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LOCAL Wednesday 13 november 2024

Aruba Tourism Authority honored loyal visitors at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort!

The Aruba Tourism Authority recently had the The honorees were:
great pleasure of recognizing Distinguished Visi- Distinguished Visitors
tors of Aruba. The honorees were respectively Mr. Marc & Mrs. Lucille Poitras from Danielson,
honored with a certificate for their years of visits, Connecticut, United States.
loyalty, and love for the island of Aruba.
Ms. Marouska Heyliger representing the Aruba
The honorary certification is presented on be- Tourism Authority, and staff members of Bucuti
half of the Minister of Tourism as a token of ap- & Tara Beach Club Resort bestowed the certifi-
preciation and to say “Masha Danki” to guests cate upon the honorees, presented them with
who have visited Aruba 10, 20, or 35 years or gifts, and thanked them for choosing Aruba
more consecutively. as their favorite vacation destination, as their
home away from home.

The three levels of honor are as follows: The top reasons for returning to Aruba provided
Distinguished Visitor (10>years consecutively vis- by the honorees were:
iting Aruba) • Came here for our honeymoon in 2008
Goodwill Ambassador (20>years consecutively • The weather is always good
visiting Aruba) • We have come to call Aruba, especially On behalf of the Aruba Tourism Authority, we
Emerald Ambassador (35>years consecutively Bucuti our 2nd home would like to express our sincere gratitude and
visiting Aruba) • We now have family (our Bucuti people) appreciation to the honorees for their contin-
and friends here! ued visits to the “One Happy Island”.q

Papiamento words and phrases you may want to know!

(Oranjestad)—Aruba is a melting pot ferent ways to greet according to “anochi”.
of different nationalities, cultures and the time of day, and Papiamento
languages. Primarily for this reason, is no different. Since Papiamento is Yes…no…maybe?
the average Aruban can understand heavily influences from Portuguese The affirmative and negative expres-
and speak Dutch, English and Span- and Spanish, some of these phrases sion is very simple in Papiamento.
ish relatively well. However, as much may look very familiar. Just like Spanish, our yeses are “si”
as we pride ourselves in being able 1. Bon dia is used in the morning, and our no’s are “no”. Pretty easy
to communicate with almost every- up to about noon. Bon dia es- right? If you want to gain some ex-
one, we cherish our native tongue sentially means good morning. tra points from younger locals, you
Papiamento above all else. Want to The word “bon” means “good”, can also say “se”, which is a more
learn some common words in our “con bay?” or “con ta?” Con bay is a and while “dia” does not directly casual affirmative used mostly by the
language? Here are a few basic shortened version of “con ta bay?”, mean “morning” in English, it is younger generation. However, do
words and phrases that can get you which essentially means “how are used often to refer to the morn- note: some older generations may
a hat tip from an Aruban. you?” ing time. find this improper and not respectful,
2. Bon tardi. In the afternoon to so keep that in mind.
When you arrive at the airport in The word “con” in Papiamento early evening hours, we use “bon
Aruba, one of the first words in Pa- means “how?” and is pronounced tardi” to greet people, which Thanks man…
piamento you may encounter is “Bon with a rounder “o” sounds, like in the means “good afternoon”. “Tardi” Lastly, a word that we can also say
bini.” Bon bini in Papiamento means English word “cone”. “Ta bay” refers actually comes from the word more often is “danki”, which means
welcome, and is probably the most to how you are doing. “atardi”, which directly trans- literally “thank you”. “Danki” is de-
famous Papiamento word for tourists. lates to “afternoon”. However, rived from the Dutch word “be-
When we say goodbye, we use the the shortened “tardi” is used to dankt”. Though we don’t really have
Hi! Bye! word “ayo” (not like the Ayo Rock keep the rhythm on the phrase. a translation for “I appreciate it” in
To be fair, there is no unique way to Formation, but also…kinda?). We And the same could be said for English, we do use “masha danki”
say “hello” in Papiamento. At least, may also use “te oro”, which means our last greeting of the day. to convey the message. “Masha”
not officially. We often just use the “see you later”. 3. Bon nochi. You guessed it, “bon means “a lot” or “very”, so “ma-
English “hello” or “hey”, or Dutch nochi” means “good night”. Just sha danki” means “thank you very
“hallo” to greet someone. We do Greetings during the day like “tardi”, “nochi” is actually the much”. q
however, always follow it up with Most, if not all, languages have dif- shortened version of the word