More About Dia Nacional pa Cuida Aruba

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/more-about-dia-nacional-pa-cuida-aruba/

Filling a Gap Year with great content

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/filling-a-gap-year-with-great-content/

Sunshine Rehab Center is its last planning stages

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/sunshine-rehab-center-is-its-last-planning-stages/

The Mystery of Three Burnt Vehicles

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/the-mystery-of-three-burnt-vehicles/

What the Numbers are Saying

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/what-the-numbers-are-saying/

In honor of National Cleaning Day

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/in-honor-of-national-cleaning-day/

I applaud and support every cleaner. The campaign was organized in a rush, but the next one given more time will be successful. CEDE Aruba reports 160 volunteers signed up for 7 locations, and hopefully all locals will clean up around their garden and house.

Why no used our prisoner, as cleaners, in more remote areas. Think about it. Fresh air, rewarding work, light exercise. Next time, empty KIA, put the guys and girls to good use, Benny Sevinger was the minister of Infrastructure, he should organize. We have talent in KIA.

In honor of national cleaning day I would like to address an issue already addressed by my colleague Tito Lacle. This one-time campaign is worrisome. We need an ongoing, systematic initiative to keep the island clean every day of the year.  In the spirit of don’t feed a man once, teach him to fish.

All over the world shopkeepers and business owners keep their entrance clean, pick-up cigarette butts, and wrappers, except on Palm Beach. Why? We have litter laws, why aren’t they respected.

Under the AVP government Minister Mike de Mesa conducted a survey and found that there are 39 illegal dumps on the island. My source reveals that only 50% of the island’s trash gets to the official processing plant, the rest is dispersed all over the island. Take for example Matadera. The illegal Dump of Mataders. (Kill and Bury?)

Property land.

To hell with the neighbors. The owners are defended in court by attorneys Croes, Wever, Ruiz, and for the past ten years while attempts have been made to close the location, the dumping continues undisturbed. No one does anything to STOP the ILLEGAL dumping.

The area used to provide sand for construction, and the excavation left a big hole which the owner of the terrain, filled with horrors and set aflame. From what I understand the terrain belongs to Mario Croes, the owner of Mario’s sports shop, and it is used by two contractors, Dijkhoff Contractor NV from Moko, and Tromp, they dump their construction debris plus the content of the red waste bins they rent out.

A neighbor writes.

There is an illegal dump near our neighborhood that has been burning continuously for the past month. We’ve reported it to the Government, the City Inspector, the Police, the Fire Department, and the Department of Nature, but nothing has been done. Every agency keeps referring us to someone else, and no one is taking responsibility.

This isn’t the first time. About three years ago, our community collected signatures and prepared a complete file that we gave the ministers at the time. The situation improved for a while, but the burning never completely stopped. Then, around the San Juan celebrations, they filled the pit with more waste, and the fire became much worse. It’s now burning underground, and the Fire Department says they can’t extinguish it because of that.

For the past month we’ve been breathing toxic smoke every day. I’m especially concerned because I have a one-month-old baby, and I’m very worried about the health effects on him and everyone else living nearby.

I’m attaching the file we prepared three years ago, along with recent photos showing the current situation. We would be incredibly grateful if you could help raise awareness of this issue or cover this story so that the authorities finally act.

(The file was attached, it’s a horror story)

The recent ATA monthly report proves that June was a banner month. The Argentinian market increased 177.6% nights, thanks to a convenient flight connection. In the twelve months between June 2025 to June 2026 the island hosted 845,501 overnight visitors and 551,168 cruise passengers.

There are four categories of accommodations on the island. Together they provided our visitors with lodging, The report states that 25.5% of nights spent on the island were spent at hotels, 11.2%, at all-inclusives, 24.8% at timeshares and 41.5% at others, meaning at vacation rentals, better referred to as short term rentals, STRs.

Just to be clear, in the past 12 months 41% of visitor nights, were spent at STRs.

Over the past 6 or 7 years that STR market grew exponentially. The incredible growth of the island’s STRs is due to the island’s popularity but it went unchecked, organic, unmanaged. While we are extremely focused on the hotels, and they must ask for permits at every move and report all income and/or construction, the STRs enjoyed a free rein. Developers built, visitors bought, locals got squeezed out of the market, properties became STRs.

The ATA report reveals that the average occupancy among the estimated 6,000 STRs on the island was 57% in June, 66% YTD. What does this tell you? That we have too many.

How many do we need?

There is room for the STR product, but it is a business, and must be managed with similar yet different hospitality strategies.

We do not know how to manage that aspect of our tourism, but there are people in the world who know, companies who can help manage that growth, lowering volume, raising quality.

The report states that in 2023, A.T.A. began working with Lighthouse, to tracks short-term rentals at the property level through their dashboard. Tracking is good, that means the data is available, and that should be helpful in the management of that market segment. Still, nothing is happening.

The way our hotels identified their sweet spot where their room rate converges with the kind of guest they like to attract, STRs must be managed similarly, in several categories, Luxury, Mid-level, and Value, a subtle way to define the budget category. Value should not overpower our luxury travel.

And we should not forget that STRs were good to locals, supplementing family incomes and helping seniors pay their bills. It was an effective way of sharing the economy, and locals are always looking to supplement their incomes since salaries are incredibly low. But the introduction of foreign buyers, upset the apple cart, not just in Aruba, but all over the world.

The ATA report also includes information about cruise ships. In June that segment of the market posted an increase of 7.1% in the number of passengers, with a total of 213 cruise calls from June 2025 to June 2026, that is an 8.1% growth in cruise calls.

Put yourself in the cruise passenger’s shoes. Would you have an enjoyable time in Aruba?

We are unprepared for such a massive almost daily invasion and the locals suffer the consequences in traffic, congestion and beach and recreation accessibility.

