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LOCAL Monday 3 noveMber 2025

Aruban legends: Frenchman’s Pass

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

Rock stacking and its harmful effects

(Oranjestad)—Through a Facebook post, the or-
ganization Aruba Birdlife Conservation has raised
an alarm about the phenomenon of “rock stack-
ing” reaching the area of Baby Beach and warned
about the dangers it poses, especially for children.

As known, “rock stacking” is not illegal in Aruba,
but its impact on nature is harmful as the stones
form part of the natural habitat of small animal
species living in Aruba’s wilderness. Experts warn
that “rock stacking” could even lead certain spe-
cies to extinction.

In Aruba, much of the “rock stacking” also occurs
near Arikok National Park. Although this activity is
not illegal in Aruba, it may be time for park authori-
ties to impose stricter regulations on this activity.
Tourists often believe that the meaning behind this
activity is making a wish, but they do not realize its
negative impact.

Aruba Birdlife Conservation’s post not only raises
alarms about the activity but also now that this
phenomenon has reached Baby Beach, some
of the stacked stone towers are up to 1.7 meters
high, which can be very dangerous, especially for
children.q