Since we had an early morning pick-up, we got up early and got ourselves ready to go. We had a quick hearty continental breakfast, then headed out to the road to wait for ABC Tours. Just as Jer headed in to reception to ask them to call, the Jeep arrived to get us (it figures!). We drove to the ABC Tours office, signed our waivers, and then got into our Jeep with a group from Massachusetts (there were four of them, all in their 50s and 60s, we think). Our guide, Gabriel, joined us, and we set off on the Xtreme Safari Adventure (which turned out to be more "off the beaten path" than "extreme").
The neat part about the Xtreme Safari Adventure was that we got to see parts of the island (particularly Arikok National Park) that weren't covered by our full-day tour, and there were few other tourists there, since the most popular tours go to other sights. We drove as though we were going to the Natural Bridge, but rather than pulling into the parking lot, our guide turned inland and drove up over the rock-strewn hills, giving us a cool bird's-eye view of the collapsed bridge and the sea beyond. From there, we continued off-road along the north-eastern side of the island, stopping at the beautiful Hadicurari Beach, a broad sand beach with heavy surf. Gabriel, Jer and our New Englanders took off their shoes and waded out to knee-depth, but beyond that it was suited for body-surfers, not swimmers. We saw cute little crabs scuttling along the sand; much to Jess's surprise, Jer managed to catch one and gave all the tour participants a chance to photograph it, before letting it go. A bit further along the coast, we stopped at the Eyes of God, two big holes in the ground with the sea roiling 15-20 feet below; when the seas are high, they act as blowholes (but we weren't lucky enough to see that). We continued on to Noordcap, the northeastern-most point, where Gabriel took us out onto the Breathing Stones, a jumble of volcanic rock from which a bowl-shaped area had been worn by the wind and sea; if you stood in the right place, you could hear a hissing sound, where the sea forced through a small blowhole.
Our next stop was the Twin Bridge, a poorly-named spot, as there are actually three interconnected natural bridges. We got to walk around on the spans of the bridges, which was very neat and afforded us views us the black stