WHY CURACAO?
Duty-free shops – great beaches – water sports – sunset sail – windsurfing – underwater park and more…

ABOUT CURACAO

HISTORY:
Located just 35 miles north of Venezuela, Curacao is the largest and most populous of the Dutch Antilles. This multi-ethnic island is nominally part of the Netherlands and the Queen of that European nation is Head of State.
As one might expect, the Dutch Antilles guilder is the official currency but US dollars are widely accepted. Sightseeing amid the red-tiled Dutch architecture of capital city Willemstad is an absolute joy. So is shopping in this world-class trading mecca with low import duties and no sales taxes.

PEOPLE / CULTURE:
The islands have mostly black and mulatto populations except for Saba, which is about evenly divided between black and white. Most of the islands have small white minorities. Migration to Curacao from other Caribbean islands, Venezuela, and Europe increased after the opening of its oil refinery in 1918. Dutch is the official language, but Papiamento—a local Spanish-based.

The Netherlands Antilles group, of which Curacao is the largest and most prosperous, was first encountered by Europeans in 1499, when Alonso de Ojmeda – one of Columbus’ lieutenants – reached the island. It was settled by the Spanish, in the early 1500s, who retained possession until the Dutch East India Company seized it in 1634. Thousands of slaves were then imported to provide labor for the island group’s plantation agricultural schemes. In the early 19th century, persistent attacks by the British and French destabilized the island for a while; at one point it was even leased to a New York merchant. By 1816, the Dutch had reasserted control and introduced further plantations. The abolition of slavery in 1863 set off a long period of economic decline, relieved in 1916, by the opening of an oil refinery.

The long north coast of the island, buffeted by constant northeast trade winds, is characterized by a rough coasthne, limestone cliff formations set on top of eons-old volcanic rock, and weather-beaten terrain. It is generally less inhabited than the south coast, but you will find smaller villages and many of the island’s famous landhuis, or old plantation house, structures here.

Curaao is a constituent island of the Netherlands Antilles; the others being Bonaire, Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten. The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and The Netherlands each have equal status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as regions autonomous in internal affairs. The Dutch monarch is locally represented by a Governor, while the Netherlands Antilles are represented in the Government of the Kingdom by a Minister Plenipotentiary. Foreign policy and defence matters are decided by a Council of Ministers of the Kingdom, including the Plenipotentiary, and executed under the authority of the Governor. The internal affairs of the islands are administered by the Central Government of the Netherlands Antilles, which is based in Willemstad, Curacao, and responsible to the Staten, or legislative assembly. Curacao may elect by non-compulsory adult suffrage 14 out of 22 members to the Staten. Routine local affairs on each island group (Bonaire, Curacao and the Windward Islands) are managed by an elected Island Council presided over by a Lieutenant Governor.