Sunday, 2/3/19 – From Miami to Aruba
This morning we disembarked our cruise ship, enjoyed a nice breakfast with Sherpa’s parents, said our farewell’s and hopped on a plane to Aruba! Why fly to another island after geting off an 8 night Eastern Caribbean cruise? Basically it was a travel hack. More on that later.
We got it in early enough to enjoy an afternoon at the beach after checking into a villa and picking up a rental car. The rental car seemed a bit pricey, but it was the cheapest we could find online. A walk-in asked about getting a car for a whole week and it was twice what our 2 day rental was so there may be a walk-in strategy for rental cars in Aruba. Something to consider in the future. We finished our day watching the sunset at surfside beach to a picnic dinner we had picked up nearby.
Monday, 2/4/19 – Exploring Aruba
First order of business was sleeping in, followed closely by a late breakfast. We found a place with good reviews that featured Dutch pancakes. They were something between a crepe and a traditional pancake, delicious and satisfying. Aruba now an independent country, is a former Dutch colony. Our waiter was from Holland and expecting his first baby. We exchanged advice on parenting for some local knowledge, learning that you could get fine imported Gouda cheeses from Holland.
After a quick visit to an old lighthouse, we headed off to the back side of the island, which is more remote and less developed. Tour groups were taking their toll, with 4 wheelers everywhere and lots of dusty trails carved into the wilderness. After some exploration, we came back to the touristy side of the island which has all of the perfect white sand beaches with turquoise water and calm waves. We bought some Gouda cheese imported from Holland and had a picnic at one of the top 10 beaches in the world, Eagle beach. The only problem was that they charged for bathrooms, and it smelled a bit like people were taking matters into there own hands near where we picnicked. Our little hitch hiker studied all the birds that were curious about our lunch. From there, we poked through the downtown in search of a blue delft souvenir hardening to the Dutch heritage of Aruba. Successful, we drove to baby beach to watch sunset. This was a very beautiful, very happy beach. If we had gone earlier in the day, we probably would not have explored the rest of the island it was so nice. We finished the day by grabbing local food at The Old Cunucu House, a restaurant built into a 150 year old house. The food was high priced but delicious. Overall Aruba is a nice place to get away if you need some pristine beaches in a similar environment to home. It very much caters to tourists. We enjoyed our time here and are now looking forward to moving on to more remote parts of the world.
Hike the Good Hike!
-Sherpa and Porter
