Curaçao's historic plantation houses showcase unique architecture that resulted from the use of European, especially Dutch, building styles adapted to local tropical construction methods and available building materials. With the arrival of the oil industry at the start of the last century, the socioeconomic structure of Curaçao changed drastically in just a few decades, and only 78 of the more than 150 original plantation houses remain. Fortunately, a number of them have been preserved. Some have become magnificent residences while others have been given adaptive reuse as restaurants, boutique hotels, office spaces, museums, and art galleries. Plantation Houses of Curaçao is published in collaboration with the Curaçao Style Foundation, whose objective is to expand the cultural heritage of the island as widely as possible. The collaborative expertise of the writers and photographers of this volume offers a comprehensive overview, in words and images, of all the plantation houses that have been preserved as jewels of the past.

1st Runner Up-Eric Hoffer Award-General Fiction 2011 1st Runner Up-San Francisco Book Festival-Teenage Category 2011 Mama takes thirteen-year-old Serena and her sister to the US in search of fortune, leaving behind their multicultural family, stability, and the colors of the Caribbean. After driving from Miami to Hollywood, their money and luck run out and a 1963 Ford Galaxie becomes their first American home. Guided by the memory of her native Cura ao and the words of her wise grandmother, Serena confronts unimagined challenges and grows up quickly. What gifts will this new country bring, and at what price? "Intimate, at times lyrical, charged with pain and wonder, laughter and perennial hope, The House of Six Doors is terrific storytelling." Olga Rojer, Associate Professor, American University, Washington DC "An honest tale of love, acceptance, and American dreams." --El Mundo If you feel as though the circumstances of your life are against you and you wonder whether this will ever change, this is a story that will fill you with hope. --David Robert Ord, author, "Lessons in Loving, A Journey into the Heart" The book is about affairs of the heart, clashing cultures, courage and how we each deal differently with love and pain. ...there is a Hemingwayesque type of reportage to it it 's satisfying. --Michael Bowker, author, Winning the Battle Within

Annotation Want a lively vacation? Here's a series that is sure to meet your needs. Alive! Guides tell you what's hot, and what's not, with plenty of suggestions for daytime activity and nighttime fun. The authors offer hundreds of restaurant and hotel profiles in all price ranges, including the best places to stay and eat if you're looking for pampering, adventure, nights in the city or value. Every one has been inspected first-hand, which means you get a true feel of what to expect. Beyond where to stay and eat, Alive! Guides focus on the things that make each destination unique -- hiking in the rain forests of St. Lucia; fabulous diving off the coast of Bonaire; unbeatable fall foliage along the Delaware River Valley. Full details on local celebrations throughout the year are given, along with contact numbers for help in trip-planning. "Sunup to Sundown" sections cover hiking, watersports and organized excursions and offer a thorough listing of the best beaches. Road trips and walking tours that lead through rural villages and historic townships are accompanied by town and regional maps. "After Dark" sections give the lowdown on hot nightclubs, romantic bars, high-class casinos, movies and local theater productions. An "A-Z" reference at the end provides a comprehensive list of useful contacts, including ATM and bank locations, doctors and medical facilities, tourism offices, religious services and websites. This delightful island trio combines Latin spice with European charm, creating a rare treat. Aruba is known for its white sand beaches, shopping and casinos. Bonaire's coral reefs attract divers from around the globe. Curacao, the cosmopolitan sister, has fine restaurants, dynamicnightlife, and European fashions. Best of all, you can island-hop from one to the next! Here is the ultimate guide to discovering the high life and cool spots of the ABCs.

