Oranjestad, Aruba

After leaving the Panama Canal we sailed 36 hours to arrive at Oranjestad this morning at 7:00 AM. The passage was with calm seas and a cloudy, squally sky.

We decided to eat in our room at 6:30 AM and went ashore about 9:00 AM. We chose a mini-van for a three hour tour of the island. There were three couples, a driver and a lady narrator. The colored driver was a native of Aruba and the narrator was born in Scotland, but settled here 15 or 20 years ago. They both clearly loved their isolated, quiet island.

Almost all businesses close on Sunday, hence there were relatively few stores open to tempt us. The major industry is tourism - there are many resorts as well as visiting cruise ships. We were the only ship in port this day, so the streets were quiet. Aruba is about 19 miles from Venezuela from which it imports virtually everything from food staples to crude oil. The only commercial way to get to Venezuela is by air, which costs about $400.00 RT. For international travel KLM has two flights arriving in Aruba.

Aruba has its own refinery owned by Valero, a Venezuelan owned corporation. Gasoline in Aruba costs about $5.00/gallon, even though it is refined here. Most of the refined products are shipped to the United States. Off shore are four or five oil tankers awaiting loading or unloading operations.

Aruba is a possession of The Netherlands. The official languages are Dutch and Papiamento, the natives' language. However, by the time students finish their schooling, they have become fluent in five to eight languages. The island's origin is both volcanic and coral. The north part of the island is quite rocky and the south more tropical. The beaches are beautiful and, like much of California, are public property. The annual rainfall is about 12 inches - just yesterday they had rain, which was still evident on the roads. They are out of the hurricane zone and have never experienced one.

The only source of water is desalinization, which makes water both scarce and expensive. They reclaim "gray water" which is used by resorts for watering landscaping and a very pretty golf course. A second golf course for locals is mostly sand and dirt. A round of golf at the good golf course is about $185.00.

Housing ranges in price from $40,000.00 to millions of dollars. We saw the entire range of housing. They were all clean and brightly painted. In fact, traditionally, houses are given a fresh coat of paint at the beginning of each year and a different color is chosen each year They use an inexpensive white wash type paint which lasts well because of dry conditions. As in Costa Rica, Aruba allows foreigners to establish residency and there are some enclaves that are mostly American.

There is virtually no unemployment. Minimum wage laws provide about $760.00 a month for the most basic of jobs. There is very little crime and the police spend most of their time either controlling "crowds" at ball games or discussing business at the Dunkin Donuts shop.

Aruba and Caracao, both possessions of The Netherlands, are similar in appearance, but Caracao has a much more attractive approach to the harbor and cruise terminal and has an initial impression of really being Dutch. We stopped at Caracao on our trip with NaNa and BoPo.

Sunrise was 6:30 AM. Sunset is programmed for 6:23 PM. Water temperature is 79 degrees. The island is positioned at 12 degrees 31.12 W, about the same longitude as Boston.

Tomorrow we are at sea on our way to Grenada for a scheduled Tuesday morning arrival.