notes from aruba
february 8, 2022
big hard sun
the sun and wind are ubiquitous on aruba. the weather is nothing if not consistent. highs and lows for the next five days are: 86/77, 84/77, 83/77, 82/77, 82/77. there will be a breeze or a wind always because of where the island sits geographically. coming here three weeks ago pasty white from the middle of minnesota winter put me, the first few days, in a near constant state of sunscreen application. it is unfun to burn and it causes one to stay in doors, a place i’m not interested in being stuck. my vitamin d levels skyrocketed quickly and my skin adjusted and it’s difficult to maintain a poor mood, even when one strikes, when the sky is blue and the sun is beaming. the cooling breeze is welcome and keeps clothes from being endlessly drenched in sweat.
i have lived most of my life around 45°N, and the only time i’ve spent as close to the equator as i am now (12.5°N) was a stint in southern thailand. i’ve gotten into the habit here of going to the beach with my phone off at dusk, and it struck me immediately that it seemed like the sun was falling off of a shelf. i’ve watched the sun set quite a bit in minnesota. it hovers. it gives you time. i didn’t know if the seeming difference was just a function of my attention. i had not known, or i had known and forgot, that the sun sets more abruptly the nearer one is to the equator. it makes sense that there would be a difference but i’m not a super high IQ guy and i didn’t pay great attention in any science classes.
“Since the sun sits much higher in the sky near the equator at solar noon than at the poles, the equator gets the most direct sunlight year round. With a much lower sun angle at the poles, the path it takes for the sun to set is much more parallel to the horizon, so it stays closer to the horizon longer as it sets. This is why the sunset is much more “abrupt” the closer you are to the equator, while the amount of twilight in somewhere like Alaska lasts much longer (because of the slower sunset).” https://www.rochesterfirst.com/weather/weather-blog/did-you-know-our-fastest-sunsets-sunrises-happen-during-the-equinox/
in aruba the sun seems in a hurry to leave the day and the effect is startling. were it not so beautiful it might be saddening, but the brevity breeds clarity and forces one to really pay attention in those last moments before it disappears over the caribbean.
biba dushi
it is a charming place. the weather and beaches of course are charming. the dutch colonial architecture is charming. much of the downtown is boarded up — closed shops presumably due to the drop in pandemic tourism. but the people don’t seem upset or stressed or worried. the slogan of the place is “one happy island”, and they mean it. or seem to and are just great actors. it took me a while to get used to the propensity people have for stopping to let you walk across the street no matter where you are. there need not be a cross walk. you need not even be standing there waiting. you will be a good ten feet from the curb and someone will stop in anticipation of your crossing. they will wave. i walk a lot. i walk everywhere. i walk aimlessly for the simple enjoyment of walking (and listening to music/podcasts). i have been offered countless times rides. i have been jarred by sudden honks, thinking one is trying to get my attention for something pressing, only to find all the person wanted to do was smile and wave. it is easy to see why it is one happy island. the weather is sunny the water is nice the people drive well the quality of food is high ranging from cheap shacks on the side of the road to numerous ethnicities of restaurants and in all the time i’ve been here i have yet to speak to someone who was rude to me for any reason.
sore thumbs
they are largely overweight. they wear uniquely long shorts. they often wear goatees and under armour backpacks or shorts that appear purchased at the buckle. they are not a species spotted much inland, unless in a 4x4. they are prone to purchase shirts that simply say the name of a place they’ve been or perhaps something brilliantly tacky about “sun” or “sea” or “salt” or “margaritas”. they love to order a sex on the beach at the bar and are more likely than the others who make that order to do so with some type of cheeky joke about the name of said drink. they are the types that might say, of their five day all-inclusive cruise or resort stay, that they love to “travel”. they are much of the reason there is a market for hooters, hard rock, starbucks, taco bell, kfc, tgi friday’s, burker king, and wendy’s on one of the southernmost islands of the caribbean: because while they love to “travel”, they do not particularly seem interested in the part of travel that has to do with eating pastechi or carni stoba. you can spot them from a quarter mile away and i’m sure they are all fine people who are good to their families and kind to their neighbors.
making lists
a vacation and an extended time abroad are two very different cases. when you visit boston for a long weekend, it makes a lot of sense to have a checklist. otherwise you may forget to do things you’d like to do.
this tendency to make lists is practical and demonstrably effective for a productive life (see atwul gawande’s “checklist manifesto”). the argument for them is convincing, and has taken firm hold in my daily routine. i, though, like many, have become better at making these lists than accomplishing them. a scroll through the notes of my iphone reveals a number of items listed and never again considered, groceries not bought, “errands” not run, — perhaps proof of how unnecessary these things are. because the simple act of making a list feels like an accomplishment we are drawn to doing it. there’s a dopamine reward for merely considering the possibility of future acts.
i don’t believe that any of this is necessarily bad. it’s proven helpful. the problem is that these lists and the acts of making them are inherently non-present, elsewhere. they are by nature not considering the here and now.
the experience i’m after on a longer time gone is the one that is comparatively free of the lists. on day ten of a month in aruba i realized this. i laughed, and was moderately disappointed in myself, because this is a lesson i had learned before but forgot. i needed to be shown it again. it is difficult to break apart from that constant gnawing sense that tells you what you really ought to be doing is checking boxes.
“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” — Steinbeck, 1962
