Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire – aka “The ABC Islands” – (done a little out of order)

December 16-18, 2023

We had two sea days, where among other activities, I met up with some of my fellow bloggers, vloggers and Tic-Tokkers!. 

Back to Aruba! Although we spent 5 weeks on the island from mid-October-mid November, we’d missed a lot of the tourist highlights and some of the history. Our friend Anish arranged a private tour with 11 of us in a large van and tour guide spending the day catching some of those sites. Luckily, our ship docked almost 2 hours early, letting us get a 10:30 start for the day-long tour. 

We’ll start the day with some history: 

Aruba’s earliest inhabitants were the Caiquetio, who traveled across the 18 miles of the Atlantic that separates the island from Venezuela to flee the aggressive Carib. Archeological records place their arrival around 2500BC (our guide for the day – Glen- said there were no permanent inhabitants until 1400AD, but having visited the Archeological Museum on a prior trip – I knew that was incorrect. I behaved and did not correct him – I decided to do it here). Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda landed on Aruba in 1499, and later was named governor of the islands that would eventually be called the ABC Islands. The Spanish enslaved the locals and sent them to Hispaniola to work on plantations since Aruba was too arid for agriculture.  The Spanish maintained control until 1636, when the islands began changing hands between the Dutch and the English until 1816 when the Dutch reclaimed and held the territory, officially making Aruba one of the Dutch Antilles in 1845. In I986, Aruba earned a “status apart” from the Netherlands, achieving partial independence, but decided not to seek full independence. Arubans are in control of all local affairs – laws, currency and education. All foreign affairs and defense rests with the Netherlands (which is why the Netherlands Navy maintains a barracks on the island – I can just imagine a Dutch sailor finding out he or she was lucky enough to get stationed in Aruba!). (Information about history from Aruba.com)

Somehow, on all minibus journeys, friend Alan and I always sit in the back-most seat, and this was the case today, accompanied by Chuck, a fellow world cruiser as eleven of us with our guide bounced along the island. We popped in and out to view several rock formations: The first was the Casibari Rock formation – which you can climb to get a great view of half of the island. (The first peoples of the island built their village here to take advantage of the ability to see invaders as they approached.). 

Then drove past the Ayo rock formations – the clearest pareidolia was the angry monkey. 

We drove to the natural bridge – the current largest (the previous largest collapsed in 2005) – people are not supposed to walk on it – but not many heed the signs. There is a nice gift shop where for $1 you can use a clean toilet, check out a map of the island with all of the points of interest marked, grab a snack and pick up a souvenir.

We took a short drive to a natural pool where people can dive in if adventurous, and walked across the shared parking lot to the ruins of the Bushiribana Gold Smelting Plant. In the late 1800’s, gold was found in the hills of the island. About 200 pounds were successfully mined and smelted, but further explorations found the gold is too deep and too dispersed to be economically feasible to continue mining (and since gold mining often requires cyanide – the environmental impact too great). This plant was built in 1872 and abandoned in 1899. It is fun to climb in. 

Lunch was amazing! Zee Rover in San Nicholas only serves the fish and shrimp they catch.

You wait in a long line, tell the lady at the counter how much fish/shrimp you want and pay by the pound. They throw it in a basket and send it to the fryer. Your lunch is delivered hot and fresh with your choice of sides. The “corn bread” was a kind of corn flour pancake similar to thick pita bread, they put a lovely sprinkle of paprica over the French fries, and to be “healthy” I added a side salad with vinaigrette. All told, John and I ate for $29 including tip. 

Our guide was more interested in showing us the “red light” district of San Nicholas than the murals – an interesting choice. The government sets the minimum price for services, and all women must be checked for STI’s weekly. We drove by baby beach, but the small inlet was crowded and the wind had picked up, so we decided to head north. We rode the length of the island (me in the back seat) to California lighthouse, then on to Eagle Beach – the largest and widest beach on the island. Everyone loved the powdered sand, the warmi-ish waters (the water was a few degrees cooler than in November), and the beach bar. A quick dip and a few Balashis all around, before returning to the ship.

We dropped Alan and Liam off at Opus for dinner with some other friends (they RAVED about the food – pricey but excellent). We walked a bit, then went back to the WindStar Casino, but I had zero luck and John ended up ahead by $4. 

Curacao:

The next morning, my back was so stiff it took over twenty tries to touch my toes. Anish and Reshika wanted to find a tour for Curacao, but my back told me “no” in no uncertain terms. Instead, John and I wandered around the lovely city of Willemstad on a quiet, hot, Sunday morning, and returned to the ship in a couple of hours to chill out on board.