The Definitive Guide to Scuba Diving and Snorkeling in Curaçao #1 New Release in Scuba Travel Guides From the authors of the Reef Smart Guides series comes Reef Smart Guides Curaçao, a unique and essential scuba, snorkel, and surf travel guide for the island of Curaçao─one of the top shore diving and snorkeling islands in the Caribbean. A great travel gift. The ultimate guide for visitors and locals looking to explore the underwater world in Curaçao. This guidebook provides detailed descriptions and imagery of the island’s best dive and snorkel sites, including shipwrecks and coral reefs. The guide also details popular beaches, surfing and kiteboarding sites and gives recommendations for dive operators to use and restaurants to visit. Detailed descriptions and 3D maps. With the help of Reef Smart’s unique 3D-mapping technology, learn all you need to know about the region’s top dive and snorkel sites, including the world famous Superior Producer wreck, Tugboat, and popular shore-accessible coral reef sites like Director’s Bay, Double Reef and Fisherman’s Wharf and Playa Marie Pampoen. Don’t go diving without it. This indispensable resource helps you plan and execute dives without a hitch. Make sure to pack this unique guidebook with the rest of your scuba gear! This guidebook provides: • Descriptions of 95 dive and snorkel sites in Curaçao, including Klein Curaçao • Detailed 3D maps of 38 of the most popular sites, with access imagery for an additional 46 sites • A 31-page species guide to help you identify and understand the marine creatures you’ll encounter • And so much more! A unique and comprehensive scuba diving book. Also look for Reef Smart Guides Bonaire; Grand Cayman, and Barbados, as well as our guides to diving and snorkeling throughout the state of Florida. If looking to learn more about the world’s ocean, and specifically coral reefs, check out Beneath the Blue Planet.

We travel to grow a€" our Adventure Guides show you how. Experience the places you visit more directly, freshly, intensely than you would otherwise a€" sometimes best done on foot, in a canoe, or through cultural adventures like art courses, cooking classes, learning the language, meeting the people, joining in the festivals and celebrations. This can make your trip life-changing, unforgettable. All of the detailed information you need is here about the hotels, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing. But we also lead you to new discoveries, turning corners you haven't turned before, helping you to interact with the world in new ways. That's what makes our Travel Adventure Guides unique. The author is fascinated with these islands and her passion comes across in the text, which is lively, revealing and a pleasure to read. Detailed town and regional maps make planning day-trips or city tours easy. Adventures covered range from town sightseeing tours and nature watching to sea kayaking and mountain climbing excursions. Travelers looking for a more relaxed vacation may want to sign up for dance lessons and take part in the local Carnaval or join a local cycling club and tackle some of the most scenic areas - these cultural adventures will introduce you to the people and afford you a truly unique travel experience. This guide focuses on CuraAao primarily and is based on material found in our larger book, Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao Pocket Adventures.

This pioneering history of the Dutch Empire provides a new comprehensive overview of Dutch colonial expansion from a comparative and global perspective. It also offers a fascinating window into the early modern societies of Asia, Africa and the Americas through their interactions.

Dealing with adult and controversial themes, Daughters of the Dance is a beautiful, moving saga of three generations of strong women immersed in the art of the dance and in their profound relationships with high-powered men driven by oil, wealth, war, trade, religious beliefs, nature, female submissiveness, and sexual boundaries. It is a story of uncharted survival amid three wars in continental Europe during the first half of the twentieth century and its inevitable expansion to the Netherlands

DIVWhen Curaçao came under Dutch control in 1634, the small island off South America's northern coast was isolated and sleepy. The introduction of increased trade (both legal and illegal) led to a dramatic transformation, and Curaçao emerged as a major hub within Caribbean and wider Atlantic networks. It would also become the commercial and administrative seat of the Dutch West India Company in the Americas. The island's main city, Willemstad, had a non-Dutch majority composed largely of free blacks, urban slaves, and Sephardic Jews, who communicated across ethnic divisions in a new creole language called Papiamentu. For Linda M. Rupert, the emergence of this creole language was one of the two defining phenomena that gave shape to early modern Curaçao. The other was smuggling. Both developments, she argues, were informal adaptations to life in a place that was at once polyglot and regimented. They were the sort of improvisations that occurred wherever expanding European empires thrust different peoples together. Creolization and Contraband uses the history of Curaçao to develop the first book-length analysis of the relationship between illicit interimperial trade and processes of social, cultural, and linguistic exchange in the early modern world. Rupert argues that by breaking through multiple barriers, smuggling opened particularly rich opportunities for cross-cultural and interethnic interaction. Far from marginal, these extra-official exchanges were the very building blocks of colonial society./div

From diving in the Virgin Islands to Trinidad’s Carnival celebrations, The Rough Guide to the Caribbean explores all the best to see and do in this exotic region. Discover lively capital cities, colonial towns and remote, unspoiled beaches with the essential travellers’ companion. Featuring detailed historical and practical information on the entire region, the guide also has a full-colour introduction with stunning photography, plus over 100 detailed maps covering over 50 islands! There are hundreds of accommodation and restaurant reviews, as well as practical information for countless adventures sports, from scuba-diving off the Cayman Islands to hiking in Trinidad. Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to the Caribbean.