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| Oranjestad, Aruba - through a fogged up camera lens... |
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| Somewhat bored watcher of an open air Zumba session in one of Oranjestad's waterfront parks |
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| Zumba in morning heat of 33 degrees centigrade |
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| Iguana at the shore |
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| Day of the Iguanas without Liz Tailor... |
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| Old mansion in Oranjestad |
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| Dutch Style gable on main street. There are no rooms behind the upper windows - the gable is merely decoration |
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| Construction ahead - all throughout Oranjestad |
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| Aruba's Coat of Arms |
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| Freshly repaved and replanted main street. Each palm tree has been transplanted as a mature specimen to it's new 'hole in the pavement' |
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| What one would call 'Plaza de Armas' in a Latin American town, we find here as a nameless open space. After reconstruction is finished, it will be a pleasant area in Oranjestad's centre. |
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| This is the kind of dwelling which covered the Island in earlier times... |
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| The Island has quite a significant archaeological site in the area of Santa Cruz, where Arawak natives used to dwell before Spaniards invaded the Island and literally abducted the inhabitants. |
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| Government Reconstruction Project of downtown Oranjestad.. |
A little bit of the Netherlands, the small island of Aruba, 31 km away from Venezuela on the Latin American Continent.
Tourism is the main industry today, after it had a short stint at sheep, goat and horse farming, a gold mine that yielded 3000 pounds, and an oil refinery that had its heyday during the second world war.
Aruba was initially populated by the Arawaks, however when the Spaniards arrived in 1500 they made short thrift of the residents, by packing them all up and exporting them to perform manual labour in Hispaniola.
The Spanish lost out to the Dutch with Peter Stuyvesand of cigarette fame became governor, the English took over for a while, but now Aruba is definitely Dutch with large Photos of Queen Beatrice flanked by her son, now King, and the honorary Queen - Maxima of Argentinian birth.
I am sure, that many of the people reading this blog have visited Aruba's beaches lined with luxury hotels, dove amongst colourful fish who still have a home in the surrounding coral reefs, lost a few Guilders in the numerous casinos, or spent a good number of dollars in the high end shops in several even higher end malls.
Oranjestad, the little capital of the island of about 100,000 inhabitants retains a few buildings of historic interest, such as remnants of a fort, some gabled mansions, and rural dwellings constructed in Caribbean style. Downtown Oranjestad, however, is a hot bed of road construction. Hotbed in every sense - today the temperatures climbed to 35 degrees centigrade. The entire main street is being beautifully repaved, even the palm trees are new, the rails for the tourist tram are being re bedded, side alleys are transformed into smooth paved passages, and the upgrades even reach into surrounding communities. This is not only done for tourists, but the comfort and civic pride of the population.
Charter boats for fishing, snorkeling, diving and partying are lined up in modern marinas, and souvenir shops and sea side bar/restaurants line the shore. If one looks a little closer, one may find lizard, iguanas scampering amongst the rocky shore.
Definitely a paradise for vacationers to get lost for a while swimming in the azure waters of the Caribbean, interspersed with high class shopping and visits to plain local to gourmet international restaurants.
It is good to be on a 'pretty' ship again, where plastic fantastic has not yet taken over, and a certain sense of old world elegance and good taste prevails. The MS Amsterdam has managed to resist any attempts at 'improvements and upgrades', which - to my eyes - have turned other ships into plastic Disney Worlds with mall size food courts.
Happy Sailing for me (although 'the bug' has reared it's ugly head on this ship as well) and the MS Amsterdam is off to transit the Panama Canal tomorrow. Google search will bring up the web cam which follows ships through the Canal....for interested Canal watchers.
