Curaçao

Continuing our journey South: after Saint Thomas, Antigua and Barbados we are in Dutch Caribbean – Curaçao and Aruba.

The name Curaçao sounds familiar to many due to the liquor named Curaçao (also known as Sweet Curaçao). However – as you might figure the island gave name to the liquor, not other way around. So what does the name stem from?

We will get to the liquor later, but same as with Barbados different versions circulate one of them being that the word Curaçao comes from Portuguese word for heart – coração – either referring to its heart shape or symbolizing the fact that the island was the center, the heart of trade in the region. A more elaborate version tells about a group of Portuguese sailors – some claiming the belonged to the crew of Vasco da Gama himself – who suffered of scurvy (very famous disease after months of travel, result of vitamin deficiency)  and were offloaded on the island. Soon the sailors were cured – curação – most probably after eating fruits with vitamin C. The island was from then known as Ilha da Curação (Island of Healing).

Willemstad – the capital of Curaçao – can be rightfully called an ancient city (especially for Western hemisphere) as it was founded in 1634 as one of Dutch naval bases: natural harbor and deep bay made it a perfect spot. Two forts were built on each side of bay: Waterfort and Riffort. The entrance to the bay is so narrow that some say during World War II they had a steel cable hanging between them. The city flourished and Dutch and Jewish merchants flocked here and soon the first were surrounded by merchants’ houses, warehouses, markets….

Located on both sides of Sint Anna Bay – the inlet that leads into the large natural harbor Schottegat – the city has been historically divided into two parts: Punta and Otrobanda. Punta is a more ancient part established in 1634 when the Dutch captured the island from Spain. The name Punta was originally de punt in Dutch and meant simply ‘the place’. Otrobanda is younger as it was founded in 1707 and in local language Papiamentu means simply ‘the other side’.

Norwegian Star docked in Otrobanda.

The two parts are connected by unceasingly circulating free (free!) ferries and by two bridges.  Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge is the longest pontoon bridge in the world and is for pedestrians only. It is 213 meters long and was built in 1888. In the beginning people who had no money to buy shoes were allowed to cross it for free. Those wearing shoes had to pay. Nowadays it is free for everyone but the bridge is disconnected from Punta shore about 30 times a day allowing ships in and out of harbor. But do not panic if you see the bridge disconnected: you can always cross the bay by a ferry. Otherwise you will fall prey of local taxi drivers who will try to scare you into believing there is no other way to get to the other side than by driving all around Schottegat and crossing it by Queen Juliana Bridge.

Norwegian Star with Queen Juliana Bridge in the background.

This bridge is restricted for motorized vehicles and is 56 meters high which allows any size of ships to sail underneath. Its construction took 14 years and 15 lives. Most probably you can get a nice view of the city from there but the drive will take about 30-40 minutes and will cost you 50-80 euro. So do not let them fool you!

As we were crossing to Punda by pontoon bridge we noticed that – wait a minute! – the city is moving. No, It is us! We were moving. We happened to be on the bridge as it started disconnecting from the shore. We were disconnected for a couple of minutes and used this time to photograph Handelskade (the name of the boardwalk) without being pushed around by crowds of tourists who want the same.

Architecturally Punda reminds Holland a lot: same type of merchants’ houses with the shop or warehouse on the ground floor and family quarters upstairs you can see in Amsterdam. The only difference is that here the typically Dutch buildings are painted in bright Caribbean colors. This bright décor found in many colonial cities had a practical reason: as slaves could not read and did not know numbers they simply followed color codes of the houses.

Most probably it is the best preserved city in the Caribbean as 765 buildings here are considered UNESCO world heritage.

Later on we read that one needs to pay attention to the color of the flag in operator’s cabin: if it is orange it means the bridge was open for less than 30 minutes and it is safe to cross. If it is blue – it was open for more than 30 minutes and will soon be closing. We did not know it then so if you happen to be in Willemstad – check it out and let us know. 

Our next stop was Floating Market – where Venezuelans and Colombians bring fresh fruits from their countries and sell right from the boats. The boats are docked alongside the boardwalk lined with stalls shielded from the sun by colorful canopies. The smaller fishing boats bring fresh produce.

