The Museum Kura Hulanda, in downtown Willemstad hotel, was a logical first stop. Although a museum seems an odd diversion in a place with such alluring natural attractions, this one was worth it. Billed as the most comprehensive public space in the Caribbean devoted to the history of slavery, it offers an education in the political and economic importance of the slave trade.

An impressive storehouse of art, historical papers, books, sculpture, masks and artifacts, the museum takes visitors on a step-by-step journey through the history of slavery, from its roots in Africa to its abolition and aftereffects in the Caribbean and North America.

One impressive exhibit explains in detail how Dutch traders and government officials used Curaçao as a slave marketplace from the 1600s to 1863, when forced servitude in this corner of the world was abolished. Another haunting display takes visitors inside a replica of a trading ship.

Still in museum mode, I crossed the harbor for a peek into the 274-year-old Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, billed as the oldest continuously operating place of Jewish worship in the Western Hemisphere. A small structure with a handsome wooden interior, it was dedicated in 1732 for a Jewish community that came from Amsterdam in 1651. White sand covers the floors -- not only to symbolize the 40 years the Jews spent wandering the Sinai desert, a guide explained, but to represent the sand used by Jews to muffle their footsteps during the Inquisition.

Curaçao is one of a handful of Caribbean islands where same-sex couples live openly together and the reported incidence of homophobia is low. The island's tourism bureau also encourages gay travelers to visit and has a page for gay visitors on its Web site.

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