Aruba: My 30th country!
My goal was to get to 30 countries by my 30th birthday. I had a plan for 2018 of how to make this happen: I would go to an island near Australia with my friend from Philippines in July when we both had some time, and then go to a different island for my 30th in October. But then I had to return to Canada from Australia in April and leave Aus for good in September, and my dear friend had lots of work travel on the go so we simply could not make our travel plans work.
Luckily, my friends decided to go to Fiji in February and invited me along, so that was Country 29. And then in July, once I knew I'd be back in Canada as of mid-September, I set out recruiting people to join me on a 30th birthday trip in the Caribbean somewhere. I did a whole bunch of research on good deals at all-inclusives vs. rented apartments vs. hostels, and cool things to do in a week, and weather patterns (read: hurricane season), and eventually settled on Aruba.
Originally, there were 6 people who said they were interested in coming along. I decided I wanted details finalized by August 20, and by the time that date came around, only one friend was able to join. I was disappointed, and slightly concerned because my friend Mike and I had never hung out just the two of us, but I figured we'd have a great time anyway cause we'd be on the beach with lots of alcoholic beverages available for us.
Turns out, the resort was incredible, our room was awesome, Aruba is such an amazing country, and Mike and I got along so well that now we're dating and living together!
October 1: En route to Aruba!
Mike picked me up at 630am to head to the airport for our 9am flight. We checked in no problem, and I was exhausted so passed out in my seat before we even took off. I slept for most of the flight, which was nice.
We arrived to a gorgeous sunny day, and were sweating by the time we got outside. I thought we had a shuttle but we just could not figure it out, so we took a taxi. In Aruba, they use USD, which is super handy, but there is also a local currency of Florins and it's mostly coins, so change is in USD and Florins. They're cool looking coins, but of course I forgot to take photos of those.
We got to our hotel and were immediately excited and impressed. The Tamarijn Aruba is GORGEOUS, and not too big. Our room had been upgraded due to a tropical storm that had just passed through. Apparently the ground level rooms along the beach had been flooded! And, we were warned that the water was a little rough and the beach was ugly/dirty but it should clear within a couple of days.
We were thrilled, especially about our balcony, and immediately changed into our bathing suits. We went to the front desk to make some plans for adventures throughout the week, and then had some fries and chicken fingers and very disappointing nachos from the bar.
As we were sitting at the bar, we noticed the other bar, somewhat closer to the pool. No food available at that one, but sweet that there are two bars near the pool. Behind us there was an Italian restaurant and an Asian restaurant. It was an all inclusive resort with a huge buffet, but there were three restaurants that we could reserve spaces at if we wanted something different.
We decided to make our way through the drink menu, because we hadn't heard of most of the drinks. It made me so happy that there were no straws and reusable cups, and we were given huge water bottles with filling stations all around. Fun fact: clean, drinkable water in Aruba!
In writing this blog post, I realize that Mike and I were terrible at taking photos. Whoops!
We decided to go for a swim, and the water was not as warm as I thought it would be. That being said, it was so nice to be in a pool. As soon as we put our towels on some chairs, we realized we were surrounded by people from the States, who thought we were also from the US. Ah well, comes with being in the Caribbean, I suppose. While we were in the pool, someone from the resort came by asking if we wanted a drink. And just like that, drinks were brought to us in the pool! I could get used to this.
Swimming without a swim cap is a big deal for me, because I have a bunch of colour in my hair and I don't want it to bleed or come out with the salt (because salt pulls out the colour super quickly). It was SO nice to not have to wear my cap, because I had plans to get my hair done when we got back to Canada.
Once we decided we were cool in the water, we went back to our room to change and watched the sunset while listening to music on our balcony. I LOVE sunsets. Then we decided to check out the buffet and oh goodness, what a spread: salad bar, pasta station, quesadilla station, meat station (like a roast of some persuasion), dessert bar, sushi bar, and a cooked dishes bar (no clue what to call that whole section). Holy, YUM. We had the option of sitting inside, where it's highly air conditioned or outdoors, on the beach (but still on a raised platform). And there were servers who brought us drinks of whatever we wanted.
After dinner, we decided to be party animals and read for a bit before going to sleep around 9.
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| The view from our balcony! |
October 2
Woke up early for breakfast and then waited for a bit to go on our Jeep Safari. As we were standing there, I felt a migraine coming on so decided to change our safari to the next day and I went back to bed for about 4 hours.
Mike woke me up for lunch and we went to the buffet. I ate a bit of fruit, had a bunch of water, and went back to bed to read and sleep until dinner. I was able to eat a decent sized dinner, and we watched an episode of Gilmore Girls before I went to bed. Not exactly the way I expected to start vacation, but I guess I needed to sleep and chill out. Pretty sure Mike read the entire time.
Here are some cool things about Aruba:
- It is 29km north of Venezuela, so it's practically South America, but is still the Caribbean
- The population is 100 000 people
- It is a Dutch colony
- The local language, Papamiento, is a mix of about 7 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, English, an Indian dialect, Dutch, French Creole, and a South African dialect. It's super neat sounding.
- Arubans are super happy people, and it's awesome
October 3
Jeep Safari day!!
We woke up to a cool, rainy day - which is apparently unusual in Aruba but the tropical storm changed things up a bit. We were picked up in a 12-seater open Jeep.
