Curacao: 10 out of 10 would recommend when fleeing a hurricane (and even if you're not)

Talk about a silver lining. Hurricane Milton was churning its way towards my home state. It was poised to strike the west coast of Florida, sparing Miami but as a life-long Floridian, I know better than to trust the forecasts. One minute, everything is cool than all of a sudden, Jim Cantore is standing on your front lawn. Forget that noise. Presented with the opportunity to get the hell out of town and go hang in Curacao, I was all about it. 

I had actually never been to Curacao (other than the airport, which we all know doesn't count), maybe because it is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and thus it never held "new country" appeal for me. Having now spent a day, I realize I probably should have gone sooner. 

The capital city, Willemstad, is a UNESCO world heritage site, and deservedly so. There's the colorful Dutch colonial architecture contrasting brightly with St Anna Bay.

There's the Queen Emma bridge, a crazy floating pontoon that moves around, sometimes with people on it. Lucky for me, I was not one of those people but I did watch from a waterfront cafe as tourists were set adrift much like a bunch of sad polar bears amidst global warming. I later learned that this is normal and happens only when the bridge is doing one of its short openings.

There's a surprising amount of really stellar street art, considering that the UNESCO designation most likely limits what can and can not be used as a canvas. 

The entire neighborhood of Otrobanda has been transformed into an outdoor museum. During our excellent free walking tour, the guide told us about Jhomar Loaiza and Mr. Garek, two Venezuelan artists who are responsible for a lot of the large scale murals. 

The artist who created this mural, Bagira, has her own art gallery nearby.

There is even a restaurant, Bario Foodyard, that hosts an annual street art block party that I now have every intention of attending in 2025. 

Bario features a good amount of vegan food, which is always great to see. Even better, so does the rest of the island. Everywhere I went, I found no shortage of veg food and craft beers. 

Looking for a homemade veggie burger, Plein Cafe Wilhemina is your spot. 

Lest you think this a brewery for pervy senior citizens, "swinging old lady" is the nickname for the bridge.

Did I mention that the people are genuinely friendly multi-cultural badasses? In school, they all learn four languages- English, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento and switch easily from one to the other. Their history as a Dutch territory, combined with their proximity to South America- on a clear day, you can see Venezuela- has resulted in a true melting pot of cultures. 

If there is one word you will hear a lot, it's "dushi", which never stopped sounding like "douchey" to me. Describing anything or anyone as dushi to me, didn't quite have the desired effect but I'm sure on future visits, I'll find a way to incorporate it into casual conversations. 

What do you do if you don't want tourists sinking your pontoon bridge with their annoying love locks? You create heart sculptures and let them have at it.

You can't visit a Caribbean island and not hit up a beach or two. Sadly, I didn't have enough time to go diving but that didn't stop me from taking one of the frequent jitney buses to Mambo Beach to catch the sunset. 

By the next morning, the news was that Milton had had the decency to stick to its prescribed path and left Miami alone. Not even one raindrop had fallen. As welcome as that info was, it also meant that it was time to go back home. I feel like I only got to scratch Curacao's dushi surface but at only 2.5 hr flight from Miami, I know that I will be back, regardless of whether or not there is an impending natural disaster.