Aruba Arriba

Another overnight, 200 mile passage brought Earthling to Aruba from Los Roques. She sailed with a full Genoa the whole distance. Unfortunately we didn’t get to stop at the other Dutch, ABC Islands, Bonaire and Curacao, since Katherine had to catch a flight back to the U.S from Aruba.

Grand Plaza

As we were approaching the South Eastern side of the island, in sight were industry and oil refinery. Close to the airport, there was a big smoke and it was the waste land fill. That’s not how you would imagine Paradise! Nevertheless, Aruba has a well known name, it’s like a brand! This Island is wealthy in it’s natural resources. First gold and then black gold, oil, was discovered in Aruba in mid 18 and early 1900s. It has been the major income of the island up till 30 years ago, when tourism took over and it’s the main industry today. Arubans are smart and very good at promoting their island. It’s one of the most recognized vacation destinations in the Caribbean. There are tourist from all parts of the world, mostly South and North Americans and Europeans. Earthling is anchored right by the airport in Oranjestad, small and large airplanes are landing frequently from everywhere. And then there are cruise ships, in and out daily. The cruising community is not big here, and protected comfortable anchorages are very few! The only place to check in with immigration and custom is at Barcadera port and it’s free. But if you decide to stay here more than five days, you have to hire an agent to declare your vessel, which can all be done at Renaissance Marina’s office for total of $70.

Pinchos Restaurant & Bar on the pier

Iguanas are Common in Aruba

The people of Aruba are rich in their culture. People from Netherlands have always amazed me of how open minded and accepting they are of other languages and cultures. Aruba belongs essentially to Netherlands, but Arubans can be white, black, Asian, and Hispanic and the mixture of all. Everybody speak Dutch, Papiamento, Spanish, and English. Papiamento is the local language of the ABC Islands. On FM101.7, I hear mostly Papiamento or Dutch but with a twist of Spanish and English. It’s amazing! I shouldn’t feel bad Mix and Matching Farsi/Swedish/English with some people, like my high school friend Nick. Who is flying in from Boston today for a few days.

Aruba is a relative flat small Island. Usually flat Islands have beautiful beaches. And along the long sandy beaches on the Northwestern side are all the hotels and plenty of good restaurants and bars.  

Since we arrived Aruba, the wind picked up and it has been blowing constantly 20-30kt. The predictions for the next seven days are the same, so Earthling will stay put here till the wind and waves come down before sailing to Colombia.

Love from Aruba

Statia (St. Eustatius)

Statia is only 20 miles southeast of Saba. With the Easterly wind, it took us 7 hours to get here. As approaching this Island, we see barges, tugboats and a couple of tall ships on anchor. I felt an energy of industry and commercialization. St. Eustatius is still under Dutch influence and there use to be a lot of action in the mid 17th century. Apparently, it was the trade capital of the Indies during this time. Even today, Statia seems like it has more cargo traffic than most other Islands around this area. There is only one good anchorage outside of Oranjestad and there are moorings available free of charge when you check in with the marine park.
 

Every time we get to a new place, I take out the binoculars and check out what’s up on land. I look for where we can land the dinghy, and scope out the scene. It’s fun to look at a place that you have never been to from a distance by water. As I’m watching the shore, I capture a tree full of white-birds & Egrets. Suddenly, two larger Parrot-like birds fly out the tree and start to chase two Egrets away. The Parrot-like birds were green and red and just so unusual. I’ve never seen anything like it before! Later we learned that they are the national bird of Statia, called the “Nahamaya” or also known by the sound they make “Killy Killy”. Kelly was so excited to have a bird named after her!

In Oranjestad, there seems to be an underlying theme of Orange. You see an orange church in the middle of the town. Also, if you pay enough attention, people like to dress in orange, you see orange houses and even their curtains in that color.  We didn’t see  many orange fruit trees though! Orange is such a popular color here because it is said to be a royal color for the Dutch.
Just up the hill from Oranjestad is the Quill. Like most of the other Caribbean Islands, Statia is volcanic. The Quill is an extinct volcano with a large crater. As adventurous as we are, we just had to hike up to the crater. Along the hiking trail, we saw a couple of  snakes (Red Bellied Racers) that were a few feet long. They’re not known to be of any danger, but we still didn’t try to pet them! On the Quill, most of the vegetation is bushy and just a few feet tall, but we did come across some huge trees that must have been a few hundred years old. In addition, we saw many tropical plants, with flowers that have natural medicinal qualities for different kinds of diseases. The Periwinkle, (Catharanthus Roseus) makes medicine that cures diabetes and malaria. I wish I could have collected more of their flowers for some of my dearest friends and family that have diabetes.
Moreover, there were many wild chickens and roosters up on the rim of the Quill crater. When we got there, one of the chickens fell in love with Kelly and followed us around and almost came down to the boat with us. Maybe the chicken misunderstood Kelly with Killy Killy!                 

Love from Statia

View photos of Statia on EarthlingSailor’s page on Facebook