Last Updated on April 6, 2023 by PowersToTravel
Surprisingly, Curacao was a difficult trip to plan and execute as a diabetic – more difficult than I expected. The trip was a pop-up surprise for my 60th birthday. “Find somewhere that Jetblue flies that you want to go to for your special birthday,” my husband said. I had only a few weeks to plan, and usually I have several months.
I quickly went through my Diabetic Travel Tips for International Travel, as posted.
Vaccines and Malaria and the Travel Clinic
We planned on getting the typhoid vaccine for our trip to Egypt, which would occur in 3 months. But this popup trip accelerated our plans, and we quickly arranged to get the vaccine with just enough time to spare (that’s two weeks.) We are always up to date on Hep A, Hep B and the routine vaccines. I keep track of all our routine vaccines and make sure we get them on schedule, regardless of trip-planning.
No concerns for malaria in Curacao, whew.
Be sure to check out all the vaccine and tropic disease information on the CDC Curacao page.
Flying with Diabetes
The good news is that Curacao is in the Caribbean, and therefore not as long a flight as say, Europe or Asia. I still had to properly plan and pack my diabetes kit in my carryon, and deal with TSA checkpoints. Check out the details in the Diabetic Travel Tips article mentioned above.
Drinking the Water
Wonder of wonders – I found I would be able to drink the water. The water supply for the entire island comes from desalination, and is potable. That gave me great relief. (Note written post trip – it was true! I brushed my teeth and ate the salad and suffered no ill affects!)
Preventing Dehydration
I had researched and found that temperatures were going to be high, consistently higher than any other location I had previously visited. Usually I choose to visit such a location during their cooler season, however this trip was to be timed with my birthday and so the hot season it was!
I was not concerned about dehydration in any way that affected my planning or execution – I knew that we had to take along plenty of water where-ever we went.
But the heat led me to consider what would happen to the insulin in my pump as I went out and about for an entire day, for an entire week.
Keeping the Insulin in my Pump Cold during Sightseeing
I realized that my current technique of wearing a tropicwear blouse and loosely covering the pump from direct sunlight would be insufficient in consistent 90+ degree heat. What to do? Naturally I googled a bit and bumped into the Frio Wallet. It was made exactly for this situation. You soak it briefly in COLD water to get it started, and then you insert your pump into the pouch. There was sufficient room as well to stuff in my infusion set, so it wouldn’t be out-and-about in the heat either. The pouch required a belt, and I ended up using my tropicwear pants belt, which was the right width and with its mesh would handle the heat better.
Post trip note: The Frio Wallet worked wonderfully, just as I planned! (Note: I have no sponsors, this is just my opinion.) I’ll be bringing it on all my warm weather destinations in the future.
Keeping my Insulin Cold during the Flight
All Type 1 diabetic pump users should always bring a bottle of their long-acting insulin on trips. If you take a lot of trips, that means either you have to keep that single bottle of Lantus refrigerated from start to finish, or you waste a bottle with each trip. I work hard to not waste insulin, and try to find ways to bring my Lantus COLD even if the trip is short and my Novolog insulin doesn’t have to be refrigerated.
In addition, I always need to bring along an extra bottle of pump insulin, even on a one-week trip.
My solution to this point has been my “cooler” box with freezer bars. The problem with that cooler box is that it takes up so much space in my carry-on.
I also own a different little case outfitted with tiny freezer bar. I’ve never documented it or shown a picture of it because I don’t think it is very good. The tiny freezer bar doesn’t keep insulin at refrigerator temperatures for a 4.5 hour flight plus transit on either end.
In investigating the Frio Pump Wallet, I found the right size Frio case to fit my Lantus and extra pump insulin without risk of losing refrigeration. I proceeded to buy a new Frio Wallet large enough to handle not only the one bottle of Lantus and spare pump insulin, but also 3 or 4 bottles of Novolog (for future longer trips.) This is so much more convenient.
Protect your Supplies from Theft
Since we would be staying at one hotel the entire time, I figured I didn’t have much to worry about regarding theft. But then I started reading about snorkeling, one of my favorite sports. A number of locations had been identified by reviewers as high risk areas for car theft. The solution in each case was that the snorkeler shouldn’t bring anything he wouldn’t mind losing.
What? What kind of advice is that for me? Snorkeling involves removing my pump from my body, placing it in a plastic bag, wrapping it a towel, placing it in a tote bag, under a tree. Or, in this case, I was planning on storing it in the Frio case, in a towel, in the car.
I couldn’t following their directions and leave my pump behind at the hotel. The snorkeling spot – Directors Bay – was about a half hour away. I now knew I couldn’t leave it in the car or on the beach. What was I to do? I ended up buying a larger waterproof pouch designed for cell phones. It was big enough to hold Greg’s cell phone, his wallet, keys and my pump. He would wear it while snorkeling, and since I trust him to stay near me, I guess that would be the best we could do!
I bought the pouch, and haven’t linked it to this page because it leaked just a tiny bit. Now what do I do? There wasn’t enough time before our trip to return it and purchase a new brand. So I was left to make sure I carried Zip-loc freezer bags as well, so that I could put our devices in the freezer bag(s) and the freezer bag(s) into the waterproof-ish pouch.
What a lot of stress.
Turns out we didn’t snorkel Directors Bay. The first five days of our trip were overcast, sadly, and not good for snorkeling. We did get good weather for the last two days. We ended up choosing Kleine Knip, which is known for being a “safe” beach yet good for snorkeling, and it was exactly that. As you stand on the beach, look to the left to where the cliff meets the water. Head there and continue out. The underwater cliff edges are beautiful and full of fish.
We also snorkeled the “Blue Room” with Captain Goodlife. I have mixed opinions about that trip. The water (tide) was high. In order to enter the grotto we had to swim underwater about 15 seconds in a surging sea without surfacing. The water was so close to the ragged volcanic ceiling that it would be impossible to come up for air. I was terrified, even though I figured I could do it, just because the price for not doing it right was so bad.
Just now, I read TripAdvisor reviews for the Blue Room, looking for exactly how far I had to swim underwater, and searched for the words “High Tide” I was amazed at the scary reviews. I wholeheartedly agree with those reviews. I never should have attempted that snorkel, and I can’t recommend anyone else attempt it. It wasn’t nearly as beautiful as people have said. In fact, I found it extremely disappointing. Was it because the high water blocked so many of the suns rays? I don’t know, but enough said. That’s what happens when you don’t have enough time to fully investigate your trip options!
The reason for this section was to discuss theft, and I’m happy to report I didn’t experience any issues with theft.
Carrying Glucose during Watersports
I did however, experience Watersports. I wore my little zippered fanny pack at all times in the water, protecting my bottle of juice, keeping it close to hand – even while snorkeling with the dolphins!
