Aruba's southeast town of San Nicolas is awakening from a long slumber and rising up to the challenge of being the maker of its own destiny, supporting by deed the slogan which has become part of San Nicolas' name – "The Sunrise City."

San Nicolas came to life as a village during the last decades of the 19th century. At that time, one of the first industries to be experimented on the island -phosphate mining- exploited the rich Seroe Colorado, bringing the first ships to San Nicolas Bay. This brought with it a brief prosperity to the rest of the island.

A few decades later, from the take off of the Lago Refinery's operations, from the1930's until it closed down in 1985, San Nicolas was the heart and soul of Aruba's industrial boom. The city swiftly grew into a town per se, and an enterprising trampoline that bounced off the wealth and progress to the rest of the island.

The English speaking nationalities left the most powerful stamp on the town.

Many different people played a role in creating the unique San Nicolas mystique which, more than half a century later, still holds captive the memories of high spirits of a town in the making, and the dreams of those that were part of its grand days.

It is this kind of spirit, re-emerging annually only during the carnival, in which San Nicolas always played an important role, that the town spirit lives again. For the rest of the year and for over a decade, San Nicolas residents feel left out, on the fringe of the development gripping the rest of the island.

A new organization, the San Nicolas Development Agency (SNDA), which came out publicly in October 1997, will be responsible for the renaissance of the town and its vicinity.

SNDA has so far been enormously successful in raising interest among San Nicolas residents in great part because the thoughts of a new beginning have been cooking in the minds of its young professionals and businesspeople as well.

Name Origin: San Nicolas was named after a Mr. Nicolas Croes v/d Biest (1808-1873), father in law of Jan Hendrick Gottfried Eman "Shon Jan" (1835 – 1897).

Founded: Late 1800's during the explotion of exploitation of phosphate mining in rich Seroe Colorado.

Location: Eastern tip of Aruba (12 miles from Oranjestad)

Population: San Nicolas North/10825. San Nicolas-South/6996. Total 17821 (Sencus '96)

Size: 33.6 KM2 (Total Aruba 367.1)

Social Life: San Nicolas became famous for its nightlife and boasts such places as "Charlie's Bar" (1947) and "Chesterfield Bar," "Chinese Club," became centers for social activities as well as sports like baseball, cricket and basketball. The popular steel band music was also born in this town.

The following attractions, flora and fauna are found within the district of San Nicolas:

Location; Seroe Pretoe (black hill) San Nicolas

This grotto was created under the guidance of a priest named "Erkamp" and parishioners in the year 1958. The grotto is located in Seroe Pretoe (black hill). The year 1958 was an important year as it was 150 years ago that the Holy Virgin appeared in front of Bernadette.

Bishop Holterman blessed the statue from the Holy Virgin and Bernadette. The statue weighed 700 kilos and Mrs. Maria Geerman played an important role in the development of the grotto. Eight people were needed to hoist the statue and place it in the grotto.

Mrs. Geerman's wish was to be buried in the same box that carried the Holy Virgin and this wish was granted. Elmar, the electrical company of Aruba provided a permanent light Pole, so that the statue would be illuminated throughout the night.

Every year, on February 11th (feast of Lady of Lourdes) a procession leaves from the St. Theresita church in San Nicolas to the grotto, where a mass is performed.

The facilities of the Aruba Golf Club include, a 9-hole course with 20 sand traps and 5 water traps; A clubhouse complete with bar, storage rooms, workshop and separate men's and ladies' rooms with showers and lockers; A shed for caddies and a practice green and diving range. The course is "9-hole course" with 25 sand traps with 10 soil greens enabling 18 hole plays and tournaments to be played with ease. The longest hole is 632 yards par 5 and the shortest 160 yards par 3.

Tourists regularly visit the Club and all are enthusiastic about the course and it's unique features.
For more information and greens fees please contact Aruba Golf Club, Golfweg, San Nicolaas.
Phone: (297) 584-2006, Fax: (297) 584-4473

Light, streaming down from holes in the ceiling, dances playfully along the walls of the Guadirikiri cave. The natural illumination allows visitors to appreciate the two large "halls" of the cave. Because of the elevation of the cave, stairs must be climbed to reach the entrance, and visitors must travel through two short corridors to reach the open portion of the cave.

The cave stretches approximately 150 meters.
The Guadirikiri cave, as well as Fontein cave and Baranca Sunu (known by visitors as the "Tunnel of Love"), all located in close proximity of the other on the island's southeastern side, is protected under the Arikok National Park system.

Different tern species are nesting on the San Nicolas Bay Keys, located off Aruba's southeastern shore. To bird-watchers, the Aruban Cayenne tern is of special interest. It has a yellow bill instead of a common black bill. With well over 3000 nests annually, the Aruban Cayenne tern forms the largest breeding population of its species north of the equator. Also breeding on the Keys is the roseate tern, an extremely threatened species worldwide and sensitive to human disturbance. Furthermore, the Keysare nesting sites for laughing gulls and brown and black noddies.

Furthermore, egrets, herons, stilts, plovers, yellowlegs, laughing gulls, and many more sea and wading birds can be seen along the Dutch Caribbean coastline.

The caves of the ABC islands are the habitat of bats and the rarebarn owl. In the Dutch Caribbean, different bat species are known. Feeding on nectar, fish, insects or fruits, they play an important role in distributing seeds (fruit eaters), controlling the insect population (insect eaters) or pollinating plants (nectar feeders).

The nectar eating, long-tongued and long-nosed bats, for example, form a critical link in the food chain. These bats pollinate cacti, thus providing birds with fruits that ripen in the dry season when birds can find little food elsewhere. The-long nosed bat and leaf-chinned bat are endemic to the three ABC islands. The mastiff bat was recently discovered as a new species for Aruba.

Another endemic subspecies is the Aruban burrowing owl, nesting and sleeping in dug-out burrows in the ground. Aruba hosts some 30 pairs of this small owl.

The endemic, venomous Aruban rattlesnake is the single exception. It prefers the vegetation in the Arikok - Jamanota area and is threatened because its habitat is decreasing. Today, an estimated 250 to 500 specimens of this protected snake live on the island.