Dec. 29, 2021
Greetings from Curacao!
We spent the morning exploring the town and could immediately see and sense the Dutch influence.
If the shoe fits....wear it!
Our first glimpse of the town from the other side of the pontoon bridge.
Walking across the floating pontoon bridge - very cool!
This is inspired by the famous bridge in Pares "Pontoon des Arts Bridge" and some have claimed it as "the most romantic and instagrammable love stop in Curacao."
Locks of love looking over the town.
After exploring the town, we made our way by cab ($8/person each way) to "Tug Boat Beach" on Caracas Bay because I heard this was one of the best diving and snorkeling spots on the island. Although I'm a certified diver, everyone I was with was a snorkeler, so we were more interested in the latter. Tug Boat Beach, as it is known, has a sunken tugboat that is shallow enough to be able to snorkel around and is surrounded by loads of colorful fish!
The beach itself is very eccentric!
We spent several hours at the beach, so after a while, we ventured out and explored our surroundings a bit more and literally stumbled across this ancient fort! It was amazing!
Fort Beekenburg was built in 1703 in order to protect the entrance to the bay.
We had the entire fort entirely to ourselves and loved exploring it all!
A view from the top.
This fort (and the people that manned it) warded off many attacks from English warships, French buccaneers and pirates.
This Fort has seen A LOT of history over the past 300 years! Over time, it changed hands from one country to another but once it was returned to the Dutch, it served as a military outpost until the mid 1800's when it was finally dismantled.
The fort was inaccessible between 1927-2005 since the land around it was used by an oil company but it is now accessible and an incredible place to explore, especially because you can climb all the way to the top of the tower!
Looking for Pirates.....
Goodbye Tug Boat Beach, Caracas Bay and Fort Beekenburg.
We sure loved spending the day with you!
Curacao at night.
The pontoon bridge sure knows how to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
VERDICT: Tug Boat beach was great for snorkeling (and I'm sure for diving too!) and the Fort is absolutely worth exploring. But don't come here if you want to lay out at the beach. There's no sand -only rocks and the chairs cost $3 to rent and are falling apart and old and super uncomfortable! But the down town area was lovely and absolutely worth visiting. And there's more of the island I would love to see. Curacao is definitely worth a visit and is a place I'd enjoy coming back to!
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