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.

_ _ _