As I stated in my “back from” announcement, you don’t come to Aruba to go sightseeing. You come for the beaches, for the outdoor activities, for the nightlife. None of those attractions and pursuits customarily align with carrying around an expensive semi-professional camera.
And yet, I always bring the camera with me – I am in the distinct minority of people who do not find any enjoyment in taking pictures on my phone – and I want to put the said camera to use. So, over the course of a week of staying in Oranjestad, I did carve out a couple of opportunities to build my photographic impressions of the Aruban capital.
We will start with shots of Oranjestad Marina from the rooftop terrace of the six-storey building where we rented an apartment.
This most central and port-adjoining area of town is primarily about shopping, mixing high-end with your basic souvenir variety, with a casino and a few bars thrown in.
The “I love Aruba” sign stands near the passageway between the cruise ship access area and the commercial strip seen above.
This close-up was meant to focus on Mount Hooiberg in the distance, the second highest point of Aruba at only 560 feet. The comparatively massive complex of the Renaissance Resort annoyingly dominates the foreground.
As we are right next to the port, observing cruise ships coming in and out is a diversion on its own merit. This is one of the smaller ones.
Here are a couple of bigger liners, as seen from the opposite side of the marina.
The building that you see on the right of that perspective is the vantage point for opening shots.
There were two or three large luxury liners docked in port at all times. The central stretch of the waterfront boulevard slows to a crawl for most of the day while thousands of cruise passengers are out and about. Far be it from me to express disdain for travelling masses, the daily overflow of people may be the least agreeable part of staying in the center of Oranjestad.
I took most of my shots of the town on a walkabout starting at 6:30 in the morning.
You will not see any people in these shots, not because I went to my habitual lengths of removing them, but because there weren’t any on the streets this early. Neither cruise crowds nor business proprietors were up for the day yet.
That pink standout building on this main stretch is but a shopping mall.
The next picture is not of Eagle Beach, a white-sand blue-water standout less than 10 minutes away northwest of Oranjestad that is frequently found near the top of the world rankings. Instead, this is the Governor’s Bay Beach, practically in the center of town, one of the many fairly unremarkable beaches that are never busy because elsewhere on the island are a handful of truly excellent ones that attract almost all visitors.
The little canal running from the beach inland was decorated with light displays.
Not sure if they remain beyond Christmas. After the fall of darkness they are clearly more enchanting.
The most colorful cluster of buildings in Oranjestad is on and around Plaza Daniel Leo, the “main” town square, a block away from the shore.
All through the town center, the blue horse statues remind the visitors of an important part of the history of Oranjestad. The horse trade dating back to the early days of Spanish colonization of Aruba was one of the key factors in the settlement of the town on the bay – which is literally called Horse Bay. The accompanying plaques each describe a different aspect of the livestock commerce and give each horse a name and a distinct personality. I found seven of them – not sure if there are others that I missed on side streets. Love the names – Rosalinda, Euphrocina, Sinforosa, Celestina, Ambrosio, Bonifacia, Escapia.
The cow on the bench advertises the nearby steakhouse. The at-ease pose feels a bit odd to me, given the implications.
There are also these giant birds, advertising Flamingo Beach on the private island owned by the aforementioned Renaissance Resort.
Non-guests of the resort can buy passes to spend a day at the beach, where a small flock of pink flamingos is apparently happy to share the environment with the sunbathing and frolicking humans. We did go to a couple of animal-centric attractions on Aruba – they will be highlighted in a forthcoming blog installment – but flamingos did not make the itinerary cut.
There are plenty of other statues in Oranjestad. For instance, in the park bearing the name of Queen Wilhelmina, there is a monument to the long-reining monarch of the first half of the 20th century who remains very popular throughout the kingdom as the symbol of Dutch resistance during World War II.
Just a few dozen meters away in the same park is the poignant monument to Anne Frank.
The themes of World War II continue in another green public space, Boy Ecury Park, where several monuments highlight the role that Aruba played in helping the Allied powers turn the tide. There is also a mini-exhibition on the history of Aruban aviation and a commemoration of the special status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands that Aruba obtained in 1986 (it has since become the norm for the constituent countries of the Kingdom, of which Aruba is one).
This pensive – or possibly angry – little person is the weirdest statue that I have come across in Oranjestad. It stands behind the fence of what I believe is a private medical facility. There is a band-aid on his shoulder, so maybe he is just getting over the pain of vaccination.
The English-style phone booth is a popular picture spot during busy hours, while the stones in the foreground have something to do with the ancient history of the island.
There are also occasional murals, from vivid random pictures to nearby establishments’ adverts.
To round things off, a number of these small crustaceans showed me their colors near the waterfront.
And there it is, Oranjestad. Little in terms of exceptional, but not without positive impressions.
This article is also featured on GPSmyCity. To download this article for offline reading or create a self-guided walking tour to visit the attractions highlighted in this article, go to Walking Tours and Articles in Oranjestad.