In Aruba I started taking notes in a draft blog. Our trip was so busy that I never finished it. So now I'm going back through the notes I took, editing them, and trying to get this published. Because of the way I took notes (as we were driving), this reads a little choppy. And I may not do this again, b/c I'm having trouble formatting things. You will see different fonts, and I can't figure out how to fix them. Oh well. As I say, "done is better than perfect".
When we got off the ship in Aruba, there was a smaller ship next to ours blocked in so I took a picture:
Our tour guide (from Tours by Local) was Esther. She was a native of Aruba. She attended college in the Netherlands, but didn't finish her degree. She then became a flight attendant for KLM-they were doing routes to South America, and were looking for “girls who can speak Spanish“
Esther's car was cool (it was pretty new) - I immediately noticed the whole roof is a sky light. She said it's also a solar Chinese hybrid, a Dongfeng Forthing. It had a full-roof skylight that is also a solar panel. She said it was 20% cheaper than Kia. She bought it 2025. She said that in Japan cars can’t be driven after six years. I checked that out, and it's actually just a cultural aspect. They do trade out their cars frequently. You can search it to find the many reasons. It means that they have lots of used cars available. According to Esther, even though the used cars are cheap, sometimes transportation to get them to the island is more than the cost of the car. That's why she went with the new Chinese model, instead. She is happy with the car so far, and likes the fact that it is a hybrid; she can get four tours on a tank of gas for $40. Before it was $40 for one tour.
Her car had two license plates, the T is for tour and the O is for Uber. She doesn’t use the Uber, but she can if she wants to.
She gave us some history of the island. The first oil refinery was built in 1924.
By 1932 the population grew from 14,000 to 24,000 as people came in to work in the refinery. Her grandparents came from Bonaire. Before the oil refinery her grandparents would go to Cuba to work in sugarcane.
I love the individual tours from Tours by Locals. With one tour guide for the four of us, we get to ask lots of questions and get to know them a little. We saw the personality of the islands in the guides. Brenda (Bonaire) was very laid-back and relaxed. Esther not so much. Brenda asked us what we wanted to do. Esther had a plan and we pretty much stuck to it. She only stopped for pictures if we asked. But she was very organized and it was a good tour.
We talked a lot about the differences between the three islands. Esther said Bonaire is twice as big as Aruba with 1/5 the population. 28,000 versus about 110,000. TK asked which island is the best. "Aruba, of course." Curacao has more history. Bonaire is more low-key and Caribbean feeling. "Aruba has everything." Arubans don't like people from Curaçao; the Curacaoans (I had to look that word up; and notice the two different spellings. If I write on my phone it suggests the special c, but my computer doesn't). Anway, Esther said the Curacaoans call Aruba the dumb island, like a goat. Guides from all three islands said Curaçao has the best harbor.
Aruba doesn’t have much history since most people came here in the 1930s. Curaçao as been much history. Lots of Dutch and Jews. Now Aruba is wealthier because of tourism, so they have good social programs. The oil refinery closed 10 years ago.
Walking around we talked about cruises and tourism. In Aruba everything opens at 10 AM. There are very few ships on Saturday and Sunday because it takes two days to get from Miami and most cruise lines depart on the weekends. The port can handle four ships.
Most natives (of all the islands) learn four languages. They learn Papiamento at home, are taught Dutch in school, and learn Spanish and English beginning in the 4th grade and take it through college. (When we got to Curacao, we found out it's a little different there...That will be in my next blog.)
Aruba has four high schools. Two for bright kids. Those are the kids that go to the Netherlands for school.
We drove by Xavier university, a medical school for pre-med. People come from all over the world, because it’s cheaper and they have access to being a doctor in the US.
Aruba has more illegals per capita than any other country, she thinks. She estimated there are more than 20,000 illegals on the island. Most are from Venezuela. Aruba is only 20 miles from Venezuela. Because Venezuelan wages are less than $20 per month, they can come here and earn money for the whole year. Her perspective: Arubans are low-key and down to earth, and Venezuelans are very loud. So the Arubans don’t like them very much.
