Curaçao: A Name, a Drink, and a Colorful History
This beautiful island has a colorful history in more ways than one!
ABC Islands
Curaçao is one of the Caribbean’s so-called ABC islands, a trio that includes Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, located just off the coast of Venezuela. Larry and I have visited this beautiful island three times, and while we always find new adventures to enjoy, our day inevitably includes a visit to the local Curaçao distillery.
What does Curaçao mean?
How did the island of Curaçao get its name? We’ll never know for sure, but a popular theory suggests that Portuguese cartographers combined what the Spanish called it: “corazon” (meaning heart) along with Portuguese words for “heart” (coraçao) and “healing” (cura) after scurvy prone sailors who were miraculously cured after eating the island’s abundant fruit.
What is Curaçao liqueur?
A few years later, in the early 1500s, Spaniards introduced Valencia orange trees to Curaçao. Rather than flourish, the orange trees produced a small and bitter fruit called “laraha” rather than a sweet, juicy orange.
Eager to make “lemonade” out of this experience, islanders experimented until they found a way to use dried laraha peels to create a tasty orange flavored liqueur. Locals called the drink “Laraha” but along the way, it became known as Curaçao. The traditional blue color is simply due to food coloring.
There are now 10 different flavors of liqueur produced on the island of Curaçao. We sampled three on our distillery tour. After which I enjoyed an iced mocha with a shot of coffee flavored Curaçao. Yum!
Multilingual Islanders
Although the island of Curaçao is part of the Netherlands, the native language that evolved here is called Papamientu, a creole blend of Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and African languages.
At school, kids are taught in Dutch and Papamientu. Along the way, students also learn English and Spanish.
What a mulitilingual place. I envy them!
A colorful lie?
Years ago, Curaçao’s buildings were all painted white. In the early 1800s, however, Governer Albert Kikkert claimed that this bright white gave him and his wife severe headaches.
To remedy the situation, he encouraged people to paint the buildings any other color than white. As a result, colorful buildings became a tradition on Curaçao.
Only after Kikkert’s death, did people realize that the governor just so happened to own the local paint factory! The colorful tradition, however, continues.
Next time?
Our visit today gave Larry and me another delightful taste of life on Curaçao. I have no idea what we’ll do the next time we visit, but I really hope we get the chance to return.
Whatever we do in Curaçao next time, I’m sure it will be fun!