Marina and Lauren over the Natural Bridge
Grillin it up!
Why do they call it Baby Beach?
Mia is just hanging around..
Hello Mr Iguana...
Bondia!
Welcome to "One happy island" as the Arubans call it. We´ve now been on the road for about 11 months and let me say, we needed this trip. It couldn´t have been a better time seeing my family and my new niece and sharing the amazing tropical island of Aruba!
For those who haven´t followed up on UB40´s song Kokomo to see where Aruba is, I´ll clarify, its only 16 miles (25km) off the western coast of Venezuela. Sadly, no we couldn´t take a boat there, but it’s hard to get jet lag when you are only in the air for 30 minutes ;D The island was part of the Nederland Antilles and has now sprung free from Dutch and their French fries with mayonnaise, but the windmills remain. The island is about 20 miles long (32km) and averages about 4 miles (7km) wide; certainly a little tiny island paradise.
Sometimes it’s hard not knowing you’re in the US. Most transactions are in US Dollars, however they do have their currency the Guilder - remember that one Europeans... You have many of the luxuries of American life - fast food. Yes, you will see the main ones, plus my personal favorite, Taco Bell, which is really the only one I eat. As far as languages go, yes, they speak Dutch, but not as a first language. English is seemingly spoken by EVERYONE, although the main language is Papiamento an indigenous language which from what I could tell contains, spanish, dutch, english and local words.
One of the best things about Aruba is that it´s not in the Hurricane zone and its temperatures are the same year round at 28C or 82F. They also have a limited amount of rain, most of which is in the autumn so really a tropical paradise!
We hired a villa near the north of the islands which was just down the street from the big hotels, allowing us the comforts of good restaurants and bars nearby. Only a 5 minute drive away was one of Aruba´s best two beaches, Arashi beach. I have to give Craig my brother-in-law big credit for finding this gem. When you have 8.5 people, I much prefer to have everyone together in one accommodation and since we aren´t from Arkansas, we couldn´t share one hotel room. The villa was the perfect overload of luxury to help balance out our time roughing it and in the jungle.
Saturday - Family Reunion: Marina had a lot of stress before we left as she was exempt from a visa for Aruba due to her UK residence permit, however it took time in the Dutch embassy in Buenos Aires to even confirm this, causing a doubt she would even be allowed on. Thankfully to the Venezuelan scamsters checking in people and demanding a $50pp fake tax, they were too preoccupied to check visas and simply let her on the plane. Once we landed in Aruba, they knew the drill and it was no drama. Except for Jennifer Hudson jumping the line in front of us - you think these celebrities would be a bit more considerate, not that I would.. ;D Once we passed though the baggage claim area I was like a kid on Christmas day - so happy to see my family. At one year since I had seen them last and Jared and Lauren my nephew and niece have certainly grown as you expect, but are never ready for. Seeing my precious new niece Mia (4 months old) was amazing), but difficult to keep Marina away from her - we still have lots of places to see first! That night, we all went for a dinner in the Marriott and back to the pool for beers and relaxing.
Sunday - Arashi Beach: Craig and I went for a run in the morning, whilst Marina and I are in pretty good shape, we haven´t been running for quite some time before our trip. Thankfully Craig took it easy on me as we had several distractions such as getting a car. The villa was slightly too far for walking so we rented one of those big vans you see in gangster movies during drive by shootings, except a bit nicer and more windows. My mom really loved the beach and turquoise water at Arashi, I think she certainly has her sea legs! Julie (my sister) did a great job keeping Mia out of the sun and that baby just doesn´t fuss much. Heat, sun, salt water, they all seemed to make her happy, especially as she drank the seawater off her hands and other peoples. That night, Julie, Craig, Marina and I went for drinks doing a mini pub crawl to about 6 places. I think it was more of an attempt to find normal beer, no I don´t mean American beer, I mean beer which is at least 330ml (12oz)! They love their small beers in Aruba and during the night, it’s not that hot that you need them. I guess I could say these tiny beers make my hands look bigger, but they don´t treat my liver well... I think they have dumped big beers and kept charging the same for these tiny ones.. Occasionally we found a few places with normal size Coronas. I didn´t see any local beer - Balashis which was up to a normal size.
Monday - Natural Bridge: Today we did a tour of the island from top to bottom. Our first main stop was Baby Beach which is in my opinion, the nicest on the island. Firstly it was entirely secluded with no other people or any sign of commercialism. The waves are much nicer on Baby Beach compared to Arashi which is very calm. Jared and Lauren enjoyed jumping the waves and I even think Mia enjoyed the occasional splash in the face as we would see her lapping up the salt water off her lips. Later we drove to the Natural Bridge, not to be compared to the one in St.Louis or with our van the police certainly would have stopped us. The Natural Bridge is a stone bridge with a great array of colors in the water and nearby the waves crash in hard spraying water up to 10 meters (33ft) in the air! That night, we had a gluttonous BBQ, that’s what happens when several people go shopping, cooking up ribs, burgers, and chicken. We then swam off the calories in the pool discussing lizards spottings and how dangerous they "could possibly" eat the young ones..
Tuesday - Amazonia: Robin (Craig´s mom) and my mom, led the hunt for souvenirs this morning before we went to Iguana Joes for lunch. Note the name Iguana and Jared´s phobia of lizards, well planned I would say.. We later took the cooler up to Arashi beach and had a few beers enjoying the water and dunking Lauren and Jared; mostly Jared though as he is kind of an instigator to put it mildly. Seeing Amazonia you might have expected something from Brazil or Colombia, but it’s a fantastic Brazilian Churrascaria where they bring the sticks of meat and fill your belly until you´re ready to explode! Not that a fully belly would stop us having a good crazy night. Once we had everyone back in the car and one their way home went out for some gambling and drinks. Craig and Julie did well, but I´ll have to put the blame for our small losses on my better half ;D The wheels came off in the sports bar when we played pool and Golden Tee for shots, ouch.
Wednesday - Beach hopping: I didn´t expect we would find a better beach than Baby or Arashi, but it’s always worth exploring. We checked out Eagle beach by the Marriott and it was calm and perfect for the little one, but not our favorite. We stopped home getting a beer cooler and made our way up to Arashi. That night we went for all-you-can-eat fajitas. Delicious, but two nights in a row for all-you-can-eat is a killer on the waistline, but yummy! :D
Thursday - Goodbyes: Our last day on the island. Marina and I really wished we had a few more days there, but back to the crazy unexpected adventures of backpacking. It was very much a relaxing time, not only because we spent time with the people we love, but because we could truly relax from travels. No new faces, no worries watching our bags and hiding our stuff in the room, but just easy enjoyable conversation and stories with each other. They checked in around 1:30 and we went to wait for our flight back to Caracas. Unfortunately which was delayed by a few hours in Curacao, where we changed planes. Getting to Caracas after 10pm is never a great idea, but it went ok and I´m writing you from the lobby of our hotel.
So what is next; today we fly out to let’s call it a Big island famous for a tasty drink and certain largely rolled cigarettes - and no I don´t mean Jamaica. For political and legal reasons we will just call it Che Island.
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