Aruba has only 2.5% unemployment. Hotels can’t reach full capacity because they don’t have enough workers. They have very good health insurance. Not free, but low cost. Employer pays some and government pays some.
She took us by Eagle Beach. She said it's number two on the world list for best beaches. It is 2 miles long and has parking along the length. Leatherback turtles come to the beach. They build their nests in April. She told us more, but I didn't catch it all.
She also took us to Palm Beach. Esther said the water that day was “upset”. Normally the sea is very calm, and there is no seaweed on the beach.
Our bathroom stop.
A church we stopped at. We took a couple pictures and then moved on. She gave us some history that I don’t remember.
One reason the ABC islands are so popular is because they aren't in a hurricane belt. The last hurricane was in 1968. Hazel. And it was only a tropical storm.
I love this picture from north of Oranjestad, where we could see the rain over the city.
Another picture of the rain over the ocean.
Jon, PK, Lois and I had been to Aruba once before, on our Panama Canal cruise. I knew Lois and I had done some geocaches, but I was surprised to see I had seven already! So I only got two more. TK really enjoyed geocaching. She found the second one, (I was looking in the wrong place). One of the geocaches was at Palm beach and the other was at Arashi Beach. This is a screenshot of my geocaches (the smiley faces are ones I found).
She took us to an aloe processing plant. It was an interesting tour, but nothing remarkable.
They sold this product, which looked interesting, but was pretty expensive.
Here is a fancy hotel from Morocco and Spain next to the first hotel built in 1959. She took us by a lot of hotels and gave us the histories of when they were built, but I don't remember the details.
She talked about the geography. The island is known for kite and windsurfing, but not regular surfing. That's all on the west side of the island b/c the east side is very rough and rocky. Here are several pictures from the east side of the island:
Here is picture of the California Lighthouse, on the north of the island. It was named after the SS California steamship that sank nearby in 1891. Built between 1914 and 1916, it's Aruba's tallest structure.
As you can see in some of the pictures, Aruba is very rocky. They don’t build foundations for the houses because there’s so much rock. And pools are very expensive because of the digging.
She drove us around the Tierra del Sol golf course Robert Trent Jones. It is being refurbished after recently being sold.
Esther said Aruba is the safest island in the Caribbean because of the low unemployment and everybody is working. Karl asked about drug influence. She said they don’t feel it, but they know it’s a factor because they are so close to Venezuela and Colombia. They have a very busy airport. The drug industry tries to use that busyness to disperse drugs. The US Coast Guard helps police the area. Aruba is the only place that is considered domestic flight to and from the US. No customs. (I looked it up - it's actually that Aruba has "preclearance", which means US customs officials are stationed there so you go through customs before boarding a flight. Aruba is one of 15 locations in the world. https://www.cbp.gov/travel/preclearance
In 2024 1.8 million people passed through the airport and stayed three days or more. 90% of those are from the United States.
According to Esther: In Aruba, we import everything. Lemons even are cheaper to import them to grow. Garlic has 40% in important tax, Mercedes as 60%. Luxury cars like Ferrari have 100% import tax.
As we listened to Esther, we questioned some of the things she told us. Another example of how I had to fact-check something she said: I asked if a building I saw was a mosque. Esther said mosques are not allowed in Aruba. Karl and I questioned that, so I googled it. There is a mosque in Aruba. it was completed around 2023.
We noticed there was lots of traffic. She said everybody drives cars. We asked about taxis and she said those are for tourists. Prices are in dollars, so not affordable for the average Aruban.
That's all I have from the tour. On the way back to the ship, TK and I stopped in the shop Mopa Mopa, because the artwork was very unique. We went in, and I was intrigued, so I bought a pen holder. The process is very interesting:
https://mopamopaaruba.com/historical-background/
That's all for now. I hope to finish the Curacao blog in the next couple of days.
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