走访荷属ABC三岛：阿鲁巴、博内尔、库拉索(3/3)
Learn Your Dutch ABCs: Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao
Each of these three Caribbean islands, all part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, provides a unique travel experience
Aruba
After the cultural depth of Curacao and the wide-open spaces of Bonaire, Aruba suffers greatly by comparison. All three islands have oil refineries, for instance. It’s just that on Aruba the refinery is next door to otherwise beautiful Rodgers Beach. Being islands, all three necessarily have shipping operations. But on Aruba the warehouses butt up against the low-rise hotel zone.
Arikok National Park covers more than 13 square miles, or one-fifth of this 19-mile-long, six-mile-wide island. It’s an important hedge against rampant development by the 100,000-plus people who live elsewhere on Aruba. But something very important is missing in this park, among the giant cacti, stranded sand dunes and weirdly twisted divi trees. Where are the lizards I saw on Bonaire?
Sadly, even Aruba’s most-famed and photographed landmark, the Natural Bridge, is gone. The 100-foot-long seaside arch collapsed in 2005, under pressure from the pounding surf that formed it.
The good side
Aruba’s saving grace may be its restaurants. In the high-rise hotel zone of Palm Beach, ask for an outside table at the Hyatt Regency’s continental restaurant Ruinas del Mar, and you’ll dine at the edge of a koi pond graced by black swans. Or settle in for several Belgian-French courses at Le Dome, across from Eagle Beach, and you may not want to eat anywhere else the rest of your stay.
When it comes time to say goodbye, have dinner at La Trattoria el Faro Blanco. It’s the hilltop restaurant at the foot of the California Lighthouse, on the northwest tip of the island. What you’ll remember won’t be the actual meal, but the view across the island, glimmering in the dark.
Specialized Terms
Cactus (n) 仙人掌 a desert plant, usually with sharp spines and thick stems for storing water
Koi (n) 锦鲤 a bright-colored large edible fish of Japan and eastern Asia
Vocabulary Focus
Low-rise (n) containing only one or two floors
Hedge (n) a way of controlling or limiting something
Rampant (adj) getting worse quickly and in an uncontrolled way
Divi tree (n) 坚果苏木
Continental (adj) relating to Europe, especially western Europe but not including the British Isles
Discussion Question
How come the used-to-be scenic spot go downhill? Could you guess?
Extra Exercise
1. Translate the following sentence into Chinese, ‘The 100-foot-long seaside arch collapsed in 2005, under pressure from the pounding surf that formed it.’
2. According to the recording, Naomi said there are many Greek words used, could you name one?
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