Curaçao
The Island’s Dutch heritage is evident at Willemstad, where the brightly colored architecture mimics the style, though not the drab colors, of Amsterdam.
Klein Curaçao
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| Klein Curacao |
Imagine water the color of light-blue eyes and white sandy beaches framed by desert foliage. Well, dream no longer because Klein Curacao is the perfect little island for lounging and beachcombing
History
The history of Curacao begins with Amerindian Arawaks. The Arawaks and their subgroups migrated from regions of South America some 6,000 years ago, settling on various islands the discovered as they embarked on a centuries-long northward trek. The group that ended up in Curacao were the Caiquetios, who gave the island it's name.
After the late-15th-century voyages of Christopher Columbus put the Caribbean, literally, on the maps, the area was wide open for European exploration. The Spanish soldier and explorer Alonso de Ojeda, joined by the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, set out on a voyage (1499 - 1500) to chart much of the South American coast and, in turn, several offshore islands in the area. One was Curacao. As an aside, disputed claims are par for the course when it comes to Vespucci. One of many stories has it that during his voyage with de Ojeda, a number of sailors on his ship came down with scurvy, whereupon he dropped off the hapless souls on Curacao on his way to South America.
On his return, he found the sailors alive and happy-presumably cured by the abundance of Vitamin C-laden fruit on the island. He then is said to have named the island Curacao, after an archaic Portuguese word for "cure". Of course, Vespucci was Italian, not Portuguese, and de Ojeda was Spanish, but these stories seem to take on a life of their own, and are often much more fun than the real story. A more convincing theory is that the Spaniards called the island Curazon, for "heart", and the mapmakers of the day converted the spelling to the Portuguese Curacao.
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| Hato Caves |
At any rate, soon after de Ojeda's voyage, the Spanish came in larger numbers. By the early 16th century they had pretty well determined that the island had little gold and not enough of a fresh water supply to establish large farms, and they abandoned it. Finally, the Dutch West India Company, a quasi-private, government-backed company, laid claim in 1634. The company installed the Dutch explorer Peter Stuyvesant as governor in 1642, and he soon established plantations on the island, each with its famous landhuizen-structures that can still be seen today. The plantations foundered in various forms of agriculture, but some were successful in growing peanuts, maize, and fruits. They soon found their niche in the production of salt, dried from the island's saline ponds. Within a few years after establishing the farming industry and some form of rule on Curacao, Stuyvesant moved on to bigger shores.
With its deep port and protected shores, and with the establishment of several large forts, Curacao soon became a safe place for the Dutch West India Company to conduct commerce. Chief among its endeavors was the trade of slaves from Africa, who then went on to the other islands of the Dutch West Indies and to the Spanish Main. It was during the slave trade days that the language Papiamentu began to form. The language, a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and African dialects, became the main form of communication between slaves and their captors.
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| Country House & "Tafelberg" |
Also during this time, Jewish families from Amsterdam established settlements on Curacao and attracted others from Europe and South America, fleeing from the remnants of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. By the early 18th century, the Jewish population in Curacao had reached 2,000. In 1732, the community established the Mikve Israel Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad, a structure that stands today. It is one of the oldest synagogues in the Western Hemisphere still in use.
During the early 18th century, the island's deep port and strategic position attracted the British and French, who as always were busy in the Caribbean, fighting over various islands in desperate struggles to control the profitable trade routes and sugar plantations of the larger islands. Brittain tossed out the Dutch twice, from 1800 to 1803, and again from 1807 to 1815. The 1815 Treaty of Paris settled a lot of disputes in the Caribbean, and it gave Curacao back to the Dutch West India Company. Soon after the Dutch retook the island, it languished for a century. Slavery disappeared, and social and economic conditions were harsh.
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| Refinery in Curacao |
In 1920, oil was discovered off the Venezuelan coast. This signaled a new era for Curacao, and for it's sister island in the ABC's, Aruba. The two islands became centers for distilling crude oil imported from Venezuela, and Curacao's Royal Shell Refinery became the island's biggest business and employer. Immigrants headed for Curacao, many from other Caribbean nations, South America, and as far away as Asia. During WWII, the Allies judged Curacao and its refinery to be important enough and strategic enough, to establish an American military base at Waterfort Arches, near Willemstad.
