In the Port of Aruba

After a day at sea in the Caribbean, we arrived in Oranjestad, capital of the small island of Aruba at 8am on Saturday.  Aruba is surprisingly a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  Like Australia, the governor is appointed by the monarch.  The island has only three small hills and attracts no more than 20 inches of rain per year, so its plant life is much like that of Arizona – cacti.

The island is very close to the Venezuelan coast and has only recently restricted foreign workers to a three year residency – there had been a substantial increase in migration from neighbouring America and South American nationals.

Fragments of earliest known Americinds date back to 1000 AD.  Due to various Spanish and Dutch conquests, trade and settlements over the centuries the language is a mixture of local Indian, Spanish, Dutch and English.  The island’s motto is One Happy Island since so many nationalities have settled there.

It certainly is an interesting place.  John was able to disembark very easily, after the difficulties encountered at San Francisco and later at Costa Rica[i].

It was a very colourful place and a photographer’s delight.  It was also very clean and apparently the buildings have been recently painted, restored or rebuilt.  There is much civil construction going on at the moment in the city.  The island has a circumference of about 70 miles so is not very large at all.

Oranjestad, capital of Aruba

We didn’t find any wheelchair accessible taxis or buses so were content to simply wander around the town.  We were not tempted by the many jewellers’ brochures thrust into our hands, but did buy some useful bits of clothing – T-shirt, hat and bag.

John, Marg, Ted and Anne

We bumped into Anne and Ted on the wharf near the Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) hotel so joined them for a coffee and cool drink.  We continued walking around, then found our way to the National Archaelogical Museum which was wheelchair accessible apart from the locals not knowing how to operate the elevator.

There is an interesting feature in the local casino (one of many on the island) – a canal ends at a roundabout in the casino arcade and a power boat taxi picks up and drops people who knows where.

Negotiating footpaths was extremely tricky.  The town seems to be only just learning to put in kerb ramps and there are not many yet, with gutters at some pedestrian crossings.  Lots of building ramps but all 1 in 12.  Additionally the widespread roadworks caused a few hazards.

An Indian abode at the Archaelogical Museum

But an enjoyable morning just the same.  The weather was very humid with the temperature at 30C.  We rejoined the ship for lunch; John lay down for the afternoon and I went out only briefly, returning to do some laundry whilst the hordes were elsewhere!

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[i] I was ill with a virus for two days when we arrived at Costa Rica, and John set off for an arranged four hour taxi booking on his own.  However within 30 minutes he was back – fuming – after encountering two sets of stairs from the ship.  He received a very unsatisfactory explanation and response from the Head of Security, to the discomfort of the Assistant Purser, and since then has heard four different stories from Cunard as to why this situation arose.  So Costa Rica was a no go zone for us (a pity since the tours in this environmentally aware and very stable country seemed quite enticing).