Mostly flat, with only a few hills, and without inland water, Aruba isn't the stereotypical tropical island of lush, steamy forests and constant rains. Its best-known geographical feature is its white-sand beaches, which are the basis of an active tourism industry. One of these beaches, considered by many one of the best beaches in the world is Eagle Beach, known also as home of two of the most photographed and renowned divi-divi trees in Aruba, with its trademark silhouette pointing in the direction of the Caribbean.
The Divi-Divi Tree (Caesalpinia coriaria), called Watapana in the Arawak language, is an endemic bush in the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), which rarely reaches a height of 9 m, and is permanently bent, at nearly a right angle, with Medusa-like branches seemingly swept back by the wind. It is Aruba's natural compass, always pointing in a southwesterly direction due to the trade winds that blow across the island from the north-east. All attempts to plant this tree in other parts of the world have proved futile. That is why divi-divi is the national tree of Curaçao, and is also very common and popular on Aruba.
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