One of the projects I'm most proud of this year was creating Kukoo Kunuku's Taste of San Nicolas to celebrate the company's 30th anniversary.
When I first started spending more time in San Nicolas, I expected to fall in love with the murals.
Instead, I fell in love with the moments between them.
Of course, the colorful murals and incredible street art are what first bring people here.
As I walked the streets, I soon realized the murals were only part of the story.
Every walk is different.
One early evening, we came across a lively roadside game of dominoes in full swing. The spirited clack, clack, clack of the tiles blended with the rattling seed pods of a nearby Barba Joncuman tree and the steel pans drifting over from O'Niel's.
It was one of those unexpected moments that reminded me the best parts of San Nicolas are never the ones you plan.
Another evening, we stopped beneath a calbas tree and surprised our guests with a fun fact: the maracas they'd been shaking on the bus had once grown on a tree.
But the biggest surprises are the people.
We never know who will join us or what story they'll tell, but someone always does.
A warm “Bon nochi,” a smile, and suddenly we're hearing about first loves, family businesses, years spent working at the refinery, or childhood memories that bring the street to life.
Somehow, someone from San Nicolas always makes the evening richer than we ever planned.
The murals may be what first bring you here, but it's the people who make you want to come back.
San Nicolas is known for its street art, but experiencing the city is about much more than photographing murals.
Its galleries, local businesses, music, food, history and everyday street life are all part of its character. Sometimes the most memorable moment is something you never expected to find.
That's what happened to me.
Yes. Many of the murals are concentrated around central San Nicolas and can be explored on foot.
But knowing the stories behind the paintings, the buildings and the people represented in them changes what you're looking at.
A mural stops being simply a beautiful wall.
It becomes somebody's story.
Taste of San Nicolas is the Kukoo Kunuku evening experience I created around the San Nicolas I came to know while spending months exploring these streets.
It brings together murals, local stories, history, culture and food, with plenty of room for the unexpected moments that can't possibly be written into an itinerary.
Those are usually my favorite ones.
If you'd like to see the murals but also understand a little more about the community behind them, that's exactly why I created Taste of San Nicolas.
Come for the art.
But pay attention to everything that happens between the murals.
Carla Cavallaro
Brand Manager, Kukoo Kunuku & Jolly Pirates | Creator of Taste of San Nicolas
Carla Cavallaro has called Aruba home since 1989 and helped launch Jolly Pirates in 1997. She created Taste of San Nicolas after spending months exploring the murals, stories, food and people of Aruba's Sunrise City. She works with both Kukoo Kunuku and Jolly Pirates and contributes stories to Yummy Aruba, part of Aruba Wine and Dine, sharing the people, history and unexpected corners of Aruba that visitors might otherwise miss.
Read more of her stories at Kukoo Kunuku and Jolly Pirates.
