Curacao Travel Guide
Curaçao (Coo-ra-sow), together with Bonaire, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, and Saba, is in the Kingdom of the Netherlands as part of the Netherlands Antilles. Just 56km (35 miles) north of the coast of Venezuela, Curaçao, the "C" of the Caribbean's Dutch ABC (Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire) islands, is the most populous of the Netherlands Antilles. Visitors come for its distinctive culture, warm people, duty-free shopping, lively casinos, and watersports. Fleets of tankers head out from its harbor to bring refined oil to all parts of the world. If you want grand high-rise resorts on spectacular beaches, head for Aruba. Curaçao has a few middle-bracket resorts on the beach, mostly along the island's southern coast, but we've always found the shopping and cultural experiences here more appealing than the beaches.
A self-governing part of the Netherlands, Curaçao was spotted not by Columbus, but by Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci, in 1499. The Spaniards exterminated all but 75 members of a branch of the peaceful Arawaks. However, they in turn were ousted by the Dutch in 1634, who also had to fight off French and English invasions.
The Dutch made the island a tropical Holland in miniature. Pieter Stuyvesant ruled Curaçao in 1644. The island was turned into a Dutch Gibraltar, bristling with forts. Thick ramparts guarded the harbor's narrow entrance; the hilltop forts (many now converted into restaurants) protected the coastal approaches.
In the 20th century, Curaçao remained sleepy until 1915, when the Royal Dutch/Shell Company built one of the world's largest oil refineries here to process crude oil from Venezuela. Workers from some 50 countries poured onto the island, turning Curaçao into a multicultural, cosmopolitan community.
The largest of the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao is 60km-long (37-miles) and 11km (6 3/4 miles) across at its widest point. Because of all that early Dutch building, Curaçao is the most important island architecturally in the entire West Indies, with more European flavor than anywhere else. After leaving the capital, Willemstad, you plunge into a strange, desertlike countryside that evokes the U.S. Southwest. The relatively arid landscape is studded with three-pronged cactus, spiny-leafed aloe, and divi-divi trees, with their windblown foliage. Classic Dutch-style windmills are scattered in and around Willemstad and in parts of the countryside. Curaçao has its own governmental authority, relying on the Netherlands only for defense and foreign affairs. Its population of 171,000 represents more than 50 nationalities.
