| Aruba | |
| OooOo | Aruba
[img]http://www.aruba.com/ecards/images/beach01.jpg[/img]
Geography: Aruba is the smallest island in the Leeward group of the Dutch Caribbean islands, which also include
Bonaire and Curaçao. They are popularly known as the ABCs.
As the westernmost island of the group, Aruba is the final link in the long Antillean chain, lying 20km (12.5 miles) off the Venezuelan coast.
The island is 30km (19.6 miles) long and 9km (6 miles) across at its widest and has a flat landscape dominated by Jamanota Mountain (188m/617ft).
The west and southwest coast, known as Palm Beach, boasts 11km (7 miles) of palm-fringed powder-white sands, while in complete contrast the east coast has a desolate, windswept shoreline of jagged rocks carved into weird shapes by the pounding surf.
Background:
The year was 1499. Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda had landed on 19,000 hectares of sand, cactus and stone, just off the coast of Venezuela. He scribed in the ships logbook, "I came...to an island of giants!" Archaeological digs on the side on the island confirm that Ojeda's observation was correct. The remains of the first settlers of Aruba were much larger than the average European of that day.
Around the mid 1600's, the Dutch, led by Peter Stuyvesant, who directed Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, paid a visit to Aruba to get horses to stage raids against the Spanish in nearby Venezuela, and damage they had done in Bonaire during the Eighty Year War against Spain. In the 1800's, revolutions in Venezuela brought many refugees of the Spanish to the island. During this time, Aruba remained economically quite while business boomed in nearby Curaçao.
Then in the mid 1800's, gold was discovered near this mountain on Aruba. It is the highest point on the island. It's a small mountain called Jamanota. It's 188 meters high. For almost 100 years, gold became a major export along with the pod of the divi-divi tree used for tanning leather, and aloe! You may not know it, but at one time this island supplied over 30% of the world's supply of aloe.
The Royal Dutch Shell refinery arrived on the island in 1926, along the Eagle Beach area. And not far behind was the Standard Oil of New Jersey, Lago Refinery in San Nicholas. Both were major economical boosts for the island.
Area And Population: Area 193 sq km Population 70,441 Nation's Capitol Oranjestad Money Issues: Gross Domestic Product $1,940,000,000 GDP Per Capita $28,000 Military Spending N/A Life Expectancy: Average Life Expectancy 78.67 years Avg Life - Male 75.32 years Avg Life - Female 82.19 years International Disputes: none Language: The official language is Dutch. English and Spanish are also spoken. The islanders also speak Papiamento, which is a combination of Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English and Indian languages. Macedonian is an asset. [:D] more pictures http://www.bluecamaro.com/photo/aruba/ |