Finally, the wait is over. The new season of the Narcos series, about the Colombian drug cartels, is ready to view on Netflix. Why are we extra excited? Because the new Season 3 of the immensely popular Narcos features Curacao in episode 5 and 6! Sure, Curacao is portrait as money laundering smuggler paradise. Still, millions of people in all parts of the world are introduced with Curacao in the comfort of their own couch and they’re seeing stunning aerials of the island.
However, Narcos buffs, there are some fun facts & goofs in Narcos about Curacao which you should know:
Episode 5:
- “Danki, masha danki”, by phone pronounced by Franklin Jurado (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) was correct. However, later on the episode agent Peña (Pedro Pascal) repeats it as “Dasha, masha danki”.
- Papiamentu is pronounced as pap-ia-mento instead of pap-ai-mento.
- They mislabeled Dutch as Papiamentu in the closed captions.
Episode 6:
- When they show the country on a map, they wrote "Curacao" on top of the island of Aruba, instead of Curacao itself (which is right from Aruba).
- Some footage of the old Curacao are actual images of Curacao and feature Queen Juliana & Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands on their visit in Curacao.
- The woman on the white sandy beach, the pontoon bridge, aerial of the floating market and the handelskade view, are indeed views of Curacao.
- The accent of the police officer is Belgian instead of Dutch.
- Peña tracks down Franklin in Curacao. Franklin is staying in the Baoase Luxury Resort, which at that time didn’t exist. The hotel opened its doors in 2011. The footage displaying the hotel’s ocean view was also not a view of Curacao.
- Agent Peña finds Franklin and follows him to a restaurant, and once they spot him, the foot chase is on. Franklin nearly escapes, but agent Peña catches up in a crowded market square. All of this was filmed in Cartagena, doubling as Curacao.
- The banks seen in the Curacao episode are fictional, Banco di Strea Korsou and Caraibische Bank did not really exist.
- They say that it is not legal to make an arrest in or near a bank in Curacao. This is a very imaginative statement. Don’t fall for it; it is not true.
- The Avila Beach Hotel was approached to be the host hotel of the Narcos crew (35 rooms in total), so there might have been actual plans to film on location in January 2017.