Willemstad, Curaçao

The Multicultural Heart of Curaçao


Handelskade and Queen Emma Bridge
The handelskade waterfront beyond the Queen Emma mobile bridge.
Dr. Efrain Jonckeer statue
Statue of Efrain Jonckeer in Otrobanda overlooks the Punda district.
Otrobanda Mansion
Majestic building converted into a hotel, close to the Kurá Hulanda museum.
Queen Emma Bridge
Pedestrians await the complete connection of the Queen Emma mobile bridge.
Eccentric Architecture
Disparate and eccentric buildings in Punda.
Handelskade I
Handelskade's "Dutch" architectural lines.
Museum Kurá Hulanda
Facade of the Kurá Hulanda slavery museum, located in Otrobanda.
Sunset over the Queen Emma Bridge
Pedestrians on the Queen Emma Bridge, with the sun setting west of Curaçao.
Government's palace
The Government Palace protected by the old city walls.
Otrobanda Street
Less imposing "Dutch" architecture on an Otrobanda road.
Queen statue
Monument to Queen Emma in the Pietermaai area.
Rua Arte
Mural with relief in a corner of Punda.
Penha Building
The headquarters of Penha, a perfume and related company that has operated since 1708.
Synagogue atrium
Visitor in a courtyard surrounded by tombstones of the Curaçao synagogue
The Curaçao Synagogue
Visitor photographs the interior of the Curaçao synagogue, the oldest in the Americas.
Roofs and Facades
Architectural Ensemble of Pietermaai.
Market Wall
Quote and figure of an illustrious Curaçao character.
roots in africa
Sculpture of Africa inside the museum Kurá Hulanda.
Slavery and Torture
Guia displays an instrument used in the slavery era of Curaçao.
Punda wall
One of the many street art works that beautify Punda and other neighborhoods in Willemstad
A Dutch colony in the Caribbean became a major slave hub. It welcomed Sephardic Jews who had taken refuge from the Iberia Inquisition in Amsterdam and Recife. And it assimilated influences from the Portuguese and Spanish villages with which it traded. At the heart of this secular cultural fusion has always been its old capital: Willemstad.

The feeling of intimacy with the new scale of the Caribbean tour that we had inaugurated almost four months earlier was proved almost immediately.

We had landed, half an hour ago, from Port of Spain, Trinidad. On the way between the airport and the center of Willemstad, we get into a Hiace-style van, one of those very popular and economical, which welcomes passengers on the way.

Sitting in front seats, we listened to the dialogues between everyday passengers and the driver, who knew them from a cherry tree. From casual conversation, the interaction evolved into chatter. Without expecting it, the more we listened to them, the more we seemed to identify sounds and words.

We avoid being hasty. However, among so many other expressions and terms of the local Creole, “okay” and “uncle” continued to be repeated, these, much more than some others.

When we arrived at the final destination of Otrobanda, we were convinced to double the influence of Portuguese in Papiamento, the official dialect of Curaçao and Aruba, also spoken in Bonaire, island B” of the famous ABC trio of the Dutch Caribbean.

Otroband. on the way to Punda

We got off at the last stop of OtroBanda. We had booked accommodation in one of Punda's streets, but with the map studied, we knew that the distance between them was short.

We're on our way. Shortly thereafter, we came across the Sint Annabaai channel that separated us from Punda.

To the southeast, as around, the sky remained clear and blue, in keeping with the dry and windy atmosphere that was felt. Only speeding caravans of small white clouds roamed it.

This deep firmament reinforced the architectural elegance and, at that distance, mostly chromatic, from the Handelskade, the waterfront enclosed by a line of exuberant historic buildings.

Willemstad, Curacao, Punda, Handelskade

We entered the Rainha Emma mobile bridge, which, in the following days, we would cross over and over again. We felt, for the first time, its strange wiggle.

The bridge leaves us facing what seemed to us the most intricate of the buildings in the complex.

Penha is the headquarters of one of the Caribbean's pioneering beauty products merchants, with open doors since 1708.

Willemstad, Curacao, Punda, Penha

It appears at the entrance to the kind of historic shopping center located along the Breedestraat, the route we continue our walk.

We enter the rooms at about four in the afternoon. With “office-type” work to be completed and the days in Curaçao still open, we didn't go out.

The next day dawns the same. We made the most of it, with long, strenuous walks through practically all the streets and alleys, to start with, the ones in the Punda around.