After WW II, Curacao joined the rest of the Caribbean in a loud clamor for independence. What it got instead was a measure of autonomy as an entity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curacao, along with , Bonaire, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten, became the Netherlands Antilles, with the administrative center in Willemstad, where it remains today. Aruba later separated from the other five islands. Today, the kingdom has three partners: The Netherlands, the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba.
Curacao's 130,000 people spell the island Kursow, a papiamentu word, indicating a strong cultural sensibility. While Curacao is still a member of the Netherlands Antilles, and is tied to Holland through governmental functions, the island is more African and cosmopolitan, more Caribbean, in its culture than many. The society has strong ties to its African memories through language, music and dance.
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| Tambu dancers |
Along with African-based dances, Curacaons have adapted the European music and dances of the colonials and made them their own. The French quadrille, waltzes, and polkas have embraced the syncretic jolt from Africa and are now performed with a rhythm that Peter Stuyvesant would never recognize.
Language
Languages: Curacaons are, by nature and necessity, masters of language. Most native speakers will use Dutch, English, and Papiamentu with equal aplomb. Dutch is the official language, while Papiamentu is the most common. Spanish is also spoken by most Curacaons, and English is widely used.
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| Native form of Communication |
Papiamentu, a multifaceted Creole language, is based on Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and several African dialects. It's spoken most often in the ABC Islands, and has been in use for 300 years. It is, in a way, the original language of Curacao, and was meant to be a spoken communication, not a written one. For that reason, you’ll often see different spellings for the same words, not just among the ABCs, but on each island. For instance, Curacao spells the language's name Papiamento, while Curacao renders it Papiamentu.
Fauna
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| Trupiaal Bird |
The island is subtropical and semiarid, and as such has not supported the numerous tropical species of mammals, birds, and lizards most often associated with rainforests. But birders will not be disappointed by the dozens of species of hummingbirds, bananaquits, orioles, and the larger terns, herons, egrets, and even flamingos that make their homes near ponds or in coastal areas. The trupial, a black bird with a bright orange underbelly and white swatches on its wings, is common to the island and to Curacao. The mockingbird, called chuchubi in Papiamentu, resembles the North American mockingbird, with a long white-gray tail and a gray back. Near the shore, note the big-billed brown pelicans that dive, straight down like dead weight, into the ocean after fish. Other seabirds include several types of gulls and large cormorants.
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| National bird "Blenchi" |
Of mammals, other than some field mice, small rabbits, and cave bats, Curacao's most notable animal is the white-tailed deer. This deer is related to the American white-tailed deer, or Virginia deer, found in spots from North America through Central America and the Caribbean, and as far south as Bolivia. Tt can be a large deer, some reaching six feet (two meters) in length and three feet (one meter) in height, and weighing as much as 300 pounds (136 kg). In Curacao you'll be able to identify it by its long tail with a white underside, and because it's the only deer you'll see on the island. It is a protected species (since 1926), and an estimated 200 live on Curacao. They're found in many parts of the island, but most notably at the west end's Christoffel Park, where about 70% of the herd resides. Archaeologists believe that the deer was brought from South America to Curacao by its original inhabitants, the Arawaks.
You'll also find several species of iguana, light green in color with shimmering shades of aqua along the belly and sides, lounging in the sun here and there. The iguanas found on Curacao are not only nice to look at, but, unlike many islands that gave up the practice years ago, remain fodder for the dinner table. Along the west end of the island's north shore are several inlets that have become home to breeding sea turtles. These turtles are protected by the park system in Shete Boka Park, and you can visit the moms-to-be in the mornings, accompanied by park rangers.
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| Shete Boka National park |
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| Curacao Flower |
Flora
Cactus, if there's one word that describes Curacao's most prevalent plant, it's cactus, and the island hosts hundreds of species. The towering kadushi cactus is more like a multi-trunk tree with thousands of needles. The yatu cactus is also tall, sometimes as much as 30 feet, but has fewer needles, and is often used to make fences. You'll find both these species in abundance all over the island, in places so tall they fall over from their own weight.
The prickly pear cactus, Turk's cap, and many others, some as small as a pebble, are prevalent all over the island. Acacia bushes, scraggly trees with small green leaves and long, hard thorns, are also numerous, as is aloe vera, with its pale green, waxy leaves
The island is also home to the Divi Divi tree, the famous leaning tree of the ABC Islands that looks like a cartoon rendition of a stretched tree bowing to an audience. Indeed, the tree is bent by years of exposure to the trade winds that blow from east to west across the island. Por that reason, the tree always "points" to the west.
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| Cactus |
