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local Thursday 12 OcTOber 2023

Visit the natural bridges of Aruba!

(Oranjestad)—After you’ve many years. the Caribbean at the time.
visited the Alto Vista For many years, this site was
Church, the Bushiribana The bridge was formed also a frequently visited
Gold Mill Ruins and the during thousands of years, beach, as the bridge had
mini natural pool that is lo- cut and crafted by the a small opening through
cated right next to it, you’re wild waves that crash into which the water would flow
next up around the north- the coral stone walls of the into the tiny beach.
ern coast line must be the coast. Before its collapse,
Natural Bridge. Once the this bridge measured 30 Unfortunately in 2005, the Current state of the Natural Bridge
largest natural bridge in the meters in length and 7 me- bridge collapsed, and the
Caribbean, this bridge has ters in height, making it the little beach dried up. De- there is now a smaller nat- “Baby Bridge” or “Daugh-
been a tourist attraction for biggest natural bridge in spite this, this site remained ural bridge very close. This ter Bridge”.q
a tourist attraction, with bridge is often called the
many visitors walking along
the coral cliffs of the bridge
to see the spectacular view
of the northern coastline
and the Caribbean Sea.
Visitors can also still visit the
souvenir shop on the left of
the bridge entrance.

While the natural bridge
The Baby Natural Bridge The Natural Bridge pre-collapse
no longer is functional,

Papiamento words and phrases you may want to know!

(Oranjestad)—Aruba is a probably the most famous the Ayo Rock Formation, but ternoon to early evening to gain some extra points
potting melt of different Papiamento word for tour- also…kinda?). We may also hours, we use “bon tardi” to from younger locals, you
nationalities, cultures and ists. use “te oro”, which means greet people, which means can also say “se”, which is
languages. Primarily for this “see you later”. “good afternoon”. “Tardi” a more casual affirmative
reason, the average Aruban Hi! Bye! actually comes from the used mostly by the younger
can understand and speak To be fair, there is no unique Greetings during the day word “atardi”, which direct- generation. However, do
Dutch, English and Spanish way to say “hello” in Pa- Most, if not all, languages ly translates to “afternoon”. note: some older genera-
relatively well. However, as piamento. At least, not of- have different ways to greet However, the shortened tions may find this improper
much as we pride ourselves ficially. We often just use according to the time of “tardi” is used to keep the and not respectful, so keep
in being able to commu- the English “hello” or “hey”, day, and Papiamento is no rhythm on the phrase. And that in mind.
nicate with almost every- or Dutch “hallo” to greet different. Since Papiamento the same could be said for
one, we cherish our native someone. We do however, is heavily influences from our last greeting of the day. Thanks man…
tongue Papiamento above always follow it up with “con Portuguese and Spanish, 3. Bon nochi. You Lastly, a word that we
all else. Want to learn some bay?” or “con ta?” Con bay some of these phrases may guessed it, “bon nochi” can also say more often is
common words in our lan- is a shortened version of look very familiar. means “good night”. Just “danki”, which means liter-
guage? Here are a few ba- “con ta bay?”, which essen- like “tardi”, “nochi” is actu- ally “thank you”. “Danki”
sic words and phrases that tially means “how are you?” 1. Bon dia is used in the ally the shortened version of is derived from the Dutch
can get you a hat tip from morning, up to about noon. the word “anochi”. word “bedankt”. Though we
an Aruban. The word “con” in Papia- Bon dia essentially means don’t really have a transla-
mento means “how?” and is good morning. The word Yes…no…maybe? tion for “I appreciate it” in
When you arrive at the air- pronounced with a rounder “bon” means “good”, and The affirmative and nega- English, we do use “masha
port in Aruba, one of the “o” sounds, like in the Eng- while “dia” does not directly tive expression is very sim- danki” to convey the mes-
first words in Papiamento lish word “cone”. “Ta bay” mean “morning” in English, it ple in Papiamento. Just like sage. “Masha” means “a

you may encounter is “Bon refers to how you are doing. is used often to refer to the Spanish, our yeses are “si” lot” or “very”, so “masha
bini.” Bon bini in Papiamen- When we say goodbye, we morning time. and our no’s are “no”. Pret- danki” means “thank you
to means welcome, and is use the word “ayo” (not like 2. Bon tardi. In the af- ty easy right? If you want very much”. q