Day 5 - ARUBA!

We arrived in Aruba early in the morning and had the full day to spend in Aruba.  We knew that the island was quite small....only 19.6 miles long and 6 miles wild.  The weather was perfect at 30 degrees Celsius.  So with a rental car and a map in hand we headed off to explore the island of Aruba.

The purple outlines our day of exploring starting in Oranjestad (just west of the of the airport).  The city here was busy but soon as we headed south the traffic quickly dropped off.  When we arrived in San Nicolas I begin to wonder why people would visit Aruba or especially stay here. 

The roads along this stretch were very isolated and filled with about 7 feet cactuses, wild goats and rocks.  We drove through the National park and saw massive waves smash across the rocks.  On the other side of the park we went to see one of Aruba's points of interest - the Natural Bridge.

We continued up the east side of the island over dirt roads, rocks and desert like terrain.  At the top point of the island we found another landmark....the lighthouse.

As we rounded the northern point of the island and headed south I began to realize why people would want to come to Aruba for a holiday.  Beaches ran for miles and we stopped at a number of them.  First Ron went windsurfing.

And then we went to another beach to swim in the warm, salty beach.

Here we found out about a great place for snorkeling so we went down the island a little further where Ron snorkelled and saw many interesting and colourful fish while I read and visited with a couple from Canada.

We ended the day at another beach enjoying the sunset.

So my first thoughts of the island changed once I arrived to this side of the island.  There were many beautiful resorts and all the beaches were free to use.  We arrived back to the cruise ship at 8:30 after another very enjoyable day in the Caribbean.