Willemstad, Curacao, Punda Wall

Holland's Leading Slave Depot in the Atlantic

Time and history dictated that Willemstad unfolded into well-marked areas. This diversity of yours only interests him.

Punda was the first zone to appear, from 1634, the year in which the Dutch conquered Curaçao from the Spanish. Its name derived from Dutch of punt, the Tip.

Jealous that Spain – or any other colonial rival – might aspire to the island, the new owners rushed to erect walls.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, Government House

Three decades later, until the Dutch abolition of slavery, Willemstad remained the main hub for the trade of slaves in the Netherlands, captured or acquired on the west coast of Africa, sold to the remaining colonial territories of the Caribbean and the Americas, not just the Dutchmen.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Otrobanda, Kurá HulandaThis trade has increased Punda's population at a great rate. The colony's potential attracted new traders.

XNUMXth century: the arrival of Sephardic Jews still on the run from the Inquisition

At the end of the 1497th century, King Manuel decreed the expulsion of all Jews who did not convert to Catholicism. In XNUMX, about twenty thousand Jews gathered in the port of Lisbon, determined to leave.

Many headed to northern Europe, especially Germany and the Netherlands. A part of the Netherlands, a part, crossed the Atlantic and settled in Nova Holanda, the territory of the north of Brazil occupied and explored by the Dutch West India Company.

In the complex context of dispute in the north of the Brazil between Portugal, Holland and Spain, Portugal prevailed. As a result, the Portuguese Court of the Holy Office dedicated itself to identifying and punishing the Jews who had fled from its action in Europe.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, Tombstones of the Synagogue

Thousands of Sephardic newly arrived in Nova Holanda again fled. Many headed for New Amsterdam (later New York). Others dispersed to Caribbean and West Indian colonies. Starting with Curaçao.

The Portuguese and Portuguese-Creole component of the Papiamento dialect comes from the language introduced by the Sephardic Jews, from the dialects spoken by slaves arriving from Portuguese territories, from the present-day Guinea-Bissau of Cape Verde and even São Tomé and Principe.

Jews settled and their prolific businesses in Punda.

Expansion out of the Walled Domain of Punda

With them, the number of homes and commercial buildings increased enormously.

In such a way that the authorities were forced to approve the expansion of the colony outside the walls, at a distance of about 500 meters that would allow the cannons of Fort Amsterdam to target ships offshore, with no buildings in between.

This new settlement, Pietermaai, extended to the south-east of Punda and the Waaigat inlet that delimits it to the north.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Roofs and facadesDay after day, we wander through both.

We confirm in Punda, the most urban profile of Willemstad, full of four and five-story buildings of corsage, culminating in attic waters with a jagged facade, in an obvious transposition of the architecture of Amsterdam and from other parts of the Dutch metropolis.

And, emerging from the complex, the synagogue of Curaçao, built by Sephardic Jews who arrived from Holland and Brazil, is today the oldest synagogue in the Americas, with a sand floor, as has become customary in the Caribbean.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, Synagogue of Curaçao

There we sat and followed the dissertation of an American rabbi who unwound it tim-tim by tim-tim with each new group of visitors.

The Secular Villas of Pietermaai and the “Dutch” Buildings of Punda

In Pietermaai, aging houses predominate, ladies of a dazzling colonial decadence. Some have been transformed into bars and restaurants that combine old but elegant furniture with murals, paintings and other creative decorations.

Willemstad is, throughout, a dazzling street art gallery filled with three-dimensional murals that take advantage of the shapes of water meters and other inspiring creative features.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, street art

Due to hyperinflated prices, its marginal is reserved for cruise passengers.

Further in, the inevitable multinational franchises are also present. Despite the successive tides of disembarked tourists, Willemstad preserves some old and genuine nooks and crannies.

The tavern that advertises snacks from krioyo kuminda that we identified without much effort: the pasty, Serbes i refreshment, pan ku krokèt, ku frikandel ou ku hotdog.

Elsewhere, the eccentric traditional iguana soup is also served at Plasa Bieu!, the gastronomic extension of the Old Market.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, Market Wall

The Influx of Venezuelan Migrants and their Culture

A few years ago, this market had a floating fruit and vegetable wing over the waters of Waigaat that depended on the arrival of products and vendors from neighboring Venezuela.