These days, there is no room for locals on beaches. And there is no rest for the residents of Malmok, overwhelmed by the number of vehicles parked in front of their homes.

Yesterday an announcement by the airport revealed that GOL Linhas Aéreas plans to discontinue their direct flights between Brazil and Aruba. My friends in the industry say that “Brazil has a lot more potential for high end than Argentina. We are not marketing properly to attract the right ones.”

And we do not know where we are going with all that bonanza.

The caretaker of the Daimari Ranch called the Police about smoke rising from a biking trail around the cove, then the Police according to unofficial reports found three incinerated vehicles, one of them, the minivan, belonging the ranch caretaker.

Based on what we know – we know extraordinarily little – police are investigating the suspicious, obviously arson case, and had not yet identified a suspect, suspects, or revealed a motive.

The vehicles were destroyed which would make forensic examination difficult.

Strange but true, the police have been quiet, not even reporting on the criminal incident. So far, no official announcement of arrests or charges related to the case. The Chief of Police is indeed away, but that should not have prevented his minions from reporting transparently on their findings.

We can speculate about criminal activity and about an attempt to destroy evidence, but that would be a waste of time.

My friends however speculated that because of the remote area, and multiple targets, it can perhaps be an opportune crime, the work of bored teens, on vacation, looking to get into trouble.

Torched cars have been featured in many Latin urban rap clips, according to Claude, from Bad Bunny to Ozuna, Nicky Jam and Feid. Claude also told me that footage of cars erupting in flames in widely available from multiple Paris riots, also recently in July over the World Cup semifinal unrest, when France lost to Spain. In The U.S., we have seen torched cars in the wake of the George Floyd protests and riots.

The French riots in 2024, have been used in backdrops to numerous music videos because they were widely documented.

I am not discounting the theory, that this is random, for fun, but it would be foolish to automatically assume that. The motive could be different in view of the location, and the drug drops in the area behind the park.

To date, it is just a mystery, which will surely be forgotten, no arrests, no suspects, no follow up, no official statement, nor police update. I do not know how the men in blue can get away with staying silent. Their vocero is usually everywhere, first. Not this time.

Last week at a press conference called by Paseo Herencia to wrap up the Venezuelan Disaster Relief, developer/builder Alex Lovera delivered great news off stage. His grass root effort yielded 80 tons of supplies that were shipped to Venezuela, powered by volunteered, on land and by sea. He also announced a September opening of the Sunshine Rehab Center at Paseo Herencia, targeting children and young people with a physical and / or mental disability. The center, with four friendly spaces, outfitted with machines and equipment, will offer free of charge therapy, staffed by local and imported therapists participating on both paid and voluntary basis. All activities will be funded by Paseo Herencia & Aruba Brokers, a family-owned real estate company operating here for more than 30 years.

Great news to about 90 children with various brain disorders on the island. Unfortunately that vulnerable demographic with a physical and / or mental disability is considered incidental by the island’s Sickness Insurance provider, AZV, and has no government-sponsored rehab center at its disposal.

For the past 17 years, a father stepped in with a private initiative, Gijs de Rooij, the father of Micky who as a five-month-old baby sustained severe and irreversible brain injury after a car accident on Aruba, September 20, 2009. For the past 17 years Gijs fundraised for pediatric physiotherapy, pediatric ergo therapy, teaching children everyday skills, and pre-verbal speech therapy, via a foundation he registered, Micky’s Foundation. Over the years, the number of children in need of this form of therapy grew, from 4 to 90 — since the pilot project in 2014. But with perseverance the foundation was able to run more than 5,000 therapy hours, each year, as Gijs knocked on every door, identified sponsors, and pleaded with the Minister of Health and AZV for support.

Support from the medical establishment meant an allocation of therapy hours for each child, and the hiring of therapists with specialized knowledge and experience with children with a motor impairment and/or mental disability. But none of this happened.

Not too long ago, Gijs announced he was concluding his activities. His son Micky, now 17 and living in the Netherlands, made many gains thanks to the excellent Dutch care and Gijs was shutting down the operation on Aruba. He explained that he needed to shift gears to make the Ministry of Health (and/or the hospital) responsible for a sustainable solution for these children and their families. The Minister of Health and her policy advisors, he explained, have not done anything, despite their big promises. Like all politicians they overpromise and underdeliver, adding he is still working with the Department of Health, staying in touch with the director of the hospital, Jacco Vroegop, in case its rehab center at Aqua Windies, ever opens.

Real Estate Broker, finance man and restaurateur Juan Sonensein, a father to an 11-year old girl with a brain injury, was spurred into action as soon as he heard about Gijs’ decision to take a back seat. His girl, confined to a wheelchair needs three hours of therapy each day, and he decided to take the project over, employing a different strategy. He was opening a privately funded well equipped center and all he needed from the government was permits. Permits to import highly qualified therapists, for limited periods of time, from Colombia, where the level of health care he explained is excellent – caring, professional, and affordable.

Juan partnered with Alex Lovera who is donating the space at Paseo Herencia. They are targeting September, for opening day. We are not asking for money, they say, we can manage the funding. We are simply asking to allow us to bring in the necessary help from abroad, primarily therapist from Colombia, allowing us to apply for temporary work permits for them. Obviously, not under AZV, but under a legal, government issued permit, for a period of three to six months. They should be able to work for a privately funded therapy center, which would also provide them with housing and transportation.

From Gijs’ point of view, the government must come up with a form of policy initiative, they should have done it years ago, he reiterates, they are always pleased when the private sector shoulders their responsibilities, he adds.

I hope to be invited to the modest ribbon cutting ceremony of the Sunshine Rehab Center at Paseo Herencia, meet the kids, admire the initiative.