It’s been over 2 weeks since we came back from our spectacular warm adventure. We spent 56 day of summer, joy and fun living the Caribbean life. We left on the 12th of February to Aruba with a 30 days return ticket and a lot of uncertainties. The only certain fact we had is that KLM is willing to change our tickets. 56 days, hundreds of moments and tens of adventures later we flew back home from Curaçao on a perfect turbulence free day. Here you can read our experience for Traveling during Lockdown. Continure reading to find out our 3 travel lessons from Curaçao.
This story happened in our last 17 days in Curaçao. We chose a sea view location, far west on the island, in a little fishermen village called Westpunt. A 30 minutes drive through the island would have taken you there. We were 2 days at our new accommodation when we found out that Curaçao is going into lockdown: beaches are closing, driving on the island is possible only 2 days a week and Sunday everybody stays home. We decided to stay anyway and enjoy the simple, small life that village and the house on the hill had to offer. I must be honest with you and tell you that not much happens here.
1. Less is more
Our lives finally slowed down: there was no more running after the next attraction, next photo, next beach. We stopped and started to look around us to find the beauty in the small simple things. The connection to nature was incredible: the technology was minimal, there are no shopping centers nor shops, not even supermarkets. It was just peace, quiet and pure moments of connection to mother earth. The space around us felt infinite, having all those empty beaches to watch, a big terrace at the apartment just for ourselves and by the end of lockdown a whole village. Almost all other tourists left.
For the first time in a very long time I felt how it was just the two of us living: no TV, no news, no crisis, just two souls in a fishermen village, on an island half a globe away from home.❤️ We witnessed together 17 sunsets, spent time with the host’s dogs, took peaceful evening walks, made friends with our Dutch neighbor, saved an iguana from the pool, spotted 2 deer and listened to crazy loud sound the parrots make all the time. At 06:07 by twilight there is a special moment when from perfect silence all the birds start to chirp at the same time. It is bewildering and a privilege to take part in that concert and in that pure life. My gratitude has reached all horizons for living such a story. We felt like the most two lucky people on Earth… the last travelers.
* You can buy Andrei’s T-shirt in in smileyioana’s travel strore HERE
Coming back home to our comfortable lives in Europe made me realize some other travel lessons from Curaçao.
2. We need little to be happy
We have been living from a suitcase and a backpack for almost 2 months. Half of my suitcase was clothes, the other half things you need when traveling. We had everything and I was happier than I would ever be. Coming back home to my 100+ pairs of earrings, a closet full of dresses made me realize how little we actually need to be happy. I closed the wardrobe door and avoided opening it for two weeks. It was just overwhelming me.
3. We are spoiled
When we came back we started immediately to order online food, to shop on Amazon etc. That made me realize that we eat what we want, when we want it, we order things online that in 2 days are at our door, we have comfortable modern beds and mattresses and we own 30+ pairs of shoes for all seasons. You might say that is now normal and a standard of living and I agree with that. There are still MANY places in the world where all of the above are just luxury. Be grateful for all the riches in your life.
Thank you for reading our lockdown story. What do you think of the 3 travel lessons we learned in Curaçao? What are your most valuable lessons from traveling? Let’s stay in touch on social media too, for more travel stories on Instagram and Pinterest! ioana❤🌍
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Great post, it is really spot-on. It is when we are far away from all of our usually commodities and material posessions that we realise that we actually don’t need them – or that we don’t need as much as we thought we would. It is good to be reminded of this sometimes. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you my dear Juliette for reading and finding inspiration in my words. I am glad that you agree with the simple travel lessons, I got to learn in our adventure. It is indeed for everybody a good reminder. I wish you a beautiful week and happy and safe travels. ioana❤