Aruba 2012 Day 5 (page 5 of 10)

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Day 5 (man alive!) - sorry, we walked past people playing Bingo in a pool a couple days ago, and I thought of that.

Today was our big day to see the wild side of the island. We got up & headed to George's to rent 4x4s that morning. We tried calling the day before but there was no answer- that seems to be par for course here.

We rented the Yamaha Rhinos - which sort of look like a beefed-up golf cart, complete with a small roof (you can see them in a few of our pictures - one red, one blue). You drive them right on the busy streets & highways of the island - not worried about turn signals & such. Mike got ours up to 63 km/hr, which is approx 40 mph for Americans. The highways have a max speed of 80 km here, so nothing happens quickly here. George's is located in Oranjestad, and we headed northwest from there, up the coast.

Our first stop was the California Lighthouse, which is the northern-most and western-most tip of the island (Aruba is somewhat football shaped, laying at a NW to SE angle). Behind it, there were a number of off-road trails to check out, although they had signs requesting you stay off the sand dues, as they are a national treasure. No worries, there are plenty of other places to go. We checked out some of the rough beaches here, and rocky shoreline - it is pretty amazing. The Wish Rock garden was a wide area where people for many years have stacked flat stones upon each other in little towers. Further down the top side of the island is the Alto Vista Chapel. The stamps that Greta bought for the cousins' post cards feature this building, so that was a neat surprise, coming up the hill and seeing something we'd looked at in stamp form the night before.

The baby natural bridge is a small chunk of rock stretching over water rushing below. It was pretty to see, and further down we saw a small inlet where huge waves crashed into the rock walls, in giant sprays of salt water.

As we continued down island, we also saw deserted shacks where people had tried to live & now had left. There are no facilities of any sort here, so living would be hard. Plus the ground is extremely rocky and there is really nothing to stop the wind. Next we saw the Bushiribana Gold Smelter Ruins. Due to the quartz make-up of some of the rock here, a small gold rush occurred, although depending on what we've read, it's hard to tell whether gold was ever really found here. The Smelter Ruins were built in 1872 as part of this rush, and it's impressive to see the walls still standing somewhat. Greta climbed up at least 2 stories, or levels, to see what there was to see (great view of the ocean & extra-thick walls.

Further down, we came across the ruins of the Natural Bridge. It was rather interesting to see where it had been & the collapsed rocks. It really must have been a sight to see before its 2005 collapse. There was also a building here where we could buy ice cream treats and souvenirs. We didn't get any "things" but the ice cream treats were DEFINITELY a tasty choice. It was $0.50 to use the bathroom, but they included an explanation that there is no running water pipes here, so they have to truck in all the water & ship out the waste.

And forward we went. We bypassed both the Donkey Sanctuary & Ostrich Farm - they may have been interesting to see, but we've seen both before, and wanted to make sure we had time for snorkeling at Baby Beach. We drove past the Ayo Rock Formations, which looked like a giant had stacked up boulders.

Then we arrived at the Arikok National Park. Well, we hit one wrong road, but Jim had his GPS so we were able to find the original road again w/o having to back track. At the National Park, we each paid an $8 entrance fee and headed in. We went to the 2nd highest point on the island and it was an incredible view. Back on down the slope we saw a couple goats way up in the mountains & took pictures. Soon after a few goats ran in front of us on the road. We headed through the park to the Fontein Cave. Here a ranger was waiting and he took us in to see some cave paintings, carvings (both by the orignal explorer but more graffitti) and various rock formations. It was very dark, and we could see crabs hiding in a small tunnel. The further back we went, the hotter it got. Amazing - this was at sea level but the further you went it, the more unpleasant the temp was - not a chilly cave tour by any means! We went as far back as where we had to bend over as the ceiling was only 3.5 feet or so high. It wasn't far back, but it was quite dark.

After exiting, we hopped back our on mighty steeds and THEN we saw the goats - running everywhere! Close to a number of modern windmills, there were also donkeys resting in the shade of the windmills. We soon exited the park and were headed next to Baby Beach.

We wound through some rural areas & then city streets. Mike & Jim did see the International Drag Strip, but it was closed, so they didn't get a chance to match up the Rhinos for a 1/4 mile run.

Using the maps we were given & directions from Tom before we'd left MN, we found Baby Beach with very little trouble. Trina & Greta spent $$ to use the bathroom & change, but that's worth it. Then we went out and snorkeled in the shallows. A lot of amazing fish were seen, but we had to watch the time because we only had 90 minutes total to change, slap on sun screen, snorkel & change back again before getting on the road. George's had told us we needed to leave Baby Beach by 4 pm in order to have time to drive back through rush-hour traffic in Oranjestad (yes, that happened!) and fill up with gas by 5. We made it back at about 4:45, and were good to go.

We swung by the grocery store for some more supplies & then headed back to the room to shower & change for supper. We went to Texas de Brazil based on a 15% off coupon our condo rep provided us. It's a Brazilian Steakhouse where they first present you with an elaborate salad bar unlike anything you've ever seen (or you can see it in the photos!) and then servers walk around with skewers of meat. We sampled nearly every kind of meat but two that didn't come around (chicken & Lamb). But we had filet mignon, parmesean pork loin, ribs, top sirloin, garlic pinchana & brazililan sausage. Needless to say, we could barely move when we left, and although the though of a taste of something sweet was a nice idea, there was no way we could contemplate eating dessert.

We walked around the high rise shopping area (hotels are high rise, shops are on the ground level!) for a bit and then headed back to the condo. It was a great evening, but MUCH TOO MUCH to eat.

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