Curacao Information

The C of the ABC Islands (part of the five-island Netherlands Antilles group), Curaçao is an excellent dive spot. It also offers intimate beaches, shops, excellent restaurants, and lively casinos.

People
Curaçao is one of the few islands in the Caribbean where the annual income averages US$5,000 or more (most people on other islands scrape by on $1,500 or less). The Shell Refinery remains an important element in the island's economy. In addition, Curaçao has obtained a reputation as an international banking center, with hundreds of millions of dollars passing through businesses that only have a phone and P.O. Box number. Today there are 79 nationalities represented on the island, including Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, East Indian, and Venezuelan. About 80 percent of the population is Roman Catholics; the Jewish population totals about 600. The Mikveh Israel-Emmanuel Synagogue is thought to be the oldest in continuance in the Western Hemisphere, since Jews from Spain and Portugal, via Brazil, were among the earliest settlers on the island.

The local language is Papiamento, the official language Dutch, but almost everybody speaks some form of English, as well as Spanish.

History
Long before the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda set foot on the island in 1499, Arawak tribes, from the clan of the Caquetios called Curaçaos, inhabited the island. After Ojeda marked his claim, a Spanish settlement followed in 1527. A hundred years later, the Spanish unceremoniously left the island, leaving it in the hands of Holland, which deemed it a possession of the Dutch West Indies Company. The island's natural harbors and strategic location in the Caribbean inspired predatory interest among the French and

British, who continually tried to send the Dutch packing, with little success. In 1642 a young Dutchman named Peter Stuyvesant became governor of the island, a mere three years before he took over governorship of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, today known as New York. During Dutch rule, the island was divided into plantations. Not all were devoted to agriculture; some of the estates were utilized for salt mining. In 1863 emancipation freed the slaves. The island made waves on the international scene when oil was discovered in Venezuela, and the Royal Dutch Shell Company, impressed with Curaçao's fine harbor potential, erected the world's largest oil refinery there. The industry lasted well into this century, attracting laborers from many nations who have created the melting pot that makes up Curaçao's population today.

Today, Curaçao is part of the kingdom of the Netherlands. Curaçao and the other territories which comprise the Netherlands Antilles-Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius, and Sint Maarten-are administered through Willemstad, the capital of the Netherlands Antilles.

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Transportation
Inquire whether your hotel has a free shuttle service to the shopping district of Willemstad.  If not, yellow city buses stop at Wilhelmina Plein, near the shopping center, and travel to most parts of the city.  Buses stop when you hail them.

Taxi rates are regulated by the government. Don't tip drivers unless they carry your luggage.  Charges after 11 PM go up by 25 percent.  You'll find lots of taxis waiting for passengers on the Otrabanda side of the floating bridge.  If you want to make a tour by taxi, expect to pay about US$20 per hour (up to four passengers allowed).

Geography

Curaçao is the largest of the five islands in the Netherlands Antilles.  Shaped like the arched wings of a great heron, it is located 56 kilometers (35 miles) north of the coast of Venezuela (which explains why it was long a tourist haven for Venezuelans before the rest of the world discovered it).  The entrance of the harbor splits the main downtown area of Willemstad into two.  Downtown, which is well developed and recently renovated, is the hub of Curaçao shopping, and its vibrant colors and pastel-house façades are true picture ops.

The contrast between the bustling Dutch-cobbled pastel fronts of Willemstad and the countryside is stark; once you leave the capital, the landscape takes on the color of brown and russet, studded with three-pronged cacti, spiny-leafed aloes, and divi-divi trees.  You can still see Dutch windmills pumping water to irrigate the arid fields. Since the island receives very little rainfall, much of its landscape looks like the Sonoran Deserts of the American Southwest.  Just off East Point is the tiny island of Klein Curaçao (klein means little in Dutch).

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