Everyone aboard the Arubus!
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve been abroad, so I’ve been less apt to post. My former roommate Joel and I grabbed some planes and headed down to Aruba during the low tourist season. This has given us a slightly different trip than what we expected, but I think it has turned it into what we originally both wanted – a way to get away from it all and do some awesome things.
We both arrived on different planes and managed to use the public transit well enough to get us in the vicinity of the hotel. Turns out that Fodor’s has a horrible guidebook for Aruba. It’s not completely horrible, but each one of us took an extra 30 minutes to an hour to find the hotel because of poor documentation in the guidebook. The place is fantastic, however.
Aruba is a place for honeymooners, a place for gamblers, and a place for shoppers. The reason we thought the trip would be different is the night life near the resorts. Turns out there is a reason is it the low season – there are not as many people around and many of the bars are closed and/or deserted. This has led us to other fun things.
One of the main reasons for heading to Aruba is that it is one of the best places in the world to windsurf. Even next week, a huge world tournament is being held on the island. The first day we learned to do some basic windsurfing, moving with the wind and attempting to turn back and forth. We don’t have the turning down yet and will do some more surfing tomorrow, but for the little bit we did and the little that we paid, it was quite worth it. Someday, I think kitesurfing is on my agenda, as it’s pretty sexy looking.
The windsurfing left us sunburnt and bruised, and so the next day we decided to head out on a huge bike trip of the island, getting into the mainland to see where the bulk of the people live. We rented bikes from the same place (Aruba Active Vacations) and set out. We hit up the California Lighthouse at the northwest peak of the island, headed through the mainland to some giant rock formations, headed to the large national park (and hiked up one of the few tallest points on the island to view the whole island in 360 degrees), got lost a bit, and headed up the the island on one of the main highways and past the airport. You can see the route here.
The bike ride left me more bruised but exhilarated. We woke up early this morning and biked to the capital city to watch the Dutch play in the World Cup will all of the other Dutch people on the island. We bought orange shirts and cheered along for the first half and in the second half we ate Dutch pancakes and finished out the game.
Today found us returning the bikes, eating cheaply from the grocery store (why didn’t we shop earlier? well, the eating out at restaurants was a great vacation thing to do as well, though costly), and lounging on the beach. Tonight – heading to a festival in town to see what’s going on.
See you back in America soon!
