arubabeaches.net

Christmas celebrations are considered by many locals to be the most joyful time of year. Despite the desert-like climate people decorate their houses with lights on the roof edges, which are supposed to resemble snow, and the ever present pine tree decoration in houses, businesses and resorts.

On Christmas Eve some families come together to share a moment and exchange gifts, others have a reunion on Christmas Day and open gifts then, while others celebrate “second” Christmas Day, on the 26th, by visiting friends.

I would like to thank all readers for visiting arubabeaches.net and hope to welcome you to back in the coming months.

Whatever you plans are, wherever you are, I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Traveling is becoming more and more difficult every day. Long lines and delays are more the rule then exception. It isn’t any different here in Aruba. Expect long lines, especially if traveling on Saturdays. The old cliché applies in this case: exercise patients, don’t get upset, it won’t do you any good. Bring a book, a game, an iPod or anything to keep you busy.

To avoid long lines apply the oldest trick in the book. Arrive at the airport super early. I only suggest this if you are leaving Aruba Saturday and Sunday. The majority of the important flights leave starting noon.

Meanwhile enjoy your well earned vacation and don’t think about the negatives.

Merry Christmas

Festivities are upon us in the coming week. Abundance in food, gifts exchanges, decorated baskets (similar to gift exchanged, with the difference that the submitters are generally businesses), colorful houses are common rituals on this island.

How about the beaches? Are there some traditions with the beaches? Not really. Some people go out camping, but this is seldom done. In fact the beaches around the holiday are expected to be very empty. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for a quiet beach day.

If you’d prefer to stay in-house, many resorts organize activities related to the holiday. Christmas-day will be a ghost-town in downtown Oranjestad. Tour operators shut down as well. Expect the airport and resorts (obviously) to remain open. Taxis won’t be that easy the find. Casinos open later in the night. How about restaurants? Don’t bet on it, only the in-house ones will be open.

Have an enjoyable time, whether in Aruba or elsewhere.

Divi is moving along swiftly with the planned expansion of the timeshare units at Divi Phoenix. Since the last time I wrote about the project the contours becoming more and more visible. It’s seems like the setup of the steel framing is over. The roof and walls are coming up now. In above picture you can see the progress and compare it to a shot I took back in September.

In an island where the weather is very boring - sunny and eighties - we surely are experiencing unstable weather as of late. Overcast and tropical rain showers (short and stiff) are common these days. As I mentioned in earlier posts, despite of this fact there’s still enough sun-hours for your enjoyment.

I tried to figure out what the specific reason for this kind of weather, but other than blaming a tropical depression, I couldn’t find anything special.

The same kind of rainy streak happened about three years ago and this prompted many people to start doubting if people should continue to state that “it never rains in Aruba”. I never supported this “never rains” claim anyway, but fact is that it rains 17 inches average on this island and it is unevenly distributed during the year. In other words, it might rain more at the end of the year. Experts then blamed it on the weather phenomenon “La Nina”.

After the above mentioned rainy period passes, the drought comes with a vengeance. It goes months on without a single drop of rain. It gets scorching hot. It surely is going to happen once more in the following months.

For several months now I’ve been seeing a piece of ground being prepared for some kind of construction. This ground is between Amsterdam Manor hotel and Divi Phoenix timeshare resort. Formerly on this ground there was a shopping area amongst others, which was a huge failure. Perhaps the setup itself, or maybe the location wasn’t the best, fact is it wasn’t a success.

When the clean-up was wrapped up and the surface was flattened, a wall around the premises was build. Now that construction is ready to start soon, the developer has put up a board with little (sales) information. I’ll take a shot of it soon. The construction for the next condominium project is ready to start soon: The Cliff Beachfront Condominium. There’s a website available in flash with a presentation: www.thecliffaruba.com.

I’ve seen the online presentation and must say that the artist rendering of the project seems very slick, as do most. I took a couple of screenshots of the presentation.

Presentation The Cliff (with a typo in the Flash-presentation)

Nice shot

Complete rendering of The Cliff Condominium
 

Closer view of The Cliff
 

According to the presentation expect “127 exclusive ocean view residences”
 
For more information visit www.thecliffaruba.com.