Aruba

Oranjestad

As with Curacao there is a strange story about Aruba. It is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. I agree, a somewhat difficult construction. Mostly it means Aruba can do what it wants without having too much to do with the Netherlands. And it did. There’s not much left that really reminds you of the Dutch history. Although most Arubans still speak Dutch.

Things have changed fast on the small, dry island. The giant, mostly American, resorts dominate it now. English is the main language and tourists from cruise ships and resorts define the street view.

I tried to find a little bit of the old ways but it was difficult. This is just what the island is like now and money is coming in which is hard to make with anything else apart from maybe the oil refinery on the far end of the island. But you don’t want a second one of those. So tourism it is.

But at this small pier in front of the Marriott I could still find some old-style fishermen going out onto the sea in the early mornings on their small boats to do some fishing in the waters between Aruba and Venezuela. The fish are harder to find these days but I still witnessed some big ones being hauled onto the pier.

Apart from the recent missing of two American girls, things seem quiet on Aruba.