There is a lot to do on Curacao, the largest of the ABC’s – we were just not in the mood to discover them. We ventured out briefly in the evening to the casino at the port – but we both had no luck and returned with lighter pockets.

Since I do enjoy history – I did find some interesting information

History lesson: Curacao was settled in approximately 3400 BC by the Arawak from the area now called Venezuela. Like Aruba, it was “discovered” by Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci (Vespucci was the person who determined the New World was an entirely new continent and not the eastern edges of Asia, hence the “Americas”). In 1507, along with Aruba and Bonaire, de Ojeda was named Governor (the three islands were called Nueva Andalucia). Also like Aruba – the local inhabitants were quickly enslaved and sent to Hispaniola. The Dutch saw the island as an ideal center for trade, and conquered it in 1634. The deep natural harbor was of great value to the Dutch, and Willemstad quickly became a center for trade between the Americas and Europe. The Dutch were much more interested in trade than religion, which opened the island to Protestants, Jewish and Catholic faiths (by 1780, there were over 2000 Jewish inhabitants, and Willemstad is the home of the oldest Synagogue in continuous use in the Caribbean). The British only briefly held the island, from 1800-1815, when it reverted to the Dutch. The first cruise ship arrived in 1901, and has been a popular destination ever since with the colorful homes and friendly populace. In 2010, it followed the example set by Aruba and became a “constituent country” within the Kingdom of The Netherlands (curacaohistory.com). 

Bonaire:

Arriving in Bonaire, the Serenade was greeted by frigatebirds. My back had recovered for Bonaire, and John and I took an open-air bus that toured the southern part of the island and dropped us for two hours at a beach for $35 each. The tour was “OK” – the tour guide read from her script in English and Spanish, and we did see the listed sites – the salt factory, the slave quarters, the lighthouse, and the beach. The bus dropped us off at a beach bar/restaurant, but a few hundred feet up the beach was a park area with free concrete pads covered by thatched roofs providing the shade my very pale northern European heritage skin requires.

There were numerous kite surfers – but fewer than in front of the restaurant. We relaxed for a couple of hours, chatting with the Dutch couple that shared the shade before the bus picked us up. (In the “drama department” -there was some confusion between our guide and a few of our fellow tourists. The guide stated we could stay for “two or four hours”, most of us wanted to stay for 2 hours, so the bus returned at 2PM, but some of the others thought they could choose to stay for four hours and the bus would come back again at 4PM. After a lot of back and forth in Spanish – it did sound like they would return again at 4PM, and the bus driver looked very unhappy). We got back to the ship to freshen up, have a quick lunch (I entered the Windjammer at 2:55, they start taking down stations at 3PM). We saw on the wall of the port a walking tour map of Kralendijk (the capital) posted and you can scan or take a photo.

We took the photo – but not all roads were marked on the map and got turned around before finally getting oriented. I finally found several of the listed points of interest. And I bought myself three pairs of earrings – something I hadn’t done for a while (several years ago I wore a different pair of earrings every day starting January 1, I made it to August before running out). One of the vendors displayed the blown-glass style (like Murano glass) that I love and can’t resist – Merry Christmas to me! 

History lesson: 

Initial habitation was later on this small island of 111 sq miles– with earliest settlements of Caiquetios dating to approximately 1000AD. The same voyage of Alonso de Ojeda brought the Spanish to the island completely surrounded by coral reef in 1499. The Spaniards rounded up most of the natives, transported them to Hispaniola, then largely ignored the island. Some intrepid farmers brought livestock to graze the dry brush. After the Dutch arrived in 1636, they discovered something extremely important to seafaring people – salt. The creation of salt from seawater requires multiple rounds of bringing in saltwater and drying, something that occurred naturally in the southern plains of the island and then later further developed and exploited to this day.

African slaves were imported to work the farms and salt factory, with small huts housing as many as four slaves at a time.

When slavery was outlawed in 1862, the island continued to produce salt, and developed rice farming to provide another export. Politically, unlike the other ABC’s, the island’s population of 26,000 chose to remain part of the Netherlands as an island municipality, and choose to use the US dollar as their official currency (freeing them from needing to maintain their own mint). Over sixty different species of coral surround Bonaire, providing homes for over three-hundred species of fish (standing next to the dock I saw five different species of fish and a baby shark in less than 15 minutes while waiting for my tour). Bonaire is known as a diver’s paradise.

We have a sea day, then on to Barbados! John and I have been debating if we’ve been there before – we’re not sure. After that is Granada – and we know that one will be new!