The power of Aruba By Antoinette DeWit

Divi-divi tree on Eagle Beach. The famous Divi Divi tree is Aruba's natural compass, always pointing in a southwesterly direction due to the trade winds that blow across the island
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Each time I return from Aruba, my Island paradise in the southern Caribbean Sea, I think about what draws me back year after year and sometimes a few times a year.

I asked Siri, one day, to tell me how far Aruba is from my home base in British Columbia Canada. She says she thinks it’s about 6,300 kilometers. When she added the words “I think”, I smiled and asked how long it takes to fly there. I expected her to say “does it really matter?”

Turns out the distance and the time doesn’t really matter at all to anyone I know who has gone there more than once. There is a mystic about the place. It’s small, quaint, clean. It’s a tourist destination for fabulous beaches, purified, fresh drinking water, excellent weather, quality accommodations, attractions, activities of all sorts and local as well as international dining. The government knows that. The businesses know that. The citizens know that. Every effort is made to please and welcome people from around the world. Every effort is made to share the citizens’ pride of the Island and all it has to offer, and every citizen knows how important the tourists are to their economy and future wellbeing.

I started going there about thirty years ago after many efforts by my now deceased parents to get me to join them there for a vacation. I kept saying no, no and no. It seemed so ridiculously far to go and no matter how hard they tried, nobody in the family took them up on their offer.

But, alas, I finally gave in. I was hooked right away! And, I have been going back every single year, sometimes as many as four times a year. The place has become somewhat like a magnetic force, energizing, uplifting, relaxing. I now just have to go there and it has comfortably become my home away from home. Peaceful. Calming. Beautiful.

Over the years I have befriended some locals who proudly show me very interesting nooks and crannies, or introduce me to activities I’d likely never make time for at my main home base. Now my sister and brother in law have bought in, their adult children have experienced it, and we enjoy being there together at least one visit per year.

The Island is small — maybe 15 km x 8 km, and houses about 100,000 people. It is independent but part of the Dutch Antilles. The official government language is Dutch; but, the official local language is Papiamento and I’ve even taken lessons.

Be it near or far … for me — it’s never far and always near. Whether I am here or there, going there or coming back here, I close my eyes and see it; I reach out my arms and feel it; I breath in the air and smell it; I put my ear to a conch and hear those subtle waves. And, to use the fifth sense of taste metaphorically, as a delicacy, the Island radiates the delicious taste of mystic, magic and memories — pleasant, powerful, peaceful; truly unmatchable and truly my paradise on earth.