Palapas at Eagle Beach
New Palapas at Eagle Beach

In June I wrote about how palapas are under fire at several locations at Palm Beach and Eagle Beach. The issue back then was the uncontrolled ‘planting’ of new ‘grass huts’ - also known as palapas - on Aruba’s most important beaches. For the ones who don’t know all Aruba beaches are public, therefore to put any structure on a beach there’s need for a permit.

The latest conflict is currently ongoing at Eagle Beach. Newly opened condo Oceania Residences at Eagle Beach is ‘planting’ fresh palapas. According to Oceania they are in the possession of a permit, but officials claim otherwise. Oceania continues to put the palapas, meanwhile officials announced they are removing them.

Palapas? Who cares, right? There’s another issue here, namely building without permits. Image someone random decides to build some kind of an ugly/dangerous wooden structure for personal use right next to the palapas. I don’t think that’s the direction the beaches need to take. Apparently there are also issues going on at Palm Beach. One thing’s for sure, they do look nice and make great photographs.