Page 12 - AHATA

Thursday 27 March 2025 locAl
A10

Aruban legends:

Frenchman’s Pass

and there have been many wheel. For the next few turns,
accounts of spirits roaming the hand appeared again.
the area of Spanish Lagoon. After having had enough,
the man decided to jump
There are many ghost stories out and he ran to Santa Cruz.
surrounding this area, but
one of the most famous one Arriving at a nearby bar, he
involves a lonely hitchhiker, ordered a drink and began
trying to find a ride back to tell everyone about his
home in the dark rainy night. experience. Everyone grew
quiet, because they realized
Sometime after trying to he wasn’t some drunk mess-
hitchhike, the man saw a ing around; he was telling the
car approaching, appearing truth.
almost ghost-like in the rain.
However, since he needed Sometime later, two men
a ride real bad, he didn’t walked into the bar and one
think twice and jumped in. of them noticed the hitchhik-
But to his horror, he noticed er. He called out to his buddy
that the there was no driver and said: “Look, there’s the
in the front. Paralyzed with idiot who sat in our car when
(Oranjestad)—If you ever fire arms, the indigenous set- fear, he didn’t dare to get we were pushing it!”
plan on taking a group tour The history of the French- tlers began to retreat, and out, and the car started to
of the island, you may pass man’s pass—and how it got hid away in nearby caves. move. French man’s pass is one of
through the Frenchman’s its name—dates back to the The French colonizers tried the few sites on the island
Pass in Balashi. The French- colonization era, when the to smoke them out of the When approaching a sharp that keeps the locals on their
man’s pass (known to locals French tried to colonize the caves, but the indigenous turn, the hitch hiker braced toes. While most ghost stories
as “Franse Pas”) remains a island, but were met with an settlers ended up inhaling for impact, but just when he may not have real grounds—
mysterious—and spooky— angry mob of indigenous set- too much smoke and most though the car might drive or some may even be a set
road of which its legend is tlers, refusing to give up their died in those caves. From straight off the road and up story for a joke, this pass
told from generation to gen- land. However, as the French then on, this passage was crash, he saw a hand appear contributes a lot to our cul-
eration. were heavily equipped with known as Frenchman’s Pass, out the window and turn the ture of folkloric story-telling.q

Planning on snorkeling? Get to know our Candelchi!

(Oranjestad)—If you’re ever illustrate some fish and their
planning on snorkeling dur- names in Papiamento.
ing your vacation on Aruba,
you may spot fish that you Candelchi, Squirrelfish, Ho-
can’t recognize. One of locentrus adscensionis:
these may be the “Candel- Candelchi actually refers to
chi” (Squirrelfish), a com- the entire squirrelfish family
mon, yet shy fish that swims or, as some say, when we
all year long in the waters say candelchi, we mean
of Aruba. several different species but
without distinguishing them
Let's talk about the names by species. In this picture,
of fish. Do you know your we are showing the most
fish? The Department of common one in our waters,
Department of Agriculture, which is called squirrelfish
Livestock, and Fisheries, in English or scientifically
known as Santa Rosa, offers known as Holocentrus ad-
this informative article that scensionis.

Under candelchi, we in fins and are always armed. In Aruba:
Aruba generally refer to all Over at our sister island Cu- Candelchi are found on
the different species of squir- raçao, they are called "bari reefs or areas with structure
relfish. They all look alike and di clabo" (nail barrel) for in the water where they can
it's really difficult to distin- that reason. hide. Although they prefer to
guish between them. hunt for food at night, they
In our waters, there are 7 to 8 are also active during the
The squirrelfish family is dis- types or species present and day. They are edible and
tinguished by the following they are sometimes caught delicious when prepared
characteristics. They are and seen occasionally. They dry and crispy with lime. It
heart-shaped with pink or can be distinguished by dif- is particularly challenging to
red hues and often show ferent marks such as color scale the fish, which is why
heart-shaped streaks be- on the dorsal spine or marks it is not one of the favorites
tween the scales along on the body. among fishermen. They of-
the body. They have hard ten live in groups.q