drinks were super cheap, less than $3 US each. We stayed much too long and had a bit of a tipsy walk back to our hotel, but hey, it's vacation.
At another place for happy hour, we met up with Dave and Lexi and told them about City 88. They were having a special night that night, where the Dive Masters from the dive shop next door would be serving drinks. We convinced them to walk back to City 88 with us and had a ton of fun. The pizza was so good. Lexi and I chatted up some industrial divers who work on the ships that come into the harbour - pretty cool (well, I thought so).
The Hotel:
Okay, this is by far one of the coolest hotels Bryan and I have ever stayed at! You walk into reception, kind of thinking, "uh oh, this looks sketchy!". It's old, it's filled with sculptures and art and really old, uncomfortable-looking furniture. The floor creaks...
Well, then you get your room key and go through reception to the actual hotel area, and walk out into this courtyard that's cobblestoned, with quaint little French-style bistro outdoor tables. You look right and it's like being in Italy all over again - narrow, curving walkways between rows of hotel rooms.
The doors to the rooms were narrow double doors like you see in Europe. With shutters! Our room was this big square (not a long rectangle) with 5, yes 5, huge windows throughout! We think our room was a standalone building aside from a little closet / storage room outside.
I loved staying at this cute little hotel.
We even had a hotel cat who wandered around and let us pet him (her?). And I enjoyed the scenery enough to get some good photos of myself, too! I love the Caribbean background!
One of the highlights of Curacao were the colourful buildings. When contrasted against the beautiful blue of the sea and the gorgeous sunny days, these buildings were almost alive. This will always be something I want in my life - color. I want a colourful home one day, much like in Curacao!
Another major bonus for Curacao, once we got into the heart of Willemstad, was that there were cheapish restaurants and drink specials! Sure, we chose a couple of pricey, lovely joints for dinner, but breakfast and happy hour were very, very reasonable.
Bryan and I frequented a small, quaint breakfast place with only 6 things on its menu - burritos, pancakes, etc. and got breakfast for less than $20 US for both! Yay! And the 4 of us found a couple of happy hour pubs with lots of beer specials that made us all happy.
I like to think that I am adventurous, too. Before we hit Willemstad, I researched cheap places to find food and drinks. And dive shops. I found this dive shop along the beach I wanted to hit because they seemed to have good reviews. During this, I found a place called "City 88", which was a new beach bar and pizza place. I decided we had to go there on our first full day in town. We split up with Dave and Lexi, and Bryan and I started our trek.
Okay, I admit, it was a fairly long walk (but aren't they all the first time you go somewhere new?). And things got sketchy pretty quick once we left the touristy area. I felt okay, but I could tell Bryan was a bit concerned! But, keep your head up, look people in the eyes and look confident, right?
As we quickly walked down this beaten up street with many, many crumbling houses, we almost missed City 88. But, we found it and were thrilled! Drinks were super cheap, less than $3 US each. We stayed much too long and had a bit of a tipsy walk back to our hotel, but hey, it's vacation.
At another place for happy hour, we met up with Dave and Lexi and told them about City 88. They were having a special night that night, where the Dive Masters from the dive shop next door would be serving drinks. We convinced them to walk back to City 88 with us and had a ton of fun. The pizza was so good. Lexi and I chatted up some industrial divers who work on the ships that come into the harbour - pretty cool (well, I thought so).
On the walk back, right outside City 88, Bryan broke my toe. I admit to complaining about it all the way back to the hotel (about a 25 minute walk for reference). I woke up in the middle of the night and my entire little toe was BLACK - yup, he did a number on it. His big, clunky runners and clumsy drunk walk rammed into my flip flop-laden little toe.
Needless to say, walking around Curacao was a bit difficult for me the next day but I managed to find some shoes that worked. But, man, I was so scared some tourist would kick me!
We never did get diving in Curacao. Instead, we wandered throughout the city on foot, checking things out. It does seem like we quickly entered sketchy areas in any direction we went. In one direction, there is this massive, high-end mall (like Dolce and Gabbana), in one direction its a collection of pubs, restaurants and those cheap touristy shops with crap, and in another was a highway...and the other, well, very sketchy.
And THIS is where we probably ate the best meal on the entire trip!
I wanted authentic, hole in the wall food. And, boy, did I find it!
We walked by this little place that had a couple of menu items written in Spanish that I kind of recognized, like 'pollo' and 'carne'. It was literally a hole in the wall! We walked in, the people couldn't speak English but we communicated okay - I do well when it comes to food! They were excited to have us and very concerned that the food was tasty. Anyway, they had 1 table and we managed to both get chairs. The other 'table' was like a desk with milk crates as chairs.
The food was Caribbean - chicken, rice, beans, coleslaw. Yum! People would walk by and look in and triple-take. Like, what are those gringos doing in there???
Anyway, we enjoyed the food and did not get sick. And when we told Dave and Lexi about our adventure, they looked horrified!
Bryan and I found a nautical museum one day and checked that out. It was interesting for me because Frances was in the Dutch Navy. And military history is always very interesting and enjoyable for me to peruse.
And, on our last day, one of the Navy ships deployed...Imagine being on this ship for 3 months? I think Frances said this was associated with the Coast Guard but the ship would be out for 3 months. Fun, right?
All in all, Curacao was great. Not too expensive but not super exciting. I think there were a few other excursions and dive trips and beaches we could have seen but, honestly, at this point, we were wiped and done with touristy stuff. But I enjoyed it. I liked that place a lot.
A few more pictures and videos from the island...
Comments
Post a Comment