The Paseo Herencia shopping mall is located near the high rise hotels in Aruba. This video shows some of the shops and restaurants that are located there. There are a few more but you get the idea. Take a view.
There are many more shops and carts selling jewelry, T-shirts, and other small items along the promenade leading to the mall. So, take your time and find exactly what you want. Bon dia!
Regular readers of this blog know that Charlie’s Bar is an Aruban institution of sorts. The place is absolutely packed with left behind items. It’s difficult to describe so here is some video footage.
Charlie was a good friend and may he rest in peace. I made him a character in An Island Away because he embodied the spirit and sensibility of San Nicolaas, which is a town like none other. See you around there someday.
Well, I’m back on the island of Aruba. And here is a video of the approach, aboard American Airlines flight 1047 from Miami to Aruba. The video begins with a shot of the northwest corner of the island and continues along the coast, showing Palm and Eagle beaches. Then you see the cruise ship terminal at Oranjestaad and finally the landing at the airport. See you there.
Bon dia!
I’m just learning this video software. Once I get it down, the quality will improve. In the mean time, stick with me on the learning curve.
Going back through my story notes this morning, I stumbled on some scenes for the end of a novel I mentioned earlier, MacMillan Judge, Privateer. Without ruining the story, I can tell you that our man, Captain MacMillan Judge, ends up heading to that favorite island of mine, namely Aruba. (Don’t worry, this story will be a long time coming. It’s third in line right now.) Well, in Oranjestaad there is Fort Zoutman, which today is more or less dwarfed by nearby commercial structures. However, back in the day, it was enough to keep the island under control.
The photo to the right is of the Willem III tower. It served as a general lookout for the soldiers in the fort that sits below and behind it. Judge spots this tower as he cruises the coast in search of a decent anchorage. In case I forgot to mention it, MacMillan Judge, Privateer is set in 1815-1816. I’ve been brushing up on my history of this period, not only of Aruba, but also the Mediterranean area around southern Spain and the so-called Barbary Coast. This was a wild time in the history of the known world. The United States was a new country. Britain and France had been at war (yes, again) for quite a while. Spain, although not a superpower, still had some fangs. Through these tricky times MacMillan Judge and his crew of the privateer-built, topsail schooner Fletcher pick their way to fortune and glory. Actually that makes light of the serious themes in the story, but it sounded like the blurb you might find on the back of a sailing novel and I’m a firm believer in some excitement now and then.
It’s had to imagine a time when the canon pictured below was a key component to military domination.
Nonetheless, they did the job. In the course of the story, MacMillan Judge receives two long guns from Don Francisco, a Spanish aristocrat whose family has been harassed by the Barbary Pirates for generations. Those two long guns figure into MacMillan’s strategy as he beats back an attack by two corsairs. There I go again, telling too much of the story. Well, let’s leave it at that. For now.
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