Curaçao Hiking - Santa Catharina

Details: 02 August 2020

Total distance km: 7.5
Difficulty: Easy
Terrain: Mostly level, Possibly moist
Duration (hours): 3

Hike from the parking lot of Seru Pretu snack to the Northern coast via a dirt road along the plantation house of the former plantation of Santa Catharina. After a visit to two bays on the coast, Boka Labadera and Boka Grandi, via another dirt road parallel to the first one back to the starting point. In this way the middle area of the former plantation will be visited including the plantation house (optional).

Highlights of this trip:

the walk along the Northern shore
Boka Labadera
Boka Grandi
Plantation house Santa Catharina

This is a rather long hike over mostly flat terrain. Along the coast the underground is rather sharp because of eroded limestone. So best bring shoes with a good sturdy sole.

Parking

The car can be parked in the parking lot of the Santu Pretu snack. Be careful not to block access to the snack or the car wash.

Description of the trail

For a map of the trail check the download link below under the heading "Trail map". Also the track is available for download there.

Santa Catharina en Koraal Tabak trails begin
From the parking lot you need to enter a small path along a fence; to find this path look carefully at the detail map (photo) below under the Trail Map heading. The building at the left hand side is the Toko with the parking lot where the hike starts. Follow the line to find the path along the fence. Follow this small path till you reach the first houses of Santa Catharina. There you follow the dirt road straight on.

When you pass the last house of Santa Catharina along this road you continue straight on. You follow this dirt road till you pass the plantation house of Santa Catharina at you right hand side. If you like you can visit the plantation house. It is in a bad state so be careful when you enter the building.

Then continue to the shore. To do that you have to leave the dirt road at a T-crossing and find your way to the coast. This will bring you to or close to the Eastern side of the Boka Labadera. Enjoy the bay and then continue along the coast in Easterly direction. This will bring you to a second bay, Boka Grandi. Check this bay out and then go in a South-Easterly direction till you find a dirt road that goes more or less to the South. Take that road.

After a while you get a small path at you right hand side that leads to a hill. If you like some climbing take that path and go to the top (almost) of that hill. You have a nice view here over the surrounding area. This hill has no name. To the East you see another hill called Seru Kabes. There is no path to the top of that hill so you don't need to go to that hill unless you want to try to get to the top without a path. On top there is a triangulation point.

Continue the original dirt path to the South till you reach a T-crossing. Go right there; that path will bring you back to the dirt road that you took at the beginning of the trip. Go to the left and go back along the houses and the fence to the parking lot where your car is parked.

Track of this hike on Wikiloc

Link to the track of this hike on Wikiloc (opens in a new window).

The track can be downloaded but a better option is to install the Wikiloc app on your smartphone; when you click on the download link with the app installed on your phone the link opens in Wikiloc (can take some time) and you are able to follow the track.
It appears that this only works for the paid Premium version of this app.
As an alternative the free version of the Locus Map can be used. To use this app you need to download the track in GPX-format either from Wikiloc or directly from this page (see below under "Trail map").