Page 15 - AHATA

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LOCAL Tuesday 2 december 2025

Rock stacking and its harmful effects

(Oranjestad)—The organi- animal species living in the meaning behind this
zation Aruba Birdlife Con- Aruba’s wilderness. Experts activity is making a wish,
servation has in the past warn that “rock stacking” but they do not realize its
raised concerns about could even lead certain negative impact.
the phenomenon of “rock species to extinction.
stacking” in the area of Aruba Birdlife Conserva-
Baby Beach and warned In Aruba, much of the tion’s post not only raises
about the dangers it poses, “rock stacking” also occurs alarms about the activity
especially for children. near Arikok National Park. but also now that this phe-
Although this activity is not nomenon has reached
As known, “rock stacking” illegal in Aruba, it may be Baby Beach, some of the
is not illegal in Aruba, but its time for park authorities to stacked stone towers are
impact on nature is harmful impose stricter regulations up to 1.7 meters high, which
as the stones form part of on this activity. can be very dangerous, es-
the natural habitat of small Tourists often believe that pecially for children.q

Papiamento words and phrases you may want to know!

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