In my last post I shared I was heading out on a solo vacation to Curacao. I was feeling all sorts of feelings the day I left, and I’m happy to share the trip turned out to be a wonderful blessing filled with lots of sun, good food, and relaxation. After 4 full days of vacation, I left feeling refreshed, connected with myself, and grateful for the experience.
I stayed at an all-inclusive resort – the Mangrove Beach Corendon resort – and it was perfect for a trip like this. The first two days I stayed at the resort and read by the pool, ate at the buffet, and drank pina coladas 🙂 I was very intentional about remaining present during this vacation. I limited my phone use and fought to get rid of my “always on” mental to-do list. I started each morning with a coffee and beach meditation – I sat at the beach, read my bible and prayed. Listening to the waves and looking out at the ocean while reading and praying was a truly incredible experience and helped me feel aware, present, and appreciative of this beautiful life.
There were dinner restaurants on the resort that I ate at for 3 of the nights I was there. The first night I ate at a barbeque restaurant overlooking the ocean. The second night was a seafood restaurant literally on the ocean. And the third night was an Italian restaurant. Each night I felt more and more comfortable eating dinner alone. I did not let myself use my phone during dinner (except to take pictures of my food 😉 ) because I wanted to feel content and mindful during my dinners. And the best part was, I genuinely enjoyed my own company. What a blessing it is to feel content being alone! I would look around and see people constantly glued to their phones and not being present in the moment, and it made me feel sad about the world we live in. I admit I can be guilty of those things too, but on this trip, I was so grateful to remain present. It’s a true gift to be able to feel joy being in your own company.
On the third day, I walked into the city of Wilemstad to check out the city. I felt a little nervous to walk into town on my own, but I didn’t want my fears to hold me back. I asked multiple people at the hotel and they said it was perfectly safe to walk into town. It was about a mile walk to get into the city and it was a Sunday morning, so it was extremely quiet. A lot of shops and restaurants were closed so I mostly just walked around, but it was nice to get out of the resort for a little while.
On my last full day, I went on a tour of the island. We took a tour bus around to different parts of the island, stopped at a distillery where Blue Curacao liquor is made, stopped in town for lunch, and ended at a beach where I did some snorkeling. It was another fun day outside the resort and exploring more of the island.
Of course throughout the whole trip I took time to get workouts in too. But what was different from being at home is I didn’t make it the first thing I did every morning. While I love my morning workouts, I also appreciate slower mornings reading and drinking coffee, so that’s what I did. The resort had a small gym with nice equipment; however, it was usually pretty busy. So, one day I decided to do a beach workout, which turned out to be really fun! For the full beach workout, checkout my instagram here!) Working out in the open air felt nice, but it was also empowering to workout on the beach and not care what other people might think (another habit I’m continually working to let go of).
I’m extremely grateful that I seized an opportunity to go on a vacation alone. It was full of experiences and lessons I’ll remember forever and I left feeling empowered and enlightened. I hope this inspires you to go after a calling you may have on your heart as well!
Katie