The boats are where the trade goes on, where the produce is kept and even where the vendors live. This business that has been active for decades is a family business that father pass to their sons.

One might ask why it is needed to go through so much trouble bringing fruits and vegetables form Venezuela which is only 40 miles away. However – despite their proximity – Curaçao has a totally different climate: it is arid, almost desert-like. So all the colorful aromatic fruits are not grown here but brought from tropical Venezuela.

This colorful market has become one of the tourist attractions but its role as the main supplier of fruits to the island has decreased with the arrival of modern supermarkets where you can buy shiny vacuum-packed fruits in a smiley air-conditioned environment.

The delivery of merchandise is organized in an old-fashioned way:

And so is loading and unloading…

Next to the floating market there is a New Market – Marshe Nobo – newly built, with a giant dome, reminding of an American football stadium. Here you can buy pretty much everything: from meat to seashell necklace. As the name suggests, there must be an old market as well and here it is: Marshe Bieuw or ‘The Old Market’. It used to be the main market but with the construction of the new building it now serves as a sort of food court: its dark cavern-like interior is filled with picnic tables and long benches while one side of the building is occupied by a cooking area. The customers are tourists and locals alike which makes it a good place to taste local cuisine in a rustic unpretentious atmosphere. Some of the local favorites include kabritu stobá (stewed goat), guiambo (green gel-like soup made from okra and seafood), kadushi (cactus soup), sopi mondongo (intestine soup), karko (conch) and bokel (salted fish). And do not forget iguana – or as locals say yuana. Here it is eaten stewed or as soup – sopi yuana. It tastes pretty much like chicken but has more small bones but this is definitely something to try.

We did not stay long at the Old Market as we knew exactly where we wanted to have lunch: a place with an intriguing name – Mundo Bizarro – and not less intriguing menu.Just think of Prawns in a crust with chorizo on a layer of a basil mayonnaise prepared cucumber salad or On it’s skin fried red mullet fillets on fettuccini with crispy fresh squid rings and a spicy jus of pimentos. No wonder we were intrigued.

Mundo Bizarro is located is a little away from the main touristic streets – just mere 500 meters from Willemstad city center. Yet it is a different neighborhood Pietermaai Smal, just like Punta and Otrobanda. It seemed that the neighborhood was once a well-off area that fell into abandon and neglect. Now construction works are undergoing all over the district with the intention of making it a new Bohemian hangout place – something like Quartier Latin in Paris or Greenwich Village in New York. There are several hip restaurants with creative cuisines, fashion and art workshops and looks like there will be many more to come once Pietermaai Smal is restored to its former glory.

At the moment renovation was still in progress though…

The maze of streets brings us to Nieuwestraat 12. If you have trouble finding it – look around for black arrows, just like the one next to the staircase on the picture above pointing at Mundo Bizarro.

And here we are: interior filled with eclectic furniture and objects that seem harmonious in their eclecticism, wooden ceilings with huge fans and a portrait on the wall…

…metal outdoor garden furniture mixed with wooden interior chairs, antique pieces next to Che Guevara portrait, Asian elements, painted tiles and baby carriage.

The customers seem to match the interior.

We had lunch – panini and sandwich, both tasty, unusual combinations and artful presentation, dinner menu was not available at the time so we decided to return on the evening. By the way, they even have free wi-fi there – another reason to stop by for travelers.

 After lunch we headed towards the beach. Erkki remembered there was one on a walking distance. Whether you continue walking by Niewestraat or return to Pietermaai – do not worry as both streets will soon merge into Penstraat. We stroll by the streets looking at the houses – some painstakingly renovated with tiled roofs and huge terraces, some in neglect with remains of former luxury still visible.

Do not miss the entrance to Hotel Avila on your right. Maybe there is another entrance to the beach but we followed the arrows pointing to the shops and café, went through an arch and ended up on a plaza with a coffee shop. According to the signs it also offered free wi-fi but we did not check on it. Watch out for the sculpture of a boy with a  dog: the entrance to the beach is right next to it.

