What a day!! The day trip to Klein Curaçao was everything but relaxing, and I’ve written this post to tell you the story why.

Jonalisa

We came up with the idea to do a cruise to Klein Curaçao through a friend of a friend. Two separate ones of them, actually, which made it sound to us like an excellent idea. One of the two advised us to book the Jonalisa because lunch and drinks would be included, making it an all-inclusive lovely day trip. The other friend went there with a friend’s boat, so we were really only left with one option if we wanted to follow our friends’ advice.

So we booked the Jonalisa and used our second day on Curaçao as the day on which we would explore the tiny island next to it.

We arrived early in the morning at the docks and found our little catamaran docked there. We were told that 50 other people would be on the boat, which we raged about because it hardly sounds relaxing. In hindsight I’m happy there were so many people there because I think those people kept the boat a bit more levelled…

Sailing

Do I call it sailing when you’re flailing all over the boat…? The start of the day was mild. We received some sandwiches and we were warned to not sit at the front, which I quickly disregarded along with some other people. I had been on a catamaran before when I sailed to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 2008 and I couldn’t wait to relax in the sunshine like I did then.

I was so happy at the front wearing my glamorous outfit. I felt like a proper celebrity.

Ten minutes later we reached the open sea… The moment we did the catamaran started going up against the waves and wind. Let me tell you, I got beyond soaked! Gone was that celebrity feeling.

The girls next to me were determined to persist and picked up their snorkels and masks to weather the waves crashing over us. I just wanted to leave after a few minutes. You have to imagine the agony here… Every time a wave splashed me it also tried to pull me into the ocean and every time the boat bumped against a wave I flew in the air.

With the help of one of the attendants, I made it to the back of the boat. That’s when I started feeling sick. I’ve never experienced seasickness before, so I didn’t take any pills – like my friend who was chilling (drugged out 🙂 ) on the roof the whole time.

I was told together with some other, equally sick, but still very kind and caring people to sit at the back of the boat to watch Curaçao in the distance to maintain equilibrium. This did not work and I ended up hanging over the railing of the bouncing ship. It’s beyond me why someone would think me and the sickies would be interested in looking at dolphins near our boat. Yet someone yelled dolphins, expecting us to look. I need to stop writing about this because even the memories make me a bit queasy.

The boat trip lasted 1.5 hours. Together with the others in the back we were taken to shore first in a little rubber boat. I was told try to fight the urge to run into the water until I would feel less sick. Believe me, I didn’t have to be told twice: the first half hour on the island I lay down on my back, closed my eyes and stayed still that way.

Klein Curaçao

Klein Curaçao is a 1.7 square kilometres uninhabited island south-east of Curaçao in the Caribbean Sea. We were told not to go to a part of the island, due to an angry evil recluse who lives there. Turns out that that’s probably not true because it truly is uninhabited. We assume the company told us that because of another company which was based on that side of the island. The area didn’t look that interesting anyway so we don’t feel like we missed out.

We were told that if we would go snorkelling we would definitely see sea turtles. The sea looked like the clearest blue sea I’d seen in a long time, but underwater I couldn’t see anything. It was actually quite sandy. At one point, my friend yelled through her snorkel that she saw one turtle; after a second it was gone and she had no idea where it went due to all the sand. We gave up on snorkelling quite quickly after that. We were promised sea turtles on the diving trip we had booked, so we weren’t too concerned about not seeing them on Klein Curaçao.

The only “sights” on the island are an old lighthouse, and a ship wreck (or multiple ship wrecks). This would suggest the lighthouse isn’t really good at its job. It’s out of commission nowadays, but if you want you can roam around in it.

The ship wreck(s) are located a little bit further near the coast. I’ve seen one or two shipwrecks in my day (the biggest was the one in Paphos, Cyprus) and I have to admit, the one here looks pretty impressive and grim at the same time.

Back to Curaçao

Half way through we had lunch on the boat, which I didn’t enjoy knowing we would have to sail back at some point. When we went to the lighthouse and ship wreck we came back in time for the boat’s departure at 3pm. We decided to swim to the boat, because I wanted to be on top of the water for as little time as possible.

The way back was much more mellow though. We sailed along with the waves and the wind, so it was considerably less bumpy. I actually did manage to sit in the sun for a while now; not too long because even though I had used sun screen all day I still felt burnt.

The sun in strong in the Caribbean! At 5pm we were back on Curaçao, ready to have dinner at the hotel and to call it a night.

Conclusion

This post is not meant to discourage you from taking a day trip to Klein Curaçao, nor to discourage you to take the Jonalisa. The staff does a great job in helping all the sick people, and even tried to keep the mood going. Breakfast, lunch and drinks (including alcoholic beverages) are included. It’s just a pity I couldn’t enjoy any of it because of the sea sickness. The island is definitely worth a visit. It’s a pity we didn’t see turtles, but apparently it’s really common to see them, so we were probably just unlucky. Apart from that the sand is gorgeously white and the sea is beautifully blue, it’s a perfect place to relax when you aren’t experiencing a bout of bad luck.