We finally got a decent night’s sleep—thankfully, no loud music or fireworks this time. We were up at 6:00 a.m., ready to hike Christoffel Mountain, the highest point in Curaçao. Maggie and John offered to drive. We left the resort around 7:45 am. Our place was on the southwest side of the island and Christoffel Mountain is on the northeast side, so it took a while to navigate out of Willemstad and wind through a few smaller communities before we reached the park.
At the park office, we first had to carefully read and sign a waiver because the hike is considered strenuous, with a final section that involves rock scrambling. Visitors are required to begin by 10:00 a.m. due to the intense midday heat, so an early start is essential. The panoramic views are supposed to make it all worthwhile. We started out a little after 9:00 a.m. The park also had a pretty cool iguana that we needed to document.
The beginning of the hike felt manageable, but it quickly turned steep. I made it about a third of the way up before realizing I couldn’t go any farther and decided to turn back. I took my bottle of water and left Jim, Maggie and John to continue the trek. Jim had three more bottles of water. The path is very well worn so there was no way I would get lost. Plus I saw numerous other folks either coming up or passing me on their return.
I got back a little after 10:00 a.m. There was a beautiful shady area with picnic tables, so I sat there to wait for the others. Birds were flying right up to the picnic table and perching quite close to me. I struck up a wonderful conversation with a couple from Holland. He is 67 and had just retired from his project manager position. They are on a three‑month holiday—Curaçao is their first stop. Next they’ll go to Bonaire and then Aruba, and probably St. Martin after that. They often travel for a couple of months at a time, staying in pensions, and prefer to stay away from the main tourist areas.
Jim, Maggie and John kept going and returned about two hours later. I am glad I stopped when I did as I know I would not have made it. They were rewarded with a beautiful vista of the ocean.
JT: The hike up Mt. Christoffer was a bear. The information on the website and at the park warned that the trail could be challenging. But I was not prepared for an obstacle course. The lower, flatter portion of the park trail was fairly flat but quite rocky. As we ascended it became steeper and tougher. At times, we were literally scrambling hand-to-hand from rock to rock. To top it off, John had broken his hand in a nasty power planer accident and could only use one had for balance. It was tricky. We made it to the top where we experienced fantastic 360° view. The wind was blowing about 50 mph too just to make it a little more fun. Going down was worse having to negotiate the tricky sharp rocks. They had estimated in their literature that the hike would take about two hours. It was three by the time that we reached the bottom again.
We drove back south to our resort. John was a great driver. They dropped us at the front door and then returned their rental car. Jim and I had lunch at the World Cafe.
For our last evening we had dinner at Oceania with Catherine and Bernadette joined us.
