Saturday December 17, 2016 Mostly sunny, breezy – 82 Degrees
The ship’s clocks were advanced another hour last night, so Aruba must be on ‘Atlantic Time.’ We relaxed on deck in the morning as the Island Princess maintained an easterly course across the Caribbean Sea. The first signs of land were white birds flying alongside the ship.
We saw the island of Aruba grow on the horizon as we approached by mid-day. It’s one of the Dutch Caribbean islands and, with Bonaire and Curacao, are known as the ABC islands. Aruba is 20 miles long, six miles wide and is located just 18 miles north of the coast of Venezuela.
I had read Aruba has a dry climate with an arid landscape of cactus plants growing wild all over the island. As is evident in theses photos, Aruba a very flat island. In the distance we saw huge resorts towering over scant trees. The ship approached the dock of Oranjestad, the capital city. Photo below:
I went up to the top deck to watch the ship pull into the harbor. There was just a narrow channel: the city to port and a long submerged sandbar to starboard. The channel looked barely wide enough for the ship.
The wind was blowing offshore, so although the Island Princess applied her starboard thrusters, she needed assistance from two harbor tugs/Pilot boats to nudge her toward the dock. The ship’s log said the wind was “Easterly Force 5 – Fresh Breeze” keeping her offshore.
Here’s a picture of a small tree growing on the sandbar on our starboard side. We could swim to the sandbar!
Jeff and I watched people disembark and when the crowds thinned, we walked down the ramp to see Oranjestad. It means ‘orange city’ and was pronounced “o-ron-nya-shtahd.” The “nya” was like the Spanish ‘ny’ with an accent over it as in ‘nino.’
Oranjestad looked like a small town so we wondered where everyone had been rushing off to. We walked through the terminal filled with stalls selling souvenirs. The main street was similarly lined with small tourist shops and high end stores selling watches and jewelry. The yellow building in the photo below was a mall with American stores, including a Starbucks!
We walked through the mall to the back street which turned out to be a shopping mecca of stores selling European and American goods of every imaginable brand name. Oranjestad was just a tourist trap filled with high and low end shops.
Christmas entertainment at the mall:
Much to my disappointment, there was no trace of Dutch colonial architecture or culture. Unfortunately, there was no Caribbean flavor or atmosphere either. Just shopping opportunities similar to any mall in the United States.
We walked a few blocks and found a free trolley car which drove around the “downtown” area. It was fun passing stores, restaurants, bars, shoppers, tourists, and buskers playing loud music providing a carnival atmosphere.
I’m glad I saw Oranjestad because now I won’t have to return. Aruba is off my ‘ bucket list.’ I’ve loved all the other Caribbean islands I’ve visited in the past and have great memories of them. Aruba was very disappointing.
We made one circuit on the trolley and got off near the ship’s terminal. Jeff noticed a Cuban restaurant called Mojito with a sign outside which read: “Free Wifi and Air Conditioned.” We climbed the stairs to the second floor and went inside. The only other customers were an elderly couple from the ship who were attempting to download movies on their devices. They told us the internet was very slow.
The owner of the restaurant gave us his personal password and all my mail quickly appeared on my phone. I wrote emails to my family telling them were we were and sent a couple of photos. We didn’t want to pay for the slow internet on the ship, so this week was internet-deprivation for me.
The temperature was in the 80s and the wind had decreased as the sun set, so we felt the heat of the island. It was good to return to the air conditioning of our floating home away from home.
By about six-thirty everyone was back on the ship and the Island Princess was ready to go. She brought in her lines, left the dock, and we were finally heading north on our way home.
