Ask on Curaçao for the oldest tree and you will be sent to Barber, to a kapok in the garden behind the village church. How old it is, nobody agrees. Wikipedia and the island's guides say 800 years. A local blog says the Caquetío, the island's first people, brought it over about 400 years ago, and other accounts give 300 or 600. No dating has been published, and kapok is a fast grower, so the fair answer is old and undated. If you know more, tell us. What nobody disputes is the trunk. It sits low and grey in the scrub, with roots like thin walls running out from its base before they sink into the ground. Above them the limbs twist out sideways, pale and creased like elephant hide, and the crown stands green over the dry forest around it. The ground was once an orchard, a hòfi in Papiamentu, owned in the nineteenth century by Monsignor Niewindt, a Catholic priest on the island. Since 1996 its twelve hectares have been a garden of native plants with a ranger at the gate, and two walking trails pass the tree. The Landhuis Barber plantation house, founded in the early eighteenth century, stands close by.
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Getting there
Hofi Pastor, behind Barber church, Kaminda Popo Royer, Barber, Soto, Curaçao
You can recognise it by its pale grey trunk with wall-like buttress roots and limbs twisting out sideways, the largest tree on the trail through Hofi Pastor, behind Barber church.
Hofi Pastor is a ranger-run garden of native plants, about 12 hectares, open to visitors. One guide mentions a small fee of about NAf 5 in cash at the entrance, another says entry is usually free. Opening hours not confirmed. Two walking trails pass the tree.
About 30 to 45 minutes by car from Willemstad. Buses to Barber are rare.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.