I just read that Charles Brown died in a fall down some steps at his bar in San Nicholas. He was the owner of Charlies bar, one of our favorite places to go. Our condolences to his family and friends.

Also see that there was a tornado on Aruba that did some damage day before yesterday. A good picture of it at http://www.cyberdistrict.net/eddy

I did not know that there were tornados in Aruba. We have them all the time here in Oklahoma.

That's horrible. Are tornados common on Aruba?

not really hoo. water spouts happen on occasion but remember, there isn't enough temperature variation or climate clashes to really cause much of that type of activity. seems this has been a strange weather year everywhere.

as to charie, it really is sad. he along with his bar have been an institution in aruba that goes back to a time well before tourism. my sympathies are with his family.

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>>>> "That's horrible. Are tornados common on Aruba?"
---- Hope! In 16 trips even little or no rain. This June for 2 weeks was the most rain I have ever seen in Aruba. One Tuesday morning it rained rather hard for about a hour. Even had a little thunder. First time for that for us. By 11AM the sun was back out and had a great beach day.

Is this tornado legit? I can't seem to find any other mention of a tornado on Aruba ANYWHERE else.

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The tornado did happen on the island while we were there.

We also just missed seeing Charlie by 2 days (we see him every year) - he passed away on Saturday and we headed to Charlie's Bar that following Monday and couldn't figure out why it was closed. That night someone told us Charlie died on Saturday.

Seems like we had everything on this trip to Aruba:
Ben Affleck
tornado
Charlie passed away
Tessa the Tiger died
fire downtown (we could see the flames from our table at Marandi that night)

I'm sure there was more....just seemed like something happened every day during our 2 weeks.

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~Amy~®

Scottsdale: March 5-10, 2010
21st trip to Aruba: May 7-17
Paris, France: Aug. 3-19, 2010

Geez Amy.. Looks like bad luck may have followed you to the island. They may ban you from Aruba from now on.. LOL

That's what we were thinking, too....LOL!!

But we did receive our "Distinguished Visitors Award" this year from the Aruba Tourism Authority (very nice plaque with our names on it) so they must want us back.

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~Amy~®

Scottsdale: March 5-10, 2010
21st trip to Aruba: May 7-17
Paris, France: Aug. 3-19, 2010

Aruba Amy.... what about Ben Affleck and Tessa passing away?

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For Winebrat.......


there really was a tornado in Aruba. It was reported in the Diario (the papiamento newspaper....i read it online) It ripped roofs off a few houses where it touched down. It was several days after Ivan passed by, Aruba had some very strange weather during and after Hurricane Ivan. My mother in law who lives on the island said the weather has been very bizarre this fall......I hope by the end of November all the strange weather is gone so my vacation will be perfect, like it always is in ARUBA !!!!!

We were on the island when it passed. It happened Saturday, Sept 18. We were on the beach when the clouds took on an extremely threatening appearance. We were told there had not been a tornado in Aruba since the late 1800s.

Someone with a video camera who was in the right place at the right time took footage of it. I saw it on the local Aruba news later that night. The news was in Papiamento but there was no doubt what I was seeing, especially with all those orange rooflines in the distance. We read about it in the local newspapers a couple days later.

So does that mark the end of Charlie's bar??

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No, Charlie the third will continue the business. He was the one most in the bar anyway. I remember Charlie III, he was two classes below me in school and he was a short round boy....

He bought rounds for the whole bar??? I need to make it a point to stop there next time!!

ArubaAmy....I thought the same thing about all the things that happened this year in Aruba. I am just upset because I didn't see Ben....wanted to go to Charlie's Bar this trip but he passed away...wanted to see Tessa the Tiger....but she passed away( it's sad to see that they are already tearing down her home)....heard about the fire but didn't see it....but the good news is the rains and flooding were over and everything was a beautiful green. I thought to myself" It looks like God washed everything green here." It looked both beautiful and yet very different. Also good news is that Jolly Pirates is back up and running and from all the reports in the papers they are going full steam ahead. I didn't hear about the tornado at all while we were there. That is really odd.
ruba4ever

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No doubt Charlie's Bar will continue. Charlito (Charlie III) has been running things for the last few years. Not sure if there's a Charlie IV yet.

The founding Charlie passed away in 1989 (?). He bought the bar and gave it its famous name in 1941, the same year that Charlie Jr. was born.

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Aruba for me

Everytime I see the heading of this post I think Charlie was struck by a tornado...............

There are parts of San Nicolas that look like it has.

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Aruba for me

You should have seen some parts of San Nicolas 25 years ago. The part they called "the village" was a selection of the most worn down, rackety old houses you could ever imagine. A real fire hazard and most houses were not made of stone but of wood, and wood scraps put together to build a house.

Now what the government would do is every time a official from Holland came by they gave them the grand tour of "the village". The dutch would be appalled by the whole living situation of those people and give money for a housing project. Our government officials always used that money for other things. They did not want to overhaul "the village' because they did not want to loose their haggling object. Of course eventually the village was tore down for the most part and little stone houses were put in place. With that it lost it quant look but the people sure got better roofs over their heads.

And this story is true, believe it or not!

Thanks for the bit of history, Sandra. I do not know enough about my "home away from home" but am still trying to learn!

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I realize that this thread is over a year old and I'm pulling it out of archives, but I was lurking around and stumbled upon it and had to comment.

What Sandra said about "the village" is absolutely the truth. Many of the homes were made of flattened oil drums. The one and only true slum on the island. There actually was a devastating fire in the village in the mid 1960's that left a few hundred residents homeless.

An anecdote I shared with the bb party-goers in Atlantic city, I will share again here. Prior to the time when Lago closed in 1985, Charlie's Bar was no place for the weak! It was a tough place where sailors and blue collar laborers hung out, got drunk, and solicited yap-yums. Tourists did not venture into this part of the island. San Nicolas was arguably the toughest town in the Caribbean and Charlie's Bar was ground zero.

Lastly, several old posts on this archived thread expressed concerns about tornadoes. Waterspouts are not uncommon in the waters off Aruba. I remember at least three occasions when waterspouts came ashore and caused a little damage (each time in the Savaneta area). The tornado that people were talking about was evidently a real, honest to goodness, American-midwest type twister (probably an F2) caused by instability in the atmosphere after Ivan passed. For all the reasons that Sherry pointed out a year ago, a virtual meteorlogical impossibility (but it happened).

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That's sad to hear about Charlie, this seems to be a bad year overall for Aruba, too many bad things happening in the space of a year. Glad to hear that Charlie's Bar will continue on though, it was always a favourite place to visit and grab some grub.

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