My Journey to Curacao, Pt. 1
How One Decision Changed Everything
You know the old saying about the fork in the road and taking the road less traveled? Well, that’s precisely how I wound up here in Curacao. While there may have been a few stops along the road, the entire life I have now is the result of a choice I made four years ago. Crazy huh?
So bear with me as I take you on a journey around the world. Buckle up; it’s a wild ride.
Northampton, Massachusetts
Back in 2018, I was 23 years old and living in Northampton, Massachusetts, a fabulous little city that holds a special place in my heart. But I felt like my life had gotten stagnant. I had a job I enjoyed but didn’t have any room for growth. I had great friends and even a cat, but something still didn’t feel right.
So I did what any 23 year old would do. I booked a one-way ticket to Thailand. Okay, maybe that wasn’t a perfectly normal thing to do, but I needed something drastic; a reset button. I didn't necessarily want to run away from everything, but I needed to discover something new.
Thailand
So I land in Bangkok. Can you say terrifying? As much as I thought, “I got this,” I did not “got this.” I’ll let you in on a little secret; I didn’t even leave my hotel for the first two days. What a world traveler I am.
Things significantly improved once I moved down to the islands, first Koh Samui, then Koh Tao. It was there on Koh Tao that everything became worth it. Because during my Open Water scuba course, I met Leroy, the Dutch dive instructor that eventually became my husband.
For all the juicy details of how Leroy and I met, check out this article I wrote about it for Ocean Pulse, an incredible scuba diving newsletter that’s also hosted here on Substack!
So instead of continuing my travels, I stayed on Koh Tao. I just knew that I would always regret it if I didn’t explore the connection I felt with Leroy. Certainly, more than I would regret missing out on solo backpacking South East Asia. I mean, remember the hotel in Bangkok?
I wound up bartending at Fishbowl Beach Bar for extra cash, and Leroy continued teaching dive courses. We ate delicious Thai food every day, got around on a moped, and watched incredible sunsets. It was a pretty ideal place to fall in love.
Copper Mountain, Colorado
After those three glorious months together in Thailand, it was time for both of us to leave the island. I went to Colorado for a ski season, and Leroy returned to the Netherlands. Our ultimate goal? To save enough money to start out on a Working Holiday in Australia together.
I had secured the ski resort gig before I left for Thailand. I thought (correctly) that I would be broke and full of wanderlust when I returned to the States from a three-month backpacking trip. And it would have been great, but all I did was miss Leroy. Plus, it is way too cold in Summit County.
The Netherlands
Although Leroy came to visit me in Colorado, we were miserable in a long-distance relationship. So after a lonely Christmas and New Year, I decided to stay with him in the Netherlands while we prepared for our next journey.
It was lovely to meet his family and friends, but I was a bit overwhelmed with the new place and culture. Remember, we had only been dating a few months! But don’t worry, these days I might like being in the Netherlands more than Leroy does.
Western Australia
Finally, what we were waiting for, Australia. We bought flights to Perth, Western Australia, not knowing anything about Australian geography. Once there, we realized just how far we are from literally anything. So we bought a camper van and decided to travel up and down the west coast.
This van was exactly how you would picture a creepy white van with a guy offering free candy. All the back seats were torn out, and a previous owner had built a rough bed frame so you could store things underneath. Unfortunately, because of the height of the frame, you couldn’t even sit up in the bed.
We bought Lizzie, as we would name her, from these two French backpackers in a metered parking space in Perth. I kid you not. While we sorted the money transfer, one of them hand-rolled a cigarette and lit it with the camp stove.
Edit: Leroy has brought it to my intention that the backpackers were German and that I have a terrible memory. But the good news is, the cigarette thing has been confirmed.
Leroy and I then traveled down to Margaret River, where we planned to pick grapes on a vineyard. But unfortunately, the grapes were late that year. So we did more hanging out at campsites and the sheep farm some friends lived on than picking. But it was fun all the same.
After waiting weeks for grapes that seemingly would never grow, we decided to leave for a job planting sandalwood trees out in the desert. It was backbreaking work but kind of fun once you got into it.
To not go insane while walking miles and miles down the rows of sandalwood trees, headphones were practically required. I even got through the entirety of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History WWI podcast series. So as I faced poisonous spiders and red kangaroos, I was grateful to at least not have trench foot.
Once the planting was over, we traveled north up the coast with some of the people we met at the sandalwood plantation. We visited empty stretches of beach with no other people for as far as the eye could see, went sandboarding, and even shared recipes as we cooked together each night.
But alas, nothing can last forever, and we needed more work. So we headed east and into the Northern Territory.
Katherine NT, Australia
The Northern Territory is the true outback of Australia. You can drive over 200 miles in some places and not see a single gas station. It’s hot and dry half the year, then hot and wet the other. However, the remote nature of the place and its seasonality make the Northern Territory a decent place for backpackers like us to find jobs.
We wound up in Katherine, where I found work at a pop-up cafe built in a set of two repurposed shipping containers in the parking lot for some gorgeous hot springs. Leroy then worked at the caravan park we were staying in, first to cover our stay and later as a full-time gig.
We loved our time at the Boab Caravan Park, and the couple that ran the place became like our Australian parents. But the rains were coming, and Lizzie wouldn’t be able to handle the impending floods.
Indonesia
Did you know you can get round-trip flights from Darwin, NT, to Bali for practically nothing? Well, when Leroy and I discovered this, we knew we needed to take advantage before we moved on in our Australian adventure.
So with the money we saved during our summer in Katherine, we island-hopped around Indonesia for some scuba diving. It was during this trip that Leroy proposed! And I, in all my grace, initially responded by sitting on him.
Cairns, Australia
Pushing east, we decided to travel to Cairns, Queensland. Leroy had a friend living there he was keen to reconnect with, and there was the promise of some scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.
Sick of sleeping in a vehicle, we decided to rent a room at a hostel. Since we had been so remote up until then, we hadn’t really connected with many other backpackers. So it was a win-win situation.
Later on, we moved into a share house, Leroy found a dive job on the GBR, and I found a bartending job. We met some truly remarkable people in our five months in Cairns, one of whom is coming to visit us here in Curacao this coming August!
Unfortunately, the time on our visas was running out. So after a great year in Australia, we decided to return to Thailand.
Thailand: The Second Time
It was February 2020, a time many of us remember as the last time things were normal. I started my divemaster course, and Leroy had a dive instructor job he loved. Plus, we were planning our wedding! A wedding that was supposed to happen on Koh Tao that April…
And that’s when the world shuts down.
I initially planned on getting everything into one post, but I realize it’s quite a long story. So tune in next week when I fill you in on lockdown in Thailand, a Covid wedding in the Netherlands, and a Mexican Thanksgiving.
And tune in the week after for more about Curacao!