We kicked off our travels to Aruba with an overnight layover in Philadelphia! The original plan was to tour Independence Hall and see the Liberty Bell, however due to a flight delay (an overhead bin that wouldn't close) we missed the tour window for Independence hall and just barely made it to the Liberty Bell before it closed! The plus side was that we were able to get pictures with nobody in them! We had some delicious cheesesteak sandwiches for dinner!
We arrived in Aruba around 1:30 pm the next day! After getting our rental car we stopped at McDonalds for lunch before checking into our hotel. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening at the hotel bouncing between the beach and the pool! We walked to Smokey Joes for dinner and checked out some shops on the walk back!
The next morning we were picked up at our hotel by a local tour guide for a private tour beginning in Arikok National Park! I don't think a lot of people realize that a good part of Aruba is actually a desert!
After admiring the desert landscape our first stop was Conchi, more commonly referred to as the natural pool. The "pool" is a unique swimming spot enclosed by volcanic rock and the area is only accessible by foot, horseback or a 4x4 vehicle. The waves were pretty big unfortunately that day, so we we opted out of getting into the water per the advice of our guide, Alex.
Our next stop was the Fontein Cave. This cave is unique in that it featured drawings of Arawak Indians on the ceilings. Located near the Fontein Cave was a small fish pond where you can have Garra rufa fish nibble on your feet to exfoliate dead skin. It's definitely a tingly/ticklish feeling that some liked more than others.
Next stop was Quadirikiri Cave which is famous for its illuminated chambers due to holes in the ceiling where sunlight can shine through.
The remainder of the time was spent driving around the coast, stopping at cool view points and getting some insider tips of things to do and see from Alex! We had the best time!
We spent the rest of the day at our hotel which was located directly on Palm Beach. We reserved a cabana for shade, which was a must. Lunch was smoothies & acai bowls from Eduardo's Beach Shack. My acai bowl might have been my favorite thing I ate the whole trip!
We waked to dinner again, this time at Lola Taqueria, it was so good!
We spent the evening walking up and down the main strip doing souvenir shopping. We got Dutch style mini pancakes from Pofferdorie for dessert per the recommendation of our tour guide Alex. They were delicious, and we never would have discovered this place without him!
The next morning we covered another piece of the island we hadn't seen yet!
First stop was the Natural Bridge. In 2005, the country's largest and most photographed natural bridge collapsed as you can see from the ruins. Since then, a baby bridge has formed adjacent to it.
Next stop was the Bushiribana Ruins which were built in 1872 by the Aruba Island Gold-mining Company, which was founded to mine the gold discovered in the Seroe Plat region of Aruba.
Next we had some fun climbing around the Ayo Rock Formations.
We checked out of the Holiday Inn and grabbed lunch at Wendy's. Our tour guide Alex said it's the most popular fast food chain on the island, so we had to try it. We checked in to our next hotel near the cruise ship port and headed out to Baby Beach for rest of the day. We had stopped here previously on our island tour with Alex and couldn't wait to come back. Nate and Jade did some snorkeling while Jemma and I played in the sand!
We had a great Caribbean style dinner in the cutest town, San Nicolas. The town was filled with beautiful murals!
The next morning started with Starbucks and a boat ride over to our hotel's private island. The highlight here was the flamingos roaming around.
We had lunch back at the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the pool.
One of my favorites things of the whole trip was our sunset dinner at Barefoot directly on the beach! It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect.
We didn't have to return our rental car until about 2:00 pm so we had a good part of the day to continue exploring! We started off the morning with breakfast at the cutest coffee shop!
We had time for one more stop, the Aruba Aloe Factory. We went on a tour and got to test products in the gift shop! We could have used some of these aloe products a few days ago to help with sunburn! :)
Our final stop for the afternoon was lunch at The LionFish Snack. Our tour guide Alex also told us about this place too and since it is only open on Saturdays, this was our only chance. It was so good, and again we never would have known about it if it weren't for him! I guess LionFish are destructive to the other local fish and animals in the Caribbean so the owner started this snack truck as a way to reduce the LionFish population, hunting and shooting them with pole spears himself.
We returned our rental car and headed to the airport, only to find our flight had been delayed several hours. We were supposed to have an overnight layover again in PHL, which we still did, but rather than getting a hotel room we just slept in the airport and bumped our connecting flight to Chicago up to 5:00 am. Needless to say we are all very sleepy when we got home!
So thankful and blessed to have had another safe and amazing adventure with these three!
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