Soon you are on the beach. There are actually two beaches on the hotel territory separated by a windbreaker with Blues Restaurant located on the pier. The restaurant was only open for dinner so we do not know how good it is. The first beach seemed more popular so we headed to the second beach as we were not sure if it was allowed to stay at hotel property. Later on we read a sign advising that the use of hotel beaches was allowed except for weekends so we can recommend the Avila beach. It is close by and you can walk there from the city. In fact you can even see the city skyline and the ship docked in Otrobanda far in the distance. And of course as you save money on a taxi ride you can afford having a drink or snack on the beach.

The view from the first beach: windbreaker, hotel ‘Blues’ wing and the city with Norwegian Star docked in the background

The water is crystal clear and is protected by a reef from the waves. Due to the proximity of the reef you can have some off-shore snorkeling. We were amazed as a skull of little fishes came close to us in the water. They swam so close to us that if you opened your hand they would come and nibble you as if they were expecting you to feed them.

Windbreaker with Blues restarurant

The hotel grounds are laid out nicely: there is a pool, shaded restaurant, even a theater. The modern sculptures are scattered all over territory.

If you are looking for a nice view – walk to the second floor of ‘Blues’ wing.

Walk through the corridor with blues motives in the decoration and once you make it to the balcony…

…a nice view opens up in front of you: the succession of beaches, thatched-roofed Blues Restaurant and of course turquoise clear Caribbean waters.

The boardwalk takes you to the next beach but it looked like private as there was no obvious way of getting there. But we were happy with the two available beaches.

After a nice afternoon on the beach it was time to return back to Willemstad. As the dinner menu was not yet available we hung around looking at colorful local faces.

When Spaniards came here in 1499 the island was inhabited by Caiquetios Indians who made giant sculptures so they Curaçao ‘la isla de los gigantos’ – island of the giants. There is little left of Indian presence: the last true Indian is said to have died in Aruba around 1862. It is due to the fact that when Spaniards landed here and did not find gold they thought the island to be of no value and forcibly departed natives to work on sugar cane fields in Santo Domingo or on the copper mines on the island of Hispaniola. As the history shows, the Spanish were wrong as the island happened to have natural resources: first salt mining became its lucrative export, in the XIX century phosphate mining also became significant. Later the deep water port became a significant center of commerce. But the real break for the island came when oil was discovered in Maracaibo Basin in Venezuela. A huge oil refinery was built on the former site of slave-trade market. In 1985 it was sold to the Curaçao government for the symbolic sum of one guilder.

So yes, Spanish did not see the island potential and in was captured by Dutch who established the island as the center of slave trade the deep-sea harbor made it an ideal place for the slaves to be brought, sold and shipped to various destinations in the Caribbean and South America. In the XVIII century about 40% of all slave trade of the Caribbean region went through Curaçao. After the abolition of slavery Afro-Caribbean majority mixed with Dutch, Latin Americans, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Asians, Jews – overall more than 50 ethnic minorities – and formed the modern people of Curaçao.

Nowadays the ethnical mix keeps changing as some locals emigrate to the Netherlands hoping for better opportunities while immigrants from Latin America and Caribbean islands come over lured by a better economic situation of the island. Another group of immigrants are Dutch pensioners – referred to as pensionados – who chose sunnier shores of Curaçao over the foggy coasts of Netherlands.

Many thanks to Kay from Willemstad (below) for being such a patient model.

The people of Curaçao are not only polyethnic but also polyglot. Most people speak Dutch, English, Spanish and Papiamentu, the most widely spoken language. Even though Curaçao was a part of Netherlands and Dutch was its official language for centuries it was never really widely spoken outside of colonial administration. Most people kept using Papiamentu – a creole language that has evolved as a means of communication between slaves from different parts of Africa. The language derived from African tongues mixed with Spanish and Portuguese, Amerindian languages, English and Dutch and – even though widely spoken – it did not become official until 1993 thus making Curaçao one of a handful of place where a creole language has an official status. 

As we were trundling along Willemstad streets the plan for dinner changed: we saw a cute inner yard and impulsively decided to have dinner at Asian-Caribbeanrestaurant Ginger (Schoonesteeg 1, also in Pietermaai Smal district).