Safari Jeep Island Tour
We knew right away two things: it would rain all day, and be
a very bumpy ride. Mac, our driver, picked us up at 845am at our hotel. We got
to choose which bench to sit in (the muddy front, the bumpy middle, or the
bumpiest back), and told to buckle in tight. After picking up the other guests,
we were on our way, and it started to rain.
First stop: ostrich farm! We were taken on a tour of this
farm, with various enclosures, and saw emus and ostriches. Here’s a list of
what I learned about both.
Emus: Australian, 4-5 feet tall, run 25 miles/hr, have three
toes.
Ostriches: South African, tallest bird in the world, run 45
miles/hr, don’t bury their heads but use their heads to help build their nest
in the ground, have two toes (and are the only bird in the world with only 2).
We got back in the Jeep and were en route to stop 2 when we
pulled over to avoid the intense rain under cover. Our Jeeps are not
waterproof, and this was intense, though brief. “Aruba, Arriba! The weather
changes fast!”
When the rain subsided, we hopped back in and began the
off-roading to the Three Sisters: a rad coral rock formation on top of volcanic
rock on the north side of the island. Here’s Mike braving the Sisters (I was too scared) and a bunch of the rocks. I was a very happy geographer!
Continue off-roading to the donkey sanctuary. Aruba’s main form of transportation was donkeys until the 1970s, so there are MANY of them all over, and a lot get hit by all of the cars. So, some cool folks got together to take care of the donkeys.
After the donkeys, we stopped for an excellently timed lunch and avoided some rough rain. I was super impressed with my ribs, and Mike enjoyed fish (Grouper). After lunch, we went to Arikok National Park. It was a fun/bumpy ride, with REALLY intense rain that pelted our faces and soaked our bodies. The rain was excellent exfoliant.
We passed 10 wind turbines along the way to the Quadirikiri
Cave. Legend has it that this limestone cave was used to keep captive a woman
who was descended from a Sun God and the daughter of the chief. Chief was
unhappy with her choice of partner and saw it as treason because he was a
foreigner, so locked her in a cave. She was never seen again.
This limestone cave is home to MANY bats, and goats used to
like to hang out inside, but they would get lost and die, which is smelly. Now
it’s open to tourists, but is locked at night.
The final stop was Baby Beach, outside the national park, where we got to swim and snorkel for about an hour. The fish were bright and colourful, and far more numerous than I was anticipating. Mike saw a sea turtle! Didn’t manage to take any pictures, but still cool. And the water was gorgeous.
October 4
As usual, we woke up in time for the breakfast buffet - totally rad, by the way - and decided to have a chill day at the hotel. Turns out I didn't take any photos all day. Whoops! We read on our balcony for a while, walked along the beach, went for a swim in the ocean, and then enjoyed happy hour at the bar. We met some cool ladies from the US at happy hour and they invited us to hang out that night.
We made reservations at an Asian fusion restaurant for Thursday eve at the resort. The food was okay, but the air conditioning was obnoxious and I was frozen. Good thing it was an all-inclusive!
We found our friends after dinner, had many drinks and a dance party. It was awesome. And of course, a wedding party joined us for the dance portion. Hilarious.
October 5
Hangover breakfast. Nap to recover.
Then we decided to walk into town to check out the sights. Turns out, it's a small place and was very easy and safe to walk around. There is one main street and a few side streets. Oranjestad, the capital, gets A LOT of cruise ship traffic and there are MANY fancy jewelry and clothing stores
We went for a stunning sunset swim, which was beautiful, until I was thrown into the rocks as I was trying to get back to shore. Ouch! Don't worry; nothing major. But a whole lot of sand in my suit and hair, despite a long shower outside to try to get it out. And even after three washes I couldn't get it all.
We had a nice dinner and an early night of playing cards and watching Disney.
October 6 - MY 30TH!
We woke up early to go snorkeling around the island! IT. WAS. AWESOME. Unfortunately, photos can't be taken underwater with a phone, and Mike's phone died with all of the photos we were able to capture.
We were picked up by a bus and taken to our boat, then headed out to our first stop, a shipwreck. It would seem there are a whole lot of shipwrecks all around this part of the Caribbean. The water was crystal clear and incredible. I friggin love snorkeling, despite the fact that the masks often don't fit my face and it can be frustrating.
Three stops: two shipwrecks and a reef. The reef was in really shallow water, and the shipwrecks were in deeper waters. Some people had scuba gear so they could get really close. Most of us had snorkels, but we were still able to see so much. It was fantastic. Truly remarkable.
Unfortunately, we forgot to reapply sunscreen, and the sun seriously won. It was BRUTAL, though of course we didn't feel the full effects until about 5pm.
October 7
The entire day was spent in bed with air conditioning, applying aloe and lotion. We left the room to eat, staying entirely in the shade, and that was about it until dinner time. We booked ourselves dinner at another of the hotel's restaurants, with a grill. We really enjoyed the food, and got to eat with a lovely married couple from the US who had been to Tamarijn Aruba (our resort) 3 times before. It was fantastic!
October 8
Our final day. We were still in a lot of pain from our sunburns, but after breakfast and packing up we decided to check out the local butterfly conservatory. It was incredible! It was free, and we learned a lot about Aruba's climate and how most of these butterflies are not endemic to either Aruba or the Caribbean.
We checked out, took a few final photos and a walk along the beach, then headed to the airport.
I had a window seat!
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