Based on a previous thread I had, I noticed that there is interest in knowing more about the island I come from.

I'm native from Curaçao and I'm able to provide you with as much as info you want to know about this wonderful island. All questions are welcome...

Whether it is for traveling or living, shoot it...

BTW.. don't ask me to be your guide...'cause I'm really busy

You can visit www.curacao.com also if you want to check out info yourself.

Okay okay, my normal question to all the country thread

-Can we buy a proprety if foreigner
-What is the cost of living
-What is the average cost of house compared to forein country?
-Can we do everything by speaking english?

There are camps in certain areas where natives are being tought how to swallow condoms with coke and then they are put on the plane to Amsterdam. If the mule gets caught by customs in Amsterdam they just get deported back to Curacau, what punish do they normaly get in Curacao? Got to be like a slap on the wrist, cause so many sign up to do this.

How much for 10 grams of coke in Curacao?

Have you played poker in Isla Margerita or Aruba lately? Do you know what stakes they are offering this days?

Radisson Sas Casino has been sold and there pokerroom is going to get closed down. Do you know if it is going to be possible to find a minimum NL 2/5 game on a daily basis in Aruba or elsewhere close to Aruba in the futrue?

There were rumors of colluding going on in the other pokerrooms but Radisson Sas before in Aruba, you know if this is true.

Is it difficult for a foreigner to get around the "stay in country for 3 months, must leave country for 3 months" rule?

Cheers!

Any tax on online poker?

If you are a foreigner you can buy properties. of course you do register yourself at the city hall and you fill in papers at the immigration to get authorization to buy and own properties on the island.

The cost of living, depends how you want to live. For example you can buy a bottle of water here for $1 and in the US it will cost you $2 or even $3. it depends where you go.. if you plan to buy stuffs in the hotels etc you can pretty much figure out it is a bit more pricey over there then the regular marketplace.

If you want a private residential area you can expect a house to cost you around $500K. There are some areas also where it will cost you around $250K to get a descent house with 3 bedrooms etc. Well known areas for living are Sun set Heights, Blue Bay, Sun Valley, Jan Sofat, Jan Thiel, Brakkeput.

Blue bay has a golf course.

In Curaçao we are multilingual, we do speak Spanish, English, Dutch and Papiamentu (native language). So everywhere you go they can help you. However, I must say that Dutch is the official language so we do have laws etc in Dutch.

No they don't get deported back to Curaçao. They are being held in prizon for 6 months to a year, depending on the weight. In Curaçao they are also put in prizon, but if there is no enough space for them in prizon they will get a conditional charge for like 2 years or the authorities keep their passports. If they are caught again they will have to sit in prizon. Yeah.. unfortunately you have some people that are easily convinced to do that... easy money makes the monkey dance...
They get around $5,000 to $10,000 if everything goes well depending on the weight... so they are selling their lives very cheap imo.


Will get back to you in regards to radisson and Aruba.

There is a rule that you can stay as tourist for a max of 3 months. if you stay more than 3 months you will need to register yourself.

Please take a look at the apartment pictures at http://www.chiangmaismithres.com/ for Superior/Deluxe/Suite rooms.

Using the pics as basic reference for what I would consider small, simple, clean rooms, can you give us an idea of how much a similar place would run on Curacao for each 3 rooms? And how prices for this sort of accommodation would vary based on location?

Is it easy and cheap to get to Caracas and Cartahena? Or is it expensive, time consuming and difficult?

If you check this link you can see what's available now.. of course this is just one site of a real estate agency. There are more real estates, that has houses and apartments for sale or to rent.
For the conversion from NAF to US you need to use 1.78 NAF = $1. So if a house is 178,000 NAF it is $100K.

We have daily flights to Caracas, Cartagena, Bogota, Valencia etc. not sure but to it's around $300 to get there.

what are the women like? Are there cruise ships that make stops there?

Maybe you missed it:
Any tax on online poker?

So it looks like anything that is close to the water will be about 1500 USD/month?

The island seems pretty expensive. Would a better choice be Caracas/outside Caracas by the coast? It seems like Caracas would be cheaper and have the same sort of views and better amenities? Or is crime and safety much worse in Caracas?

Yes we do have a lot of ships making a stop here. If I don't mistake you need to check the routes for western caribbean and we might be in. Regularly we receive Royal Caribbean, Volendam, and Carnival.

Nah.... It's paradise baby!!

If you want high class living you have to pay for it anywhere in the caribbean. I don't consider it really expensive if I do compare it. Of course there might always be stuff that is more expensive here and less in other places as almost everything is imported.

The island is pretty safe... but as any other place in the world you need to walk with open eyes... I won't compare the island with Caracas in sense of safety. Caracas is very unsafe, but it is a nice place also. Not sure for living, but have been on vacation and was cool up to that point.

So If I go to Curacao, life there for a year I still need to tell the government how much I made for incometax, or not even that?

If you come to Curaçao and obtain a work permit, you have to hand in the incometax report at the taxation department for restitution etc. if you qualify, each year.

What about internetconnection their, is it good?

At the moment we do have a providor that offers 10 Mbps to individuals, which is called UTS. www.uts.an

There are 2 new companies ( Flow & Tres) that allows up to 100 Mbps in speed. www.flowcuracao.com the other one seems not to have a site yet.. they aren't operating as yet.

Man, you're exactly what I've been looking for! Tried a few travel forums that didnt provide much to someone planning for a longer stay than 2 weeks. Plans of moving there mid January with my gf.

-Apartment: Can you provide a few good links (Here or PM) / contacts for longer term let (2months+). Budget ranging from $1000-$1400/month. Is my budget reasonable? Prefer a two room flat with not the latest but pretty modern furnitured. Not too far away from willemstad. Should I go through short term apartment rentals and try to deal my way through or?

-Is Curacao a part of the EU?

-As I understand it, I can stay for 3 months (Im European member of EU) without holding a work permit/residence permit. If I want to stay for longer, playing poker being unemployed, will they let me? =) (Is it tough to get a permit, even though I can show them that I will be able to pay for my stay? Know of any similar cases?) Is the permit tough to obtain? Recommendations?

-Taxes. Given that Im aloud to stay for longer than the 3 months. You're saying its tax free. Are your tax laws etc completely separated from the dutch goverments? Can you elaborate on the tax principles in general.
Will there be an annual fee for staying?

Thanks a lot!

and some general comments on live poker of course What is played at the casinos? How many participants in the tourneys etc

Is pirating on the Spanish Main still EZ monies?