My wife and I managed to escape to Curacao for a weeklong vacation recently. There was a bit of a hiccup trying to check-in at the airport (more on this later) but we eventually got everything sorted out, having barely enough time to grab breakfast before boarding the plane. Five hours later we touched down in Willemstad. The flight was early so our suite wasn’t available, so we quickly changed and went to relax by the bar for a drink. One margarita turned quickly into four (the bartender was rather insistent we tried her specialties. Thanks, Alicia) and we we’re happily in a mid-afternoon haze.  We finally got into the room and got cleaned up for dinner. A brief walk from the hotel we found a lovely little place, right on the beach that would become our go-to for food and cocktails the rest of the week. The rest of the week was spent rotating between the beach, the ocean, the pool and the bar. Curacao is well known for it’s snorkeling and diving which is so much better after a rum punch. “Holy sh*t! ANOTHER FISH! LOOK AT THE COLOUR OF THAT ONE!” After a few days, we decided to rent a little 5-speed Kia Picante, which, could either have the air conditioning on OR go uphill. We made a few day-trips exploring some caves and the northern part of the island. The highlight of the trip, however, was a catamaran trip to Klien Curacao. The tiny island, 10 miles off the coast, used to have a light house (decommissioned in 1880) and now serves as a sea turtle sanctuary. We probably spend 6 hours in the water swimming with turtles and all sorts of fish, only taking breaks to top up on “the Captains special” – I’m fairly certain it was 90% rum with some juice for colour. After a week of sun and relaxation we hopped in a cab to the airport. This was our first time flying business-class (only direct flight available) so we were exciting for the new experience. We checked in and … “please wait over there”. I asked if there was a problem, the lady at the desk replied, “Yes. We need to call Canada.” Well, this doesn’t sound good. So, we waited. And waited. Finally, I called the airline. They said they had no issues on their end. We got the manager involved. Finally, after about an hour we got someone who knew what they were doing. She took my passport and bags and then said “oohhhh, she’s the problem” pointing to my wife. Apparently, at some point in the previous week my wife got added to some sort of list because “someone with a similar name was wanted by the authorities”. After a bit of questioning, the figured out that my lovely wife is not, in fact, an international criminal on the run. We were allowed on the aircraft and had a very pleasant flight back home to collect our puppy and get back to real life.