Anyone interested in Curacao's history, shouldn’t leave until they've visited the island's excellent Maritime Museum. The island owes its maritime prosperity to its location on an international trade routes on the Atlantic Ocean. Hundreds of interesting items such as navigation equipment, nautical charts, paintings, model ships and other artefacts are displayed on two floors here. Learn about the first inhabitants, the Arawak Indians, as well as later arrivals like the Spanish and Dutch explorers. Naturally, the slave trade is covered in this old fashioned, yet informative museum and a demonstration of a fully working miniature oil refinery can also be seen. Don't forget to take a guided 'water-taxi' tour of one of the oldest and busiest natural harbours in the Caribbean.