It ceased to function when President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closing of the borders with the ABC islands. Condemned by the poverty that is spreading in their nation, Venezuelans continue to arrive, many of them (almost all) by illegal means.

They settle in and enrich Curaçao's centuries-old ethnic and cultural melting pot.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, Sunset behind Queen Emma Bridge

At dusk, sitting on one of Handelskade's terraces, we heard some of them chattering in the soft Castilian of the southern Caribbean.

And, shortly thereafter, captivate customers with generous singing of rumba, reggaeton and other Latin American hits.

At that time, due to some navigational need, the port authorities kept the mobile bridge retracted. To replace it, they made available a small ferry with a high deck.

Pleased with the variant, we complete the journey on top of it.

One and another time. To and fro, until we get fed up.

Crossing to the Discovery of Otrobanda and Scharloo

Finally, we will disembark to discover Otrobanda, the neighborhood opposite Punda, its rival almost mirrored, although without the same architectural fascination on the other side of Sint Anna Bay, referred to as the “Hispanic side”, due to the profile of its inhabitants .

There we visited the Kurá Hulanda anthropological museum, which exhibits and explains the history of the slave trade in the Atlantic. Yflen Florentina, herself, a descendant of slaves living in Curaçao, guides us.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Otrobanda, Kurá HulandaWe ascend to higher levels of Otrobanda, among airy houses, here and there, chatting with its residents, at times, with strenuous attempts to employ one or another expression of Papiamento.

Until it gets dark. We descend back to Sint Anna Bay. From its edge, we admire the artificial lighting of Handelskade's front rising out of the twilight.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, Queen Emma Mobile Bridge

We went back to the bridge, which is operational again. We return to the banks of Waigaat.

We venture into Scharloo, the fourth district of Willemstad, in its genesis, an abandoned plantation where, later, wealthy Jewish merchants raised their villas.

It evolved, thus, to become the city's graffiti sector, until, around 1960, it entered another one of the delicious declines of the island.

There we sat on a popular terrace. There we enjoy cold Brion beers. We had the time on our own. Willemstad and Curaçao deserved so much more.

Willemstad, Curaçao, Punda, Handelskade at dusk

Maho Beach, Sint Maarten

The Jet-powered Caribbean Beach

At first glance, Princess Juliana International Airport appears to be just another one in the vast Caribbean. Successive landings skimming Maho beach that precedes its runway, jet take-offs that distort the faces of bathers and project them into the sea, make it a special case.
Saba, The Netherlands

The Mysterious Dutch Queen of Saba

With a mere 13km2, Saba goes unnoticed even by the most traveled. Little by little, above and below its countless slopes, we unveil this luxuriant Little Antille, tropical border, mountainous and volcanic roof of the shallowest european nation.
Soufriere, Saint Lucia

The Great Pyramids of the Antilles

Perched above a lush coastline, the twin peaks Pitons are the hallmark of Saint Lucia. They have become so iconic that they have a place in the highest notes of East Caribbean Dollars. Right next door, residents of the former capital Soufrière know how precious their sight is.
Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

Behind the Venezuela Andes. Fiesta Time.

In 1619, the authorities of Mérida dictated the settlement of the surrounding territory. The order resulted in 19 remote villages that we found dedicated to commemorations with caretos and local pauliteiros.
Mérida, Venezuela

Merida to Los Nevados: in the Andean Ends of Venezuela

In the 40s and 50s, Venezuela attracted 400 Portuguese but only half stayed in Caracas. In Mérida, we find places more similar to the origins and the eccentric ice cream parlor of an immigrant portista.
Margarita Island ao Mochima NP, Venezuela

Margarita Island to Mochima National Park: a very Caribbean Caribe

The exploration of the Venezuelan coast justifies a wild nautical party. But, these stops also reveal life in cactus forests and waters as green as the tropical jungle of Mochima.
Henri Pittier NP, Venezuela

PN Henri Pittier: between the Caribbean Sea and the Cordillera da Costa

In 1917, botanist Henri Pittier became fond of the jungle of Venezuela's sea mountains. Visitors to the national park that this Swiss created there are, today, more than they ever wanted
Martinique, French Antilles

The Armpit Baguette Caribbean

We move around Martinique as freely as the Euro and the tricolor flags fly supreme. But this piece of France is volcanic and lush. Lies in the insular heart of the Americas and has a delicious taste of Africa.
Little Havana, USA

