Aruba! | Imamother

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Jan 03 2012, 9:47 am

I've been to Curacao 10+yrs ago, and found kosher food at a local supermarket--mostly imported. Self catering is not too difficult if you can source vegetable & fish locally. Curacao also had an advantage of having a shabbat miniyan, as well as an old beautiful synagogue (which is now reconstructionist) that's the oldest in the western hemisphere.

My understanding is Aruba is bigger and more established. I have seen kosher holiday package to Aruba but suspect it's one-off either cruise or pesach holiday rather than year-around thing. It's relatively easy to island hop among ABC (Aruba Bonaire Curacao). We did a day trip to Bonnaire--a very impressive salt lake with huge hoards of flamingo.

There is a chabad shulchim in St Maarten which is also in Netherland Antilles. I don't think Aruba has Chabad though.

amother

Tue, Jan 03 2012, 10:24 am

OP here. Thanks for the replies. I went out this morning and bought those meal mart meals. Plus I will bring along crockpot and stuff for chulent. Thanks!

imasinger

Tue, Jan 03 2012, 1:49 pm

I was there for non-frum family member's bas mitzvah a few months ago. There is nothing, not even chabad in the summer, though I heard that at some point in the winter, there is one hotel that kashers its kitchen -- take a look.

There is one conservative shul, with a rav who is from South America -- a nice guy, and can be helpful about what you will and won't find.

Bring along a knife for the wonderful fresh fruit, though, and have a WONDERFUL time!

You can pm me if you want and I will provide you with more info. You can visit my BIL's parents' gift shop, and they can give recommendations for boat tours and the like at local rates.

GramaNewYork

Tue, Jan 03 2012, 2:11 pm

We didn't find anything kosher. We brought all our own food luckily. Nobody was at the shul when we went there. Go with limited expectations so you won't be disappointed.

skcomputer

Tue, Jan 03 2012, 3:44 pm

It has been two years, but I assume things are still the same. There is a supermarket called Ling and Sons(http://www.lingandsons.com/) which had tons of American products with heksher. They had grape juice (Kedem, I think), Empire sliced turkey, lox and lots of other odd stuff. I think they had bread or pita. I wouldn't depend on it for everything, but you can definitely get the basics there to fill in what you bring. Lots of lovely fruit and vegetables too.

We were last there in the late Oct/early Nov time and met some frum people from Brooklyn who owned time shares at the Marriott. I heard that during yeshiva vacation week, there are tons of people in the Marriott area and they sometimes bring a sefer torah for shabbos. I had heard the hotel props some doors open so people can use the stairs during that shabbos.

Have fun and keep covered. The sun is so intense that sunscreen doesn't work!