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Aruba - Part 7
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Flat, casinos and nude beaches. Perfect for some, odd for others.
When we looked out from our private balcony, we saw what looked like a rather flat island. In the middle of this flatness was the main town of Oranjestad, Aruba, which has a number of shops and seems to be a rather lively place.
We left the cruise terminal and immediately were accosted by a few locals who seemed rather excited about an island tour that they were promoting. One woman was somewhat round with blond braids and would bounce up and down in a perfect rhythm to the intonations of her speech.
"$10 a person for an island tour." She said while bouncing up and down exactly eleven times for each syllable.
Margherita wanted to see Aruba’s Natural Land Bridge for no other reason than "people said it was nice." It would take either a number of bus rides to get there, or the $10 tour. We opted for the tour.
It seems that Aruba is a mix of two worlds: a colonial-influenced culture of native people and a mix of people there for the casinos and beaches. The tour basically circled all of this. Right in front of you are the Ayo and Casibari Rock Formations, which on their own were noteworthy simply for the fact that there are practically no rocks anywhere else. It’s this absence of rocks that makes it most striking. It’s as if a childish giant got bored with his rock collection and left the formation behind when he went off to play with other toys.
We stopped by the Bushiribana Ruins, the remains of a smelting works from 1872. The ruins themselves look like they’re from some ancient medieval fortress, made up of bulky stones that are slowly breaking away.
Just down the road was the infamous Land Bridge. Land Bridge is basically a coral formation that has had its bottom washed away. My expectation was to find a bridge that actually went somewhere, but it just goes along the beach. Margherita ran in and out of the water quite enamored by the 100-foot bridge. I was busy analyzing it, wondering why we couldn’t have a natural land bridge that actually went somewhere.
After this little adventure, we went right back to the ship, and had lunch again at the Terrace Café. The idea that the Terrace Café has a buffet as opposed to the main dining room made me quite happy. I didn’t need to have the waiter come up to me, when I could simply choose what I liked. In fact, they had an entire sushi section, which made me even happier. Margherita and I briefly thought about eating locally, but it seemed kind of pointless when we had Silversea food just waiting for us.
Anyway, after lunch, we decided to head out again to see the famous beaches. Margherita said she wanted to get a tan.
We grabbed the bus right from Oranjastad, and within a few minutes we were right on the beach. After an hour of my swimming and Margherita sun bathing, she asked, "Am I tan?"
"Honey, you’re simply a darker shade of pale."
She didn’t get the Procol Harum reference and therefore didn’t appreciate my brilliantly witty humor. The beaches are quite beautiful and I enjoyed my time bouncing in the water. Margherita seemed to enjoy slightly darkening her pale skin.
Another bus ride and we were back in Oranjastad. We stopped in a local restaurant and decided to try an appetizer of fried conch fritters.
We had never heard of conch fritters, but the fritters portion appealed to me.
"Honey, what is a conch?" I said.
"It’s seafood" was her quick response.
After I ate a few she then described the conch as a creature that lives in a shell. Come to think, I was well aware of a conch shell (like in "Lord of the Flies") but didn’t put two and two together. It tasted much better before I knew what it was.
San Jose - Part 1
San Jose - Part 2
Silversea's Silver Wind - Part 1
Day at Sea - Part 2
Panama Canal/Gatun Lake - Part 3
San Blas Island - Part 4
Cartagena, Colombia - Part 5
Day at Sea - Part 6
Aruba - Part 7
Curacao - Part 8
Bonaire - Part 9
At Sea - Part 10
St. Georges, Grenada - Part 11
Barbados - Part 12
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