Curacao’s Den Paradera is a gem, off the beaten path of popular tours. Amidst turquoise waters, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean Island also offers arid landscapes with unique plants. As an Acupuncturist & Herbalist, I enjoyed my Ecotour at the herbal medicine garden of Dinah Veeris, named Den Paradera. So, read on to learn about this sustainable destination.
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Dinah Veeris, Founder of Curacao’s Den Paradera
For 5 years she traced and recovered more than 300 different plant species. Furthermore, if a species disappeared on Curacao, she traced them in Aruba or Bonaire and brought them back to cultivate.
In the 80’s Dinah Veeris interviewed the elders of the island on the herbal medicines grown on the island to preserve their wisdom. The plant life in the ABC islands is thriving, despite their desert climates with less than 20 inches of rainfall per year.
Dinah sustained this knowledge for future generations by writing a book, Green Remedies & Golden Customs of our Ancestors. Most importantly, she planted the herbal medicine garden, Den Paradera for ecotours. She currently has no books available in English, only Dutch.
Plus, in Curacao, the store sells her healing products and a very useful, laminated guide. It shares photos and remedies on the healing plants, flowers and trees of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, in English and Dutch.
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History of Den Paradera
“the place where you feel at home”
The name history of Dinah’s garden is interesting, starting with the Paraguiri Indians, that originally had the biggest herbal garden on the island. The Spaniards brought their slaves to the Indians and called the location En Paradera. It later changed by the locals to Den Paradera, meaning “the place where you feel at home.” With a dry micro-climate, the ABC’s produce unique species of many well-known herbs.
Dinah Veeris established Den Paradera Botanical Gardens in 1991 on 1-acre of land in eastern Curacao. I enjoyed my organized tour, led by Dinah’s son. He took us through the garden to learn about the herbal medicine and its counterpart, music.
Many of the plants were also used to make musical instruments. He compared the healing and music to the yin and yang natures of the plants. This is the language of East Asian Medicine (I’m an Acupuncturist), so this resonated with me. Also, a prominent healing plant for music is the Calabash, creating a gourd hollowed to make rattles.
Curacao’s Den Paradera Ecotours
Overall, Den Paradera is organized in 3 sections: botanical, historical and production.
Botanical Section
The botanical area is rich with biodiversity, displaying the 300 mostly labeled plant species, unique to these islands.
For example, plants on site are oleander, cotton, basil, oregano, agave, aloe, tamarind, black sage, flower fence and sweet and sour sop.
The sour (aka Seville) oranges of Curacao were imported by the Spaniards. They help make the famous blue Curacao Liqueur.
Historical and Production Sections
In the historical section, there are displays of Kunuku dwellings, the typical country homes in Curacao’s past. Also, they showed life size dolls in traditional clothing.
The production area showcases vintage gardening tools and equipment. I noticed various tools, such as, pots, wheelbarrows, lanterns, pitchers, scales, pitchers and other unknown items.
Dancing Performance
Lastly, our tour ended with a musical production by 2 performers doing traditional Curacao dancing. It uniquely blends European ballroom and African tribal dancing styles. (Curacao was a Caribbean hub for slave trade.) Then, finally, we met Dinah Veeris, greeting and welcoming us to her gardens.
Final Thoughts
I was so grateful to visit this site and learn about all that Dinah has accomplished. She created a portal to the past, so visitors can connect with the roots of herbal medicine, preserved for future generations. The plant life on Curacao is so unique. Den paradera offers a place where you feel at home to connect with plant medicine.