We liked the cozy atmosphere but also the menucombining Asian favorites – wontons, rice, noodles, tempuras – with Caribbeanspices and local dishes.

Cuban Spicy Banana Soup – was recommended as Fidel’s favorite on the menu. I do not know what Comandante really thinks about this soup but we truly enjoyed it, even Erkki who normally does not favor thick soups.

Kabritu Stoba – stew of goat, famous local specialty

Assorted wontons

Noodles ‘Ginger’ style – come with rice crakers.

Shrimps in tempura with Japanese BBQ sauce.

We seated in the courtyard watching the sun go down and the lights go up.

As we approached the pontoon bridge it was opening and two huge ships came into the harbor. We were watching as they were going under Queen Juliana Bridge. For a while it seemed like they would not fit but they did. As the bridge was still open we took a little ferry and soon were in Otrobanda. Walking to the ship we saw that Queen Emma bridge was already connected and the crowds of happy tourists were crossing back and forth. The city was reconnected again.

Our long day in Curaçao was over. We only stayed in Willemstad and did not leave the city but we enjoyed colorful architecture, creative food, great beach.

If you are planning to visit the island – here are some ideas we got from these travelers (in Russian). They took a taxi and took a 5 hour tour of the island, it took them a while to find a driver who agreed on a $100 fee and $20 tip. The places they visited are Shete Boka National Park ($3 entry fee) – rugged rock formations, a boka called ‘Pistol’ (because it ‘shoots’ with every wave), make sure you wear sturdy shoes. Their description reminded us of Lanzarote National Parks. They visited two beaches: Kinip Baai a.k.a. Playa Kenepa Grandi: one of the longest beaches on the island with free entrance and offshore snorkeling. It is a picture perfect spot: the views from the nearby rocks with thatched umbrellas and turquoise water show up on every second postcard from Curaçao. The second beach was Cas Abao a.k.a Bon Bini Beach – also very picturesque and ‘well worth the terrible road you have to take to get there’ and you even have to pay $3 entry fee. Here was even small spot with sandy bottom and sandy entrance to the water. Curaçao beaches look perfect on the pictures as it seems that the beach is covered with fine white sand but in fact these are small rocks so the sand is not so nice like on Barbados or Antigua. After that they visited flamingo area where you can encounter them in their natural habitat.

If we happen to be in Curaçao again – we will check them out and let you know how it goes.

So what about the liqueur? We did not forget about it.

It is a liqueur flavored with the peel of the local laraha fruit. Its history started when Spanish explorers tried to cultivate Valencia orange on nutrient-poor Curação soils. The soil in combination with arid climate produced fruits impossible to eat – the fruits were small and bitter. However its aromatic peel maintained the essence of Valencia oranges and the plants were eventually bread into laraha – the fruit grown exclusively for its peel. The peel is dried and soaked in a still with alcohol and water for several days; the peel is then removed and the spices are added.

The next day we visited Aruba, another one of Dutch ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire Curaçao)…

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Barbados: sometimes the closest things are the best

Next stop – Barbados.

The mere name of the islands sounds tropically intriguing. You can hear the beating of the drums and sense the heat of the sun as you pronounce ‘Barrr-ba-dos’. But obviously it was not given to the island because of the way it sounds. Actually, its original inhabitants – Arawak tribes – called it Ichirouganaim which can be translated as ‘Red island with teeth outside’ – probably referring to the outlying reef. As to the modern name – the questions arise and the versions abound. All the historians agree that the name comes from either Spanish or Portuguese explorers who never claimed the island to their respective crowns but populated it with wild hogs (in order to have constant food supply same way they did in Bermuda) and called it ‘Os Barbados’ – ‘bearded island’. So everyone agrees that the island name comes from the word ‘beard’ but the agreement seems to end here. The most popular version claims that the beard refers to the hanging roots of bearded fig-tree (Ficus citrifolia) indigenous to the island. While others claim that the name came from bearded Carib Indians once inhabiting the islands. The most poetic and fanciful version traces the name to the foam spraying over the outlying reefs giving the impression of the beard.