Little Havana of the Nonconformists

Over the decades and until today, thousands of Cubans have crossed the Florida Straits in search of the land of freedom and opportunity. With the US a mere 145 km away, many have gone no further. His Little Havana in Miami is today the most emblematic neighborhood of the Cuban diaspora.
Saint-Pierre, Martinique

The City that Arose from the Ashes

In 1900, the economic capital of the Antilles was envied for its Parisian sophistication, until the Pelée volcano charred and buried it. More than a century later, Saint-Pierre is still regenerating.
Fort-de-France, Martinique

Freedom, Bipolarity and Tropicality

The capital of Martinique confirms a fascinating Caribbean extension of French territory. There, the relations between the colonists and the natives descended from slaves still give rise to small revolutions.
Guadalupe, French Antilles

Guadeloupe: A Delicious Caribbean, in Counter-Butterfly Effect

Guadeloupe is shaped like a moth. A trip around this Antille is enough to understand why the population is governed by the motto Pas Ni Problem and raises the minimum of waves, despite the many setbacks.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beach
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Okavango Delta, Not all rivers reach the sea, Mokoros
safari
Okavango Delta, Botswana

Not all rivers reach the sea

Third longest river in southern Africa, the Okavango rises in the Angolan Bié plateau and runs 1600km to the southeast. It gets lost in the Kalahari Desert where it irrigates a dazzling wetland teeming with wildlife.
Thorong La, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, photo for posterity
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 13th - High camp a Thorong La to Muktinath, Nepal

At the height of the Annapurnas Circuit

At 5416m of altitude, the Thorong La Gorge is the great challenge and the main cause of anxiety on the itinerary. After having killed 2014 climbers in October 29, crossing it safely generates a relief worthy of double celebration.
by the shadow
Architecture & Design
Miami, USA

A Masterpiece of Urban Rehabilitation

At the turn of the 25st century, the Wynwood neighbourhood remained filled with abandoned factories and warehouses and graffiti. Tony Goldman, a shrewd real estate investor, bought more than XNUMX properties and founded a mural park. Much more than honoring graffiti there, Goldman founded the Wynwood Arts District, the great bastion of creativity in Miami.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Aventura
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
self-flagellation, passion of christ, philippines
Ceremonies and Festivities
Marinduque, Philippines

The Philippine Passion of Christ

No nation around is Catholic but many Filipinos are not intimidated. In Holy Week, they surrender to the belief inherited from the Spanish colonists. Self-flagellation becomes a bloody test of faith
Manaus Theater
Cities
Manaus, Brazil

The Jumps and Starts of the former World Rubber Capital

From 1879 to 1912, only the Amazon River basin generated the latex that, from one moment to another, the world needed and, out of nowhere, Manaus became one of the most advanced cities on the face of the Earth. But an English explorer took the tree to Southeast Asia and ruined pioneer production. Manaus once again proved its elasticity. It is the largest city in the Amazon and the seventh in Brazil.
Lunch time
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
Culture
Shows

The World on Stage

All over the world, each nation, region or town and even neighborhood has its own culture. When traveling, nothing is more rewarding than admiring, live and in loco, which makes them unique.
Spectator, Melbourne Cricket Ground-Rules footbal, Melbourne, Australia
Sport
Melbourne, Australia

The Football the Australians Rule

Although played since 1841, Australian Football has only conquered part of the big island. Internationalization has never gone beyond paper, held back by competition from rugby and classical football.
Kayaking on Lake Sinclair, Cradle Mountain - Lake Sinclair National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Traveling
Discovering tassie, Part 4 - Devonport to Strahan, Australia

Through the Tasmanian Wild West

If the almost antipode tazzie is already a australian world apart, what about its inhospitable western region. Between Devonport and Strahan, dense forests, elusive rivers and a rugged coastline beaten by an almost Antarctic Indian ocean generate enigma and respect.
on this side of the Atlantic
Ethnic

Island of Goreia, Senegal

A Slave Island of Slavery

Were several millions or just thousands of slaves passing through Goreia on their way to the Americas? Whatever the truth, this small Senegalese island will never be freed from the yoke of its symbolism.”

Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

Shuri Castle in Naha, Okinawa the Empire of the Sun, Japan
History
Okinawa, Japan

The Little Empire of the Sun

Risen from the devastation caused by World War II, Okinawa has regained the heritage of its secular Ryukyu civilization. Today, this archipelago south of Kyushu is home to a Japan on the shore, anchored by a turquoise Pacific ocean and bathed in a peculiar Japanese tropicalism.
Christmas in the Caribbean, nativity scene in Bridgetown
Islands
Bridgetown, Barbados e Granada

A Caribbean Christmas

Traveling, from top to bottom, across the Lesser Antilles, the Christmas period catches us in Barbados and Grenada. With families across the ocean, we adjusted to the heat and beach festivities of the Caribbean.
Geothermal, Iceland Heat, Ice Land, Geothermal, Blue Lagoon
Winter White
Iceland

The Geothermal Coziness of the Ice Island

Most visitors value Iceland's volcanic scenery for its beauty. Icelanders also draw from them heat and energy crucial to the life they lead to the Arctic gates.
On the Crime and Punishment trail, St. Petersburg, Russia, Vladimirskaya
Literature
Saint Petersburg, Russia

On the Trail of "Crime and Punishment"

In St. Petersburg, we cannot resist investigating the inspiration for the base characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's most famous novel: his own pities and the miseries of certain fellow citizens.
St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Nature
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

In the 4000th century, Orthodox religious took their inspiration from a hermitage that a monk had erected at an altitude of 5047 m and perched a church between the summit of Mount Kazbek (XNUMXm) and the village at the foot. More and more visitors flock to these mystical stops on the edge of Russia. Like them, to get there, we submit to the whims of the reckless Georgia Military Road.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Pitões das Junias, Montalegre, Portugal
Natural Parks
Montalegre, Portugal

Through Alto do Barroso, Top of Trás-os-Montes

we moved from Terras de Bouro for those of Barroso. Based in Montalegre, we wander around the discovery of Paredes do Rio, Tourém, Pitões das Júnias and its monastery, stunning villages on the border of Portugal. If it is true that Barroso has had more inhabitants, visitors should not miss it.
Residents of Iloilo in front of one of its many churches
UNESCO World Heritage
Iloilo, Philippines

The Most Loyal and Noble City of the Philippines

In 1566, the Spanish founded Iloilo in the south of the island of Panay and, until the XNUMXth century, it was the capital of the vast Spanish East Indies. Although it has been Philippine for almost one hundred and thirty years, Iloilo remains one of the most Hispanic cities in Asia.
Zorro's mask on display at a dinner at the Pousada Hacienda del Hidalgo, El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico
Characters
El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico

Zorro's Cradle

El Fuerte is a colonial city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. In its history, the birth of Don Diego de La Vega will be recorded, it is said that in a mansion in the town. In his fight against the injustices of the Spanish yoke, Don Diego transformed himself into an elusive masked man. In El Fuerte, the legendary “El Zorro” will always take place.
Viti Levu, Fiji Islands, South Pacific, coral reef
Beaches
Viti levu, Fiji

Islands on the edge of Islands

A substantial part of Fiji preserves the agricultural expansions of the British colonial era. In the north and off the large island of Viti Levu, we also came across plantations that have only been named for a long time.
Pemba, Mozambique, Capital of Cabo Delgado, from Porto Amélia to Porto de Abrigo, Paquitequete
Religion
Pemba, Mozambique

From Porto Amélia to the Shelter Port of Mozambique

In July 2017, we visited Pemba. Two months later, the first attack took place on Mocímboa da Praia. Nor then do we dare to imagine that the tropical and sunny capital of Cabo Delgado would become the salvation of thousands of Mozambicans fleeing a terrifying jihadism.
The Toy Train story
On Rails
Siliguri a Darjeeling, India

The Himalayan Toy Train Still Running

Neither the steep slope of some stretches nor the modernity stop it. From Siliguri, in the tropical foothills of the great Asian mountain range, the Darjeeling, with its peaks in sight, the most famous of the Indian Toy Trains has ensured for 117 years, day after day, an arduous dream journey. Traveling through the area, we climb aboard and let ourselves be enchanted.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Society
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Unaccustomed gorilla, a short distance from Bon Coin, Bomassa
Wildlife
Ducret Expedition 2st:  PN Lobeke, Cameroon - Wali Bai, Congo Rep.

Hyacinth and the Gorilla of Bon Coin: Peculiar Primate Encounters

Camped on an island in the Sangha River, we set out to discover the Lobéké and Wali Bai national parks, Nouabalé-Ndoki, in Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. There we are surprised by stunning but disparate creatures.  
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.