Day 4- Aruba

Our first stop was Aruba! We had reserved a jeep tour of the island that included historical stops, lunch, an ostrich farm, and snorkeling~ all that would take us around the entire island (it isn't that big). When we made the reservations it said that we would be driving our own jeep and that there would be some four wheeling. Little did we know, it would be all four wheeling (except for being right in town- which wasn't much). It had poured all day long the day before we got there and it sprinkled a little bit while we were there. So, the dirt roads were full of puddles and pits. If any of you have been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland~ that is the best way I can describe it. Except instead of lasting for 4 minutes, it was all day long! I am so thankful that I was still on Dramamine (for motion sickness on the boat) so I didn't get sick. It was pretty intense, but so much fun!!!

The landscape was so diverse. Along the coast were beautiful beaches and palm trees, but then right next to it there were cactus EVERYWHERE! It was a strange sight.

At each stop they gave us some history of the island. Korby would stand with the group and listen intently while I wondered off and took pictures! All I remember about this lighthouse is that is was the first one on the island and it is really old.

The most famous tourist spot on Aruba was a natural bridge. However a year or so ago it collapsed. This is another, much smaller one, right next to it. It was pretty disappointing to just see a pile of rocks. But this was still beautiful.

This is the opposite side of the island from the port and it is not populated at all. It was beautiful to see that much coast undeveloped. You can see the road here, but it doesn't really do it justice as to just how uneven, un-groomed and overly bumpy it was!

This picture shows the wishing stones. Again~ I didn't hear too much of what the guide was saying, but what I did get was that people would write down a wish and then make a pile of 5-7 rocks on top of the wish to make it come true. The beach was literally covered with them.

Here are Korby and I in front of an old gold refinery. It was incredible! I didn't hear how old it was, but it was really old! It was amazing to see how basic their building skills/materials were ~ but look at how precise their windows were! It was impressive.

Another stop was a cave. It was very different than being in the US. People were touching everything, gum was stuck on rocks, people had carved their names in the rocks~ it wasn't regulated at all. It was beautiful and a little creepy at the same time. They only took you in a little ways, but they flashed their lights to show where it kept going~ and it kept going for a long time. I was thankful we didn't have to go too far in.

And for some reason (we never really heard a straight answer) they had soldiers guarding the entrance to the cave?! We were told it was part of their training. What were they being trained to do~ sit around and do nothing next to something that doesn't need to be guarded?

This might be one of my favorite shots! This was one of the most beautiful beaches, but only if you looked at it from the right angle! Because the rest of the view is disturbed by the giant refinery about 100 yards away! What an interesting combination!

This was one of the beaches that we stopped at to snorkel. I promised Korby that I would try snorkeling again (I tried it for a second in Mexico, but didn't like it at all). I thought that it would be different in clear blue water with better fish. Korby was pretty excited for me to snorkel with him this time. I was all ready to go!

It didn't take me long to realize that I HATE snorkeling~ regardless of the location! I was in the water for about 30 seconds, saw about 5 fish and then booked it back to the beach! But I did try!
So, while everyone else went snorkeling, what else would I do besides take pictures?! I found this crab. I have never seen one in the "wild" this big before. You can't really tell from the picture, but when he was standing up on his legs, he was about the size of a cantaloupe! It was crazy! Since he was so big, it made it easy to see where the expression "crabby face" came from. He had the meanest scowl!


This is just a picture taken in town. There was a lot of poverty and everything was pretty old and run down. But everything was so colorful that it created a different kind of beauty than we usually associate with beautiful homes in the US.

This picture does not do it justice~ but this was the craziest part of the day. This hillside was sooo.... steep and sooo.... slippery and soooo.... uneven and soooo.... full of boulders it was sooo... scary! We watched the jeep in front of us slide down about 30 yards with the brakes on~ they couldn't stop! The driver behind us actually refused to drive down, so one of the guides had to drive his jeep down and then run up the hill to drive the other jeep down. I don't know what was worse~ driving down or driving back up?! On the way back up, the jeep in front of us went the wrong way on one section, got stuck and had to reverse back down. Everyone in the back was screaming, they came really close to rolling over (which they would have just kept rolling all the way down the hill into the ocean!), there were little girls in the jeep behind us crying because they were too scared to keep going, a couple of people got out of the jeeps and hiked up the hill because they didn't want to ride in the jeep! It really was INSANE!!!

I guess all the terror was worth it to see this beach! You couldn't really snorkel here~ it was very rocky but very beautiful!

Not pictured is the ostrich farm that we went to. We stopped there for lunch and then got a tour of the grounds. It was raining, so the camera stayed in my backpack. They let you feed them and pet them. The best part was seeing 5 baby ostriches! They were so "little"~ only about 18" tall, with soft, pretty feathers~looking nothing like the ugly grown ups.

The jeep tour was supposed to end at 5 and the ship was leaving at 6. We got back to the ship at 5:40 (and only because they made a detour to bring us back to the ship because I had a spa appointment to get to). We were getting kind of frustrated with our guide, because he wasn't really trying to hurry up. He just kept telling us that we were on "Caribbean time" and to go with the flow. But if we hadn't kept bugging him, we would have missed our ship! So thank goodness for my spa appointment!

So, my spa appointment... the day before, on the ship, I won a free scalp, neck and shoulder massage and 1/2 off of a seaweed wrap. The seaweed wrap was interesting~ it felt good, but I don't know if I would do it again. The scalp, neck and shoulder massage on the other hand was HEAVENLY!!!! My head was drenched in oil the rest of the night, but it was worth it!

After that, we ate dinner, sat in the hot tub and went to bed very tired, but very excited for the next day!