So, where were we?
Anyway, me and the Mrs. recently returned from our honeymoon in Curaçao, famous for producing an eponymous blue liqueur drunk only by teenagers in the dark, and Aruba, famous for causing people to start singing that Beach Boys song. On both islands they speak Papiamento, which is a patois of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French and Edward James Olmos’ lines from “Blade Runner.”
Seriously though, it’s a beautiful language and we did pick up a few phrases. “Bon dia” means good day, “bon bini” means welcome and “masha danki,” I seem to recall, means, “Thank you very much,” although Jean says it means, “Faster, donkey!"
By the time we left we had picked up enough to be able to read the sign above, which I’m pretty sure means, "Johnny Walker – the world’s bendiest whisky."
When we landed in Aruba we immediately heard some airport employees speaking Papiamento, and it sounded like this: “Papiamento papiamento papiamento.” After we had been in the islands a bit longer, our ears became more attuned and we were able to hear more of the subtleties of the language, and it sounded more like, “Badda bing badda bing badda bing.”
