Curacao up for Best Caribbean Beach!

Cor and I at Seaquarium
Beach a few months after
that fateful Trafassi concert

The Seaquarium beach--aka Mambo beach--is one of Curaçao's most well-known, most-often-photographed, and probably the only one of all the island's beaches (yes, there's a lot) that every single visitor to the island goes to. It was certainly the first one I saw when I came here, so this smallish, man-made strip of sand is responsible for turning what was originally a six-month stay into a total about-face in my lifestyle that's lasted over a decade. And counting.

At this beach, one Thursday night in a long-ago October, during a Trafassi concert (in which I heard a song about "big washes, small washes" for the first time), the man that's since become my life partner and my best friend kissed me for the first time.

My mom at Seaquarium beach on her first
visit to Curaçao (2006)

For this, if for no other reason, no other beach will ever beat this one in my personal list of Ultra-Special Locations Of The World. But this beach is special to everyone that knows it (not just us suckers for love stories that begin on white sand).

It's got everything: beautiful, sheltered water; shade and sun and comfortable lounging chairs that spread out over several beach clubs; the coolest bars in town where everyone hangs out in wet swimming suits and sandy feet; and, perhaps above all, the loveliest view of the sunset.

Go vote for Curaçao's Seaquarium beach as Best Caribbean Beach. Better yet, come see it for yourself ;)