Curacao – by Gary

The Dutch West India Company established shop on this island in the mid 17th century, locating on the Schottegat, an excellent natural harbour.  Willemstad, the new company town quickly developed importance as a trading post, particularly in the lucrative slave trade, and with wealth came the construction of many fine colonial buildings.  During the 18th and 19th centuries the island, like so many valuable ‘possessions’ in the Caribbean, changed hands multiple times between the Dutch, English and French, returning to stable Dutch rule in 1815.

With the abolition of slavery in 1863 the economy languished, only picking up again with the 1914 discovery of vast Venezuelan oil fields.  The Royal Dutch Shell Company, in partnership with the Dutch government, recycled the former slave markets as a major refinery for the South American crude, taking advantage of the island’s deep water harbour and political stability.  New wealth and émigrés poured in to the island.  During WWII with Germany occupying Holland and the US reliant on the flow of Curacao’s oil, Uncle Sam occupied the island.

The white elites of the island attained political independence in 1954 and wealth continued to concentrate in the hands of relatively few.  But by the late 60s increasing awareness of the failure of the black population, the vast majority, to participate at a meaningful level in the island’s wealth brought social instability and riots, resulting in a substantial realignment of political power.  But as always the elites were maneuvering to their best advantage.  By the 80s Royal Dutch Shell, now a major multi-national with bigger fish to fry, had let the island’s refinery infrastructure languish.  It was well below acceptable world standards, dirty, unsafe and producing low grade distillates.  The company, having secured ample return on investment simply walked, giving the refinery to the Curacao government.  But what were they to do with the site?  With few alternatives and reliant on the industry, government leased the site to a Venezuelan oil company, who continue to run the refinery pretty much unchanged.

Today Curacao bears many similarities to Bonaire.  A more-or-less independent country, it falls within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the Kingdom retaining responsibility for defense and foreign policy.  The island also retains strong ties with Venezuela (always a difficult bedmate, it’s currently in political, economic and social freefall!). Curacao is relatively flat, dry and environmentally ravished.  In non-urban areas it retains a thin covering of vegetation dominated by prickly acacias and cacti.  Densely populated by multi-lingual humans who speak Dutch, Spanish, Papiamentu (a creole language) and English, their major economic pillars seem to be oil, tourism, various forms of corporate tax evasion and land speculation.

Cruise ship tourism is major.  One day while we were there three ships simultaneously debouched more than 10,000 people into the small city of Willemstad – but they only stay a few hours.

They come for this!  Willemstad is inscribed on the World Heritage List for its remarkable assemblage of colonial architecture built with the wealth of trafficking human beings.

The buildings within the city’s Fort Amsterdam are mostly used for government administration – the Fort Church (detail right) includes a canon ball lodged in its wall courtesy of Captain Bligh, fired from the Bounty.

Willemstad straddles the entrance to the Schottegat, a well protected natural harbour.  Pedestrians cross via the amazing Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge, which pivots open and shut to allow ship traffic to pass.  It's shown here shut and opening.

There is also this equally amazing high level vehicle crossing – one of the highest in the Caribbean.

Venezuelan boat people bring fresh vegetables and fish across from their country, setting up colourful floating markets along the edge of the Schottegat.

Deeper in the Schottegat is the refinery.  Pollution remains a major issue but the island is dependent upon oil revenues.

The city is surrounded by fairly humble worker housing – although Curacao enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean.

Out further, at Spanish Waters where we kept the boat (bottom right), wealthy Dutch are busy building their dream tropical retreats.

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Bonaire – by Gary

Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao are three tiny Dutch affiliated islands all in a row, collectively known as the ABCs and part of the larger island chain called the Leeward Antilles.  Traveling east from Grenada the first to rise up is Bonaire.  It is hard to imagine an island less like Grenada.  It’s flat, dry and well ... Dutch – it is officially a ‘special municipality’ of that country.  Bonaire’s four economic pillars seem to be tourism, a salt works, a deep water export terminal for Venezuelan oil, and real estate speculation.

Tourism
Tourism is big – the economic mainstay.  Close to half a million cruise passengers are expected to pass through the island this next season, but the fly-ins are more important.  They come mainly for the diving – regarded as some of the world’s best - the waters around the island are crystal clear, the fish life is prolific and the coral is in pretty good condition.  A marine park protects much of this precious habitat and it seems to be actively managed.

Designated dive sites are scattered around the lee side of the island – as you can see the reef drops off dramatically just off-shore.  Divers hire utes to get around.  We snorkeled just about every day – and saw many fish we had not previously seen.

Salt Works
The salt works is an old industry recently revitalized and is surprisingly picturesque.  Salt water pumped into vast shallow lagoons warms up under the scorching sun causing a population explosion of tiny krill so prolific they turn the water pink.  Flamingoes, filter feeders with specially adapted beaks, work the krill while humans and their machines work the salt into export mountains.

A spectacle of pink, white and blue.

These are Greater Flamingoes, they are much more pink than the Lesser Flamingoes we saw in Namibia.

The salt works are old and weren’t always worked by machines – for many years it was a slave industry.  Some of their housing survives.  It is said as many as six people were accommodated in each tiny hut.

Oil Terminal
Venezuela is oil rich, but its waters are shallow.  Bonaire is surrounded by deep water, incredibly close inshore – it’s an anchoring nightmare.  Venezuelan crude, refined into fuel oil, is shipped in small tankers to a depot on Bonaire where it is transferred to large tankers and exported to China.  A recent spill and a significant fire in 2010 highlights the difficulty of maintaining the terminal and a delicate marine reserve side by side.

The oil terminal abuts the island’s surprisingly large Washington Slagbaai National Park.

Real Estate Speculation
Bonaire is officially part of Holland and it has become quite popular as a holiday home/retirement home location for the wealthier Dutch.  New residential development has sent the capital sprawling across the landscape – not that it perhaps matters, the landscape is in such wretched condition anyway.

Wanna buy a bit of paradise?

Around the Island
Together with Brian and Dorothy we made a ‘golf cart’ tour of the island.

Consulting the mud map!

The island’s vegetation is low and shrubby with lots of cacti.  It’s hard to imagine, because everything looks so dry, but prior to the arrival of European’s apparently much of the island was forested.

Europeans first settled in 1526, bringing donkeys, goats, sheep and cattle.

These animals, particularly the sheep and goats, ensured there was no tree replacement – familiar story huh?

But the remaining vegetation provides some interesting scope for fence building.

View in to the Washington Slagbaai National Park.

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