Aruba is 19.6 miles long and 6 miles across, totaling 77 square miles of land mass. It’s climate has little variation from the yearly average of a sunny 81 degrees tempered by northeasterly trade winds. Its time zone is Standard Time year round (equivalent to Eastern Daylight Savings time). Aruba’s population in 2008 was around 105,600 persons. The island is located in the deep south Caribbean just 15 miles off the coast of Venezuela and outside the hurricane belt. Like its sister isles of Bonaire and Curacao (the ABC Islands) it has a character and architecture defined by the Dutch.
Five hundred years after the Spaniards discovered Aruba, the rest of the world continues to discover this small island of hospitable people, elegant beaches and the cuisines of many settlers who followed the Indians, Spaniards-- and later --the Dutch. The official language is Dutch, Native language: Papiamenta (a mixture of all the island languages), but English and Spanish are widely spoken by practically all Arubans.
GEOGRAPHY
On the south
and west coasts are miles of pristine white beaches that rank among the most
beautiful in the world, rimmed by calm blue seas with visibility in some
areas to a depth of a hundred feet. The northeast coast, along the
Atlantic shore, is rugged and wild. On this side, the waves crash against
cliffs, carving coral bridges and deep, dark limestone grottoes. It's
desolate here, compared to beachside with its soft, white sand and a
shoreline fringed with palm trees. The interior is desert-like, with a
variety of cacti and dramatic rock formations.
When traveling through the interior of Aruba, you’d
swear you were in Arizona, not the Caribbean. Aruba is a desert island full
of enormous cacti, fields of aloe, and palm and coconut trees. As you
venture around you will notice the characteristic divi-divi trees are always
pointing westward because they grow in the direction the wind bends them (so
you will always be able to get your directions when you travel on your
own!). Desert flora proliferate from the otherwise rugged, rocky terrain.
After a rare rain, the desert blooms briefly with wildflowers--quite a
visual experience. Lizards, iguana, and other reptiles are everywhere.
And wild sheep, goats and donkeys roam the landscape.
ORANJESTAD, ARUBA
Oranjestad, the old Dutch capital city, is located on the southern coast. You dock in the heart of Oranjestad, a bustling little town of around 30,600 inhabitants; just a five-minute walk to downtown. Tall multicolored houses on the main street, Wilheminastraat, are endowed with carved wooden doors, traditional Dutch tiles, airy open galleries and sloping, Aruban-style roofs. The Dutch architecture alone, makes for a perfect walking tour close to the pier. Oranjestad isn't a huge city but it offers a variety of exclusive shops and local crafts--quite charming in a picture postcard kind of way. Walking around downtown you will find a lot of beautiful monuments. These date from the time that Aruba was a Dutch colony to even earlier. Most of the 27 luxury hotels and casinos are lined up neatly along the northwestern shore some miles away. Taxis are readily available at the dock.
The Royal Plaza Shopping Mall The Royal Plaza Outdoor Courtyard
By far, the best thing to see downtown is the town itself. The Royal Plaza, a grand shopping mall that faces the waterfront, looks just like a giant cake with pink and white icing. It's a three-story, open-air building with spiraling staircases and a courtyard between the two main structures. The day we were there, the open-air second floor was completely filled with diners.
We decided to grab a cab and tour the island first. We had our self-guided tour programmed to head left in a northerly direction toward the beaches, then circle around the island taking in about 18 points of interest. We were told by one cab driver that the cost would be $150 for around 3 hours. Just then another entrepreneur came up and told us he could take us in his air-conditioned bus around the island for $15 per person! We showed him our point of interest map (above)...he said “no problem!“ Sounded like a good deal to us ...so we took him up on it. Forty or more of us loaded into the bus and off we went. However... we headed in the opposite direction down the highway to San Nichols.
SAN NICOLAS
San Nichols is a very poor town (third-worldish) with dingy, tiny homes
in a large refinery area. It used to be the capital but has now fallen into
poverty. Since our tour guide and bus driver were from that area.... I
believed that was why it was first on the tour! He took us to a relative's
“souvenir” shop consisting of a one-room building with a few shelves of tee
shirts... and two bathrooms (men and women) with one shared sink in the
hall. We all got quickly back on the bus and waited for our driver and tour
guide to join us.
.
A bit of history about San Nicolas: Aruba’s oldest and second largest town, was formed in the late 1800's to serve the island's first industry-phosphate mining. Decades later it was the heart of the industrial boom with the development of the oil refinery, which closed in 1985.
They say no visit to San Nicolas would be complete without a stop at Charlie’s Bar – it is an island legend. Today Charlie's Bar is still the lively main attraction, a hangout for scuba divers, artists and visitors. But Charlie has since left us... and the building looks like it might leave soon, too!
We spent waaay too much time cris-crossing through the
narrow streets of this city on our bus... unimpressed, but politely patient.
Finally, we headed back and began our “real” tour.
Information of this site is current as of November 4, 2009