I had a very unusual experience in Curacao and it all happened on one sunny afternoon in Punda. I needed to run some errands and needed to find a close enough parking spot to carry my shopping bags to my car with no hassle. Little did I know I would actually cause more hassle for myself than originally expected.

Most of the time I would park in the large parking lot across from The Movies but I was beginning to find that too far from the main shopping district ever since the old walking bridge had been removed. I started parking directly in the shopping district around the Wilhelminaplein area as well as by the floating market and found that it was much more convenient for me.



I soon began to notice that new solar parking meters were being installed throughout the downtown but paid little attention to it since some of them were not yet operational. So I figured that I could get away with parking for free for a little longer and I never parked my car for more than an hour anyway. The parking authorities had nothing on me.. or did they?

Then the day finally came when I would eventually have to pay for my carelessness. I wanted some fruit from the floating market so I parked in the nearest spot available without realizing that it was outlined in yellow. Oops! I thought that I would only be gone for 10 minutes but it turned into over an hour since I decided to wander off into the world of material shopping that is Punda. As I approached my car with shopping bags full of beautiful clothing and a couple of fruit in hand, I stopped dead in my tracks. On the front tire of the driver’s side of my car was a bright orange boot thingy. I quickly began to panic since I realized I wasn’t going anywhere just yet.



The clerk in the store near my car directed me to the parking office across from the post office where I asked for help. The woman concluded that I was not parked in their jurisdiction and the parking officer kindly came with me to my car to help me out. He told me to call the number on the boot and wished me luck. That sort of freaked me out even more.



I waited for about 15 minutes under some storefront shade until a police car with two officers pulled up. Okay I was not expecting that so I went into panic mode again. But I was pleasantly surprised as the police officer kindly approached me and took my information. The constant stares from pedestrians made me want to trip some of them but that probably would not have gone over well with the officers. Interesting enough, the officer told me that I had the right to remain silent and I innocently responded by saying, “Can I just tell you what happened?” He accepted my claim that I did not know all of the parking rules and he gave me my 50 guilder ticket which I had about 3 weeks to pay. As for the boot, I would have to walk over to the First Caribbean Bank, cross the street, and walk over to the Dutch-style yellow government building.



There, I paid the 25 guilders to remove the boot from my car and was escorted back to my car in a police van by a nice police officer who giggled when I told him that I had learned my lesson. I was so relieved as I got into my car almost 2 hours later and felt a bittersweet feeling after having had such an experience. Then the real fun began..



My car would not start. At this point the bittersweetness became more like a bitter taste in my mouth. I got out of my sweltering hot car, slammed the door, and found some storefront shade where I caved and called my husband. He came to my rescue and called me a tow truck since there was no way he could give me a boost. Another 2 hours and 275 guilders later I had a new battery in my car and was on my way home to yell loudly into my pillow.



Well on the bright side, I got to experience a different side of Curacao which was more pleasant than I had expected and I ended up paying a small fraction of what I would have had to pay in Canada for a simple parking ticket. Plus, I have a couple of new contacts in my phone for future emergencies.

To all of you living in Curacao, please take the parking rules seriously as they are now cracking down on illegally parked cars. The parking meters are everywhere now as well as parking authority. The cost to park is 0.50 guilders per half hour. A parking ticket is up to 75 guilders.

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