Another price hike for tourists

[crimms]

Charles we get your point and agree. We come for the fishing beaches and to get away for hippness by us. Do you feel the upcoming trolly system is a good idea or is that all about the slick?
Sean and Susan

[arubabob]

It's all about the SLICK. We pay for the SLICK
The need to be New York SLICK and have wonderful roads and plenty of lights at night. It is all about the SLICK of glamour and the bringing in massive entertainment venues that inevitably will loose money, even if the whole island showed up and paid VIP prices.
The SLICK is a response to a demand and that demand is an expensive one. Bigger better airports than most islands
Bigger better hospital facilities than most islands
A staggering amount of restaurants that have drive through facilities
Thee movie complexes - each with multiple screens and each not well attended.
Way to many LED advertising boards to let you know about all the SLICK places that we have.
It is all about the need for the slick.

Me - I like to go on vacations where the roads are bumpy and the restaurants have open windows. I like to smell ocean and not look at it from 14 stories high while taking pictures with my I-PHONE. I like to stay at Pedro's hotel and not the RITZ. I like stores that do not need security and beaches that prohibit plastic cups. Me - I hate the SLICK and hope that it stops it's seemingly unsatisfied grasp on our island.

But then .... that is just me. It is a simple me that wonders about a gaudy large heart placed in the middle of town so that cars will slow down and the entire traffic structure is changed so that people will stand next to the big red heart and have their moment of SLICK immortalized. The SLICK is when one group of vacationers start to feel better than another and demand to have the luxuries of their perceptions - after all, aren't we all just trying to relax?

In other words, As long as the tourists to Aruba do not say stop this. As long as the tourists of Aruba demand another small Manhattan in the Caribbean that has Rock Hotels and Carlton Blues, As long as the older values of vacationing are no longer important, As long as that continues, the SLICK will continue and will continue to cost money.

I just came back from Mexico and while in the hotel room looked at a promotional clip for Cancun. That is a place where the SLICK has devoured the City and is looking for other tourism places to eat.

Perhaps if all we demanded on our vacatons was ..... and not .....

be well
charles

We liked Aruba better in the 90s when we first started going. No fancy airport, much friendlier people, very few fast food places, many local small restaurants, goats walking along the roadside cleaning out the weeds,much more layed back. Much has changed, and not all for the better IMHO.

[charles]

Andrea, you are in danger of being devoured by the slick. It demands to be a pleasant subject GGRRRRRLLLL
Be well good friend.
charles

[charles]

The trolley is a response to poor banking practices: What do I mean by that?

The three huge malls (and more on the way) are all financed by the same local banks that hold the paper to most of the property downtown. Start to get the picture? So it is only correct that we do something spectacular to try and remedy the destruction caused by this lack of foresight. So we have ripped out the entrails of our original township and will now be putting in a tram so that customers will have an easier time shopping in the down town. Will it work? Yes I think it will. Will it be gaudy? From what I saw, it will be kind of nice to the eyes. Does it make sense? What makes sense anymore?
It is this kind of thing that is driving me to write as much as possible about us as we were. How we are is getting old real fast. I know I know "kwitchurbichin charles ."

be well
charles

Charles we get your point and agree. We come for the fishing beaches and to get away for hippness by us. Do you feel the upcoming trolly system is a good idea or is that all about the slick?
Sean and Susan

[Lighthouse]

Personal income taxes for Aruban residents are the highest in the world. Top out at 59% for high income earners. Where does all this money go?