"The island where happiness lives." Aruba by Arubasun.

Aruba Travel Guide: 859 reviews and 2,177 photos

Just a few miles north of Venezuela, there is an island paradise on the horizon. An island that was called useless by the Spanish Conquistadors in the early 1400's and later colonized by the Dutch. Though the island was considered useless in the past, it is now a role model for other Caribbean islands.

Aruba has a dry Arid climate so don't expect any lush vegetation on the island else you will be disappointed. There is a famous slogan made up just recently which states "if it was not for the dessert Aruba would have been another island with a beach". This is quiet true when you take into account that most if not all of the Caribbean Islands are lush and green. Nevertheless it does rain in Aruba from November to February, the rain is usually of short duration and then the sun shines again with a rainbow, paradise indeed. The average rainfall is of 12 inches a year and the average temperature is 89F or 31C.

In Aruba we have rocky and different types of grounds with vegetation such as cactus and the famous divi divi and watapana trees. As a matter of fact you can never get lost in Aruba, the divi divi trees are bended over towards the West, this is because of the strong trade winds that blow from East to West. If it was not for the winds Aruba would have been very hot, so the trade winds are a blessing for the people that do inhabit the island.

Aruba is home to over 90,000 citizens of which 65% are Arubans and the remaining 35% immigrants. Over 40 different nationalities do live in peace in Aruba making the island thus very multi cultural. You may ask why are there so many different nationalities on the island?! Ever since the early nineties Aruba was put on the map of the world, the construction of the oil refinery brought thousands of new jobs and many people came from abroad. The oil refinery was the leading industry of Aruba for over 65 years. However the World oil crisis in the early eighties lead to the closure of the refinery in 1985. Thousands of jobs were lost and the economy went into a deep recession. The island than stepped into tourism, a new industry that would create new jobs, and quiet frankly the island succeeded in having the most successful tourism industry of the Caribbean.

The Aruban population is a mixture of all races of African, European and Asian descent.
The Aruban population generally speaks, reads and writes 4 different languages. This includes Dutch which is the official language, Papiamento the native language, Spanish and English. Dutch is learned at school as early as in first grade. English will be given from third grade until College and Spanish is given at fifth grade until College. French is an optional language in College. Though Arubans generally speak Papiamento at home and the newspapers are written in Papiamento, Dutch is used as an instruction language at school and it is also being taught at to children, all official documents of the government are written in Dutch. Spanish and English are only important due to the fact of the geographic location of the island and because of business.

Enjoy the rest of my Aruba page,

Resorts.

Aruba has a wide variety of accomodations as a matter of fact five of Aruba resorts are in the top 25 list of best resorts in the Caribbean. Making Aruba thus the island with the highest density of best resorts in the region.

Last visit to Aruba: Sep 2002
Intro Updated Dec 15, 2002
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Comments (103)

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JodiPayne Nov 14, 2003 at 10:05 AM

WOW!! THANKS FOR THE WONDERFUL PICTURES ... J&J
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panter24 Dec 30, 2002 at 7:13 AM

Excellent page keep it up!
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johanl Dec 14, 2002 at 2:38 AM

Indeed, Arauba is heaven on earth, but so bl....expensive
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nada1712 Aug 5, 2002 at 12:12 PM

Wonderful pages! Whats the snorkelling like at Tamarijn
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lorgnierl Jul 31, 2002 at 3:22 PM

thanks for the dreams
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Xinta Jul 25, 2002 at 9:47 AM

Excellent page!
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Snjeska Jul 25, 2002 at 12:29 AM

Amazing page:)))
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ssm10 Jul 9, 2002 at 9:27 AM

Really nice place to live !
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matcrazy1 Jun 8, 2002 at 3:45 PM

One word: FANTASTIC!!!
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jorgblaser Jun 7, 2002 at 2:39 AM

very very very nice pictures!!! well done! Joerg.