Curacao - an Island and a Liqueur

Which came first? The island was discovered by a lieutenant of Christopher Columbus, Alonso de Odjeda in 1499. The Spaniards started to settle the island in the 1500s. The Dutch captured it in 1634 and founded a Dutch settlement with its Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1642. IN 1646, Stuyvesant became governor of New Netherlands of which New Amsterdam (now New York City) was the capital.

Then it was the typical island history. From the mid 1700's through the early 19th century, the English, French and Spanish all battled for Curacao. It went from British, back to Dutch, back to British.until the Treaty of Paris in 1815 gave it to the Dutch. Curacao gave asylum to South American liberator Simon Bolivar multiple times during the South American War of Independence.

Now, the island boasts 50 nationalities as part of the 160,000 population. The influence is definitely Dutch and Curacao was part of the original Netherlands Antilles group of six islands (Sint Martaans, Bonaire, Aruba, Statia and Saba). Things are changing on that front with Curacao becoming more independent from the group. But you would call the island Dutch though the language spoken is a Papiamento - a mix of Dutch and Spanish with a bit of island slang and English., They use the Antillean Florin (NaF) as well as the US dollar as their currency.

The early economy of the island depended largely on the slave trade. With the abolition of slavery by King William III of the Netherlands in 1863, Curacao lost much of its economic clout. Then came oil. Black gold! The establishment of an oil refinery in 1915 helped the island's prosperity. At night, you can see the glow of the oil refinery flame over the city - giving the skyline an eerie red glow. Curacao has one of the largest oil terminals in the Western Hemisphere. It also boasts that it has the largest non-military dry-dock in the region. (Richard S - more competition!!) Plus there's the alcohol here - the famous Curacao liqueur and the Amstel Brewery (using distilled sea water to produce its beer). Tourism though is the number two industry on this pretty island.

Astarte is settled into Spanish Waters and we've had good weather. We are wishing for a good downpour to wash the decks though - they are quite dusty. The solar panels are probably at less than 100% efficiency thanks to all the dust. It's a combination of African dust, phosphate mining dust and just blowing dirt and dust from Bonaire and here. We've had good breezes most of the time, so the wind generator is pumping out amps.

On Friday night we entertained - inviting Otto and Lily from "Vagabond" aboard for a pork roast dinner. It felt very international. They are South Africans but he carries a Hungarian passport and she a Swiss one. It was a good time and we all stayed up way past cruisers' midnight (2100).
Saturday, we did some boat projects and some dinghy exploring. There are some big fancy houses around Spanish Waters. It's interesting though, not many local restaurants or bars. With all these cruisers anchored here, you'd think it would be a good business. The good news is the boat parts Michael ordered are here already - as is our mail which we had forwarded (good work Fed Ex!).

Today is hair cut day and a few more boat projects. Our friends from Bamboozle left this morning (Sunday) for their trek to Columbia - we hope we'll catch up with them again soon. Barbara continues Spanish lessons - prepping for Columbia and Panama.