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The language of the islands is Dutch, but everyone speaks/reads *papiamento* (which I was once told means *babble*). It is a creole: Dutch/Portuguese/African, w/some French/Spanish words here and there. Sort of like pidgin in the Pacific. You can make a few words out if you speak/read any of the languages included. Even the supermarket labels for locally packaged food will be in papiamento and there are papismento papers.

I saw comments earlier about safety of NA islands/drugs, etc.Curacao is the roughest. You can see drug deals going down out of the trunks of the taxis in front of the hotels. Aruba is second, maybe because the casinos are a huge draw, and Bonaire is (or was) third. My experience is all about 5 years old, but the last time we were on Bonaire, the ambiance had changed for the worse. Even back in the late eighties, night dives would suddenly change location because a blacked out motor yacht was already on the mooring. The dive masters all knew these boats. My husband is a dive master and they respected him and we would usually hear the truth sometime after the dive, when no other tourists were around. We had been to this island many times over many years and even did some business there, so we were accepted. There have always been robberies, rapes and some murders and they are routinely covered up so as not to spook the tourists. A lot of the big money/non-chain hotels is drug money or some sort of laundering scheme. Probably the same is true of the casinos, including the high rollers.

The education and medicine on all the NA islands is First World. The people have often worked or been educated in Holland. Many of the men served in the Dutch military, including their version of special ops.

Something changed in the late nineties. Looking back with no way to verify my intimations, I think there was a lot of sanction busting of Iraq oil and the beginnings of an Islamist infiltration. Before anyone jumps on that, the main religions in the NA are Catholicism and Pentecostal Protestant Christianity. The Scientology ship, Freewind, stops there and everyone we knew was aware of Scientology and not impressed. Islamism is strong in Trinidad and Tobago, which aren't that far away.

We had just about decided to retire there in the late nineties. Then, we noticed things changing and we decided against it.

I can't imagine blaming the girl. She had *met* these guys over the course of a week. Her friends knew them. To an 18-year-old, that made then *friends*.

Aruba is second, maybe because the casinos are a huge draw, and Bonaire is (or was) third.

Where did you read this? I am curious because my wife and I have been to Aruba 4 times and have never encountered anything at all untoward. I love the place and would go back in a minute.

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