The island of Curaçao, a former colony of the Netherlands and nowadays part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is a long way by canal barge from central Amsterdam. Apart from being Dutch, Curacao is also part of the Caribbean, and geologically part of South America. In fact, it's only about 40 miles away from the northern coast of Venezuela. Conveniently for me it's Dutch heritage means it has direct flights to Schiphol airport in the Netherlands, thus providing one route for getting to Europe from South America. Which is what I'm doing. In this case there is a layover, of two weeks, on a Caribbean island. Damn.
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| It's pronounced cur-a-sow, the bit under neath the second 'c' in Curaçao makes it an 's' sound. |
Being so close to Venezuela, there is a strong Latin American influence on top of the already strong Dutch influence. The local language, Papiamento is a creole containing bits of Spanish and Dutch but based oddly on Portuguese, perhaps as a consequence of the slave industry based here which fed the huge demand for slaves from Brazil.
Many of the large colonial buildings that remain in the main city Willemstad are a consequence of the slave trade in the Caribbean. In fact there is a very good black history museum in Willemstad that focuses on the slave trade, it's located at Kura Hulanda, the site of a former slave yard and merchant's house.
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| Rather dutch looking buildings in Willemstad, Curacao |
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| There are also some excellent deco style buildings in Curacao. |
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| And pink flamingos |
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| Nice beach, shame about the leviathan. A huge cable laying ship at Caracas Bay, Curacao. Closer to shore there are families swimming and sunbathing. |
Caribbean Dutch (part 2) will be from Suriname, when I go there in November.
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