{"id":11693,"date":"2016-12-17T18:09:46","date_gmt":"2016-12-17T23:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11693"},"modified":"2017-01-10T18:55:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T23:55:36","slug":"oranjestad-aruba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11693","title":{"rendered":"Oranjestad, Aruba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday December 17, 2016 \u00a0 Mostly sunny, breezy – 82 Degrees<\/span><\/p>\n

The ship’s clocks were advanced another hour last night, so Aruba must be on ‘Atlantic Time.’ \u00a0We relaxed on deck in the morning as the Island Princess\u00a0maintained an easterly course across the Caribbean Sea. \u00a0The first signs of land were white birds flying\u00a0alongside the ship.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We saw the island of Aruba grow on the horizon as we approached by mid-day. \u00a0It’s one of the Dutch Caribbean islands and, with Bonaire and Curacao, are known as the ABC islands. \u00a0Aruba is 20 miles long, six miles wide and is located just 18 miles north of the coast of Venezuela.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I had read Aruba has a dry climate with an\u00a0arid landscape of cactus plants growing wild all over the island. \u00a0As is evident in theses photos, Aruba\u00a0a very flat island. \u00a0In the distance we saw huge resorts towering over scant trees. \u00a0The ship approached the dock of Oranjestad, the capital city. Photo below:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I went up to the top deck to watch the ship pull into the harbor. \u00a0There was just a narrow channel: the city to port and a long submerged sandbar to starboard. \u00a0The channel looked barely wide enough for the ship.<\/span><\/p>\n

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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. \u00a0The ship’s log said the wind was “Easterly Force 5 – Fresh Breeze” <\/em>keeping her offshore.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here’s a picture of a small tree growing on the sandbar on our starboard side. \u00a0We could swim to the sandbar!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jeff and I watched people disembark and when the crowds thinned, we walked down the ramp to see Oranjestad. \u00a0It means ‘orange city’ and was pronounced “o-ron-nya-shtahd.” \u00a0The “nya” was like the Spanish ‘ny’ with an accent over it as in ‘nino.’ \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Oranjestad looked like a small town so we wondered where everyone had been\u00a0rushing off to. \u00a0We walked through the terminal\u00a0filled\u00a0with stalls selling souvenirs. \u00a0The main street was similarly lined with small tourist shops and high end stores selling watches and jewelry. \u00a0The yellow building in the photo below was a mall with American stores, including a Starbucks! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We walked through the mall to the back street which turned out to be\u00a0a shopping mecca of stores selling European and American goods of every imaginable brand name. \u00a0Oranjestad was just a tourist trap filled with high and low end shops.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Christmas entertainment at the mall:<\/span><\/p>\n

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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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We walked a few blocks and found a free trolley car which drove around the “downtown” area. \u00a0It was fun passing stores, restaurants, bars, shoppers, tourists, and buskers playing loud music providing a carnival atmosphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I’m glad I saw\u00a0Oranjestad because now I won’t have to return. \u00a0Aruba is off my ‘ bucket list.’ \u00a0I’ve loved all the other Caribbean islands I’ve visited in the past and have great memories of them. \u00a0Aruba was very disappointing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We made one circuit on the trolley and got off near the ship’s terminal. \u00a0Jeff noticed a Cuban restaurant called Mojito <\/em>with\u00a0a sign outside which read: “Free Wifi and Air Conditioned.” \u00a0<\/em>We\u00a0climbed the stairs to the second floor and went inside. \u00a0The only other customers were an elderly couple from the ship who were attempting to download movies on their devices. \u00a0They told us the internet was very slow.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The owner of the restaurant gave us his personal password and all my mail quickly appeared on my phone. \u00a0I wrote emails to my family telling them were we were and sent a couple of photos. \u00a0We didn’t want to pay for the slow internet on the ship, so this week was internet-deprivation for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The temperature was in the 80s and the wind had decreased as the sun set, so we felt the heat of the island. \u00a0It was good to return to the air conditioning of our floating home away from home.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By about six-thirty everyone was back on the ship and the Island Princess was ready to go. \u00a0She brought in her lines, left the dock, and we were finally heading north on our way home.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Saturday December 17, 2016 \u00a0 Mostly sunny, breezy – 82 Degrees The ship’s clocks were advanced another hour last night, so Aruba must be on ‘Atlantic Time.’ \u00a0We relaxed on deck in the morning as the Island Princess\u00a0maintained an easterly course across the Caribbean Sea. \u00a0The first signs of land were white birds flying\u00a0alongside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caribbean","category-cruising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11693"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11714,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11693\/revisions\/11714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}