The fig tree seems to be the official version as it is even included on the Coat of arms of Barbados along with national flower Pride of Barbados, dolphin fish, pelican and sugar cane – all important symbols of the island.

Either way, already as early as 1519 the island was already named Barbados and placed on the maps in its current position.

As neither Spaniards nor Portuguese bothered to claim it the island was not settled (other than the hogs) until the arrival of British in 1627. From that moment and until the independence in 1966 the island was under uninterrupted British governance thus being the only Caribbean island that did not change hands during the colonial period. This is why British influence is so strong here.

The cabs are readily available to take you to the town but we always prefer to walk. There is just one road so there is no way you can miss it.

After a 15 minute walk you will find yourself in the heart of Bridgetown. You can admire some examples of British colonial architecture. The churches and Parliament buildings looked similar to the ones in Bermuda – British gothic meets the tropics.

However unlike in Bermuda it did not result in the creation of a new architectural style for residential buildings…

Same like in Saint Thomas and Antigua we wanted to go back our favorite spots. And on Barbados it is hands down Carlisle Bay.

A mile long stretch of finest sand – so fine that it will be spilling out of the folds of your clothes long after you left Barbados. Perfect entrance to the water – not to steep and not too sloping. The water itself – the brightest turquoise you can imagine, so bright it hurts your eyes. Your choice to stay ‘next to civilization’ and rent sunbeds, umbrellas, jet ski  and have lunch at a beach restaurant or just walk a little farther, drop your towel on the sand, unwrap your sandwich and be completely by yourself. And it is walking distance from the ship.

Well, this last fact was bothering us for a long time. Having a reputation for always going to unusual places and finding spots that others do not even know exist it seemed beneath our dignity to settle for the very first available beach. We prefer being on our own rather than in the middle of the crowds. So we looked high and low for ‘our’ beach. We paid for cabs, we rode local buses. And now we can declare with all assurance that Carlisle Bay is the best beach for you to go on Barbados.

Hope the pictures speak for themselves.

Or you can walk just a little along the beach to discover a handful of smaller authentic places – just like Dee’s bar where we landed:

As the sign suggests, all nationalities are welcome here and the bar itself is held by a colorful international couple – him being most probably British and her being Barbadian. The pair kept mockingly quarreling over every little thing – ice, glasses, music choice – which added more local flavor to our stay. English & Celtic population used to constitute a majority on Barbados in XVII century but the tropical diseases white people were not used to decreased their numbers drastically so by the XX century the Barbados population became predominantly black. Celtic population used to be important here as the Scottish and Irish served a lot as colonial police but – both hating British – they served as a buffer between blacks and British colonial administration. Their influence manifested in introduction of Irish music and certain place names, such as ‘Scotland’, a mountainous region of the island.

White population – considerable decreased over the centuries – is picking up with people coming over for retirement or a second home. No wonder as Barbados is the 51^st richest country in the world sharing with Japan the highest per capita occurrence of centenarians in the world.

And of course having a drink under a palm tree with your feet in the sand is quite an experience on its own.

If you venture even farther along the coast you will encounter many more picturesque opportunities: bright yellow lifeguards booth…

…fishermen's boats…

…or local families enjoying themselves.

If you walk all the way till the end hoping to have a tropical drink in the nice wooden restaurant at the end of the pier you are about to be disappointed. The end of the beach belongs to a private yacht club, the access is for members only and the payment is made exclusively with hotel key cards so you cannot even make face that you belong.

You can still enjoy the view, though.

A word of advise – as appealing as local palmetto products might seem – they will be confiscated by ship security as they bear risk of carrying bugs and tropical diseases so better refrain from buying them.

But no matter how good the beach is, make sure you pay attention to local faces. Local people – called Bajans (term most probably coming from a localized pronunciation of the word Barbadian which could sound as ‘Bar-bajan’) have proud posture, colorful clothes and remarkable faces.

Another influence they are proud of is African. No wonder Bajans keep saying that the shape of their island reminds the one of Africa – only turned upside down…

Next two ports - Aruba & Curacao, Dutch Caribbean.

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