Located just 70 km north of Venezuela, Curacao is a Dutch Caribbean island with charming pastel-colored colonial buildings. However, it’s also a desert island whose chief attraction is scuba diving (a no-go for our group) so I had a tough time finding an activity that would appeal to all of us. I settled on a cave tour followed by a walk-through of the historic city centre. It seemed like a solid option.

The caves, however, were not only smaller and less impressive than the ones in Cayman, they were also full of bats, which the guide couldn’t stop talking about. The kids were so freaked out that they literally clung to us; Justin was almost in tears. Not a great start to the morning.

The walking tour of the old town was a letdown too. In retrospect, it was probably a bad sign that the guide warned us all up front to give her a head’s up if we were going to wander off…she said sometimes she’s talking and then she turns around and no one’s there. We all laughed at the time, but as we stood on a street corner for 20 minutes listening to a detailed description of the significance of the floor inside the Jewish synagogue, it became pretty clear why people would want to bolt. We bailed early, and we were not the only ones. Guess you can’t win ‘em all.

And now to Bonaire…