Spring break in Aruba

 

Arrival on the island

Laurel painted her nails like the beach for vacation

Our first order of business was to get some food. The food on Aruba was great. We loved the mix of Caribbean and Dutch and South American cuisine. Here we had some fresh mango flavored soft serve while we waited for our meal. It's vacation. Go ahead and start with dessert.

They had some decidedly Dutch options on the menu like Frikandel sausage, Kroketten and Patat Oorlog. I have been studying Dutch this year, so I was stoked to put my Dutch to use a little bit.

We checked into our vacation rental in Savaneta. We purposefully decided to stay on the non-touristy side of the island. It was a really great choice. We thoroughly enjoyed this home including the very private yard with swimming pool.

Jen starts relaxing right away.

There were coconut palms and this papaya tree in the backyard. We grilled out and had dinner al fresco that first night.

The next day we rented snorkels and toured a couple of good snorkeling spots on the North side of the island. We went to Tres Trapas and Boca Catalina.

And we ate lunch on the beach, watching the other tourists on the guided boat tours.

After we had enough of the beach we stopped at the Aruba Aloe Farm and Factory. We learned about one of Aruba's top products and tried some of them. 

These Devi Devi trees are all over the island. Because Aruba has a nearly constant breeze (because of the trade winds) all the trees lean in the same direction like that.

We went to downtown Oranjestad for the evening. We saw the harbor.

And some of the Caribbean architecture.

And the shopping

And the cruise ships

and the luxury resorts

and the parks

Aruba is considered an independent nation within the kingdom of the Netherlands

an old church

and city hall

We went to Fort Zoutman, which was a colonial era fortification including the tower.

We got to climb to the top of the tower.

We got there just in time for sunset

There was a show which was a fun cultural celebration of Aruba- Bon Bini. We got seats in the front row. We learned more about Arubian culture. The native language is Papiamento. This is a combination of Portuguese creole with Spanish and Dutch mixed in. I was geeking out about this all week.

There was a fair amount of audience participation and Laurel here is dancing like it is Carnival.

Spencer, too.

The next day we did some exploring in Arikok. This is Aruba's national park.

Some cliffs down by the shore.

Some caves

These natural pools filter out salt and create a source of fresh water on the island.
They have this little fish which nibble your feet and give you a pedicure. My feet are too ticklish to last long with that.

We saw some wild goats

These blo-blo lizards are pretty striking

The terrain is desert without a doubt.

We explored some more terrain at Ayo Rock.

We had a lot of meals at food truck snack shacks. This place was called Tia Rosa's

They had the best arepas and patacones

We went to a different beach called Mangel Halto or the tall mangrove. It was everyone's favorite. The water was very clear and shallow and it wasn't crowded at all. The snorkeling was amazing. The corals and the fish and sea creatures were shockingly beautiful.

see... mangroves

Another good meal. This place was right on the water. The menu is whatever they caught that day. We had shrimp and barracuda and mahi mahi.

crabs under our table

overlooking the sea

The next day we explored some old ruins from the gold mining days.

These cactus/trees were kind of nuts.

We wandered down to the Spanish Lagoon where everything was surprisingly lush and verdant.

Once upon a time donkeys were necessary for transportation. Now they have built a donkey sanctuary for all the excess donkeys on the island.

We visited two more beaches, Baby beach...

and Eagle Beach. Eagle Beach was particularly fun for swimming and watersports.

We tried some interesting foods. 
For example, I had a stingray sandwich with barojo juice. 

We went to Ora's bar and restaurant for a great authentic Caribbean meal.

Like oxtail or chicken satay.

San Nicolas has a ton of street art. We toured around to look at the murals. 
That fish was one of the favorites that we saw while snorkeling, the stoplight parrotfish.

On our last day we walked out to the eastern most point of the island to enjoy the sunrise.

Hermit crabs

And wild donkeys