The ABCs of Paradise

If I had a different life, I would be Selemio.

And in that life, I wouldn’t arrive in the Caribbean as a visitor,

I would return as someone who has finally found their way home.

Not with the rush of the world,

but with the calm of one who knows that here, time moves to the rhythm of the sea.

I’d carry a small notebook,

a straw hat scented with sun,

and the desire to get lost…

Among the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, the Three Sisters of the Southern Sea, I would find my natural dimension: that suspended place between dream and reality, between color and silence, between water and soul.

Aruba: The Desert Rose

Aruba speaks first.

It does so in the language of the wind, racing freely between cactus and sea.

It is an island of contrasts: the north is raw and lunar, carved by salt and ocean; the south is pure tenderness, silk-white beaches, crystalline water, resorts that seem to float upon the horizon.

Staying here is a ritual of light.

The most refined hotels, like The Ritz-Carlton or The St Regis Aruba, offer a kind of luxury that doesn’t shout, but breathes.

Rooms open directly onto the sand, breakfasts served with tropical fruit and aloe juice, sunsets painting champagne glasses in shades of rose.

But the real privilege lies beyond the walls: an excursion through Arikok National Park, where ancient cave paintings whisper of vanished peoples, or a night spent stargazing on Eagle Beach, beneath the twisted arms of divi-divi trees.

Aruba teaches that beauty is balance, between strength and softness, desert and sea, being and surrender.

Bonaire: The Quiet Muse

Bonaire doesn’t try to please you. It chooses you, if you know how to listen.

It is an island of deep silences, of seas that speak softly, of nature that needs no stage.

A diver’s paradise, yes, but also a sanctuary for the contemplative soul, for those who find peace in the rhythm of waves and the scent of salt carried by the wind.

Beneath the surface lies a world of coral cathedrals, sea turtles, and primordial color.

Above, time expands between the Pekelmeer salt flats, the pink reflection of flamingos, and the hum of distant Latin music drifting through the air.

Here, hotels are havens for quiet spirits: the Harbour Village Beach Club, with its colonial grace and private beach, or the small eco-resorts built in harmony with the reef, each inviting guests to leave a lighter footprint.

Dining beneath a star-filled sky, with freshly caught fish and chilled white wine, defines the new language of luxury, intimate, aware, essential.

Bonaire is the whisper that remains when everything else has fallen silent. It is the island of essence, where simplicity becomes elegance.

Curaçao, The Canvas of Color

Curaçao is a painting that comes alive every day.

Its heart beats in Willemstad, a colonial jewel where pastel houses line the harbor like a tropical fairytale. Walking along the Handelskade is to wander through centuries of stories, the scent of spices and roasted coffee, the laughter of a people shaped by Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean.

But Curaçao is also art, design, and reinvention.

In the Pietermaai District, boutique hotels like BijBlauw or Scuba Lodge turn historic homes into modern sanctuaries. Every room tells a dialogue between past and present, wooden floors, coral-painted walls, linen sheets, and wide windows framing the infinite blue.

Between a sip of Blue Curaçao and a stroll through local galleries, the island reveals its creative soul. It is a place of authenticity: the fishermen of Westpunt, the chatter of the Saturday market, the laughter of children playing near the boats.

And when the sun slips behind the cliffs of Playa Kenepa, everything turns gold: the precise moment when Curaçao becomes memory.

Papiamento: The Language of the Heart 

“Bon bini,” they say here. Welcome. A word that is not just greeting, but promise. Papiamento, the island’s lilting creole tongue, is the invisible thread that binds the three sisters together.

It’s spoken with a smile, in tones that embrace. Each word carries centuries of encounters: African, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese. And perhaps that is the secret of the ABC Islands: their identity is not imposed, but shared.

Luxury that Feels, Not Flaunts

Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao do not compete, they complete one another.

Three ways of interpreting luxury, three souls of a single melody.

Here, people don’t come to be seen, they come to belong. To live experiences that don’t end at check-out: a sunset massage, a dive among the corals, a fisherman’s story, a dawn that feels eternal.

True luxury, in the ABC Islands, is connection, with nature, with culture, with oneself.

If I had a different life

perhaps I would live it here.

I’d walk barefoot on warm sand,

write words between the margins of the tide, l

earn Papiamento just to say more beautifully, mi ta stima bo.. I love you…

And in every sunset, I’d find a new reason to stay.

To listen. To feel. To belong. To be found...

____________________

Author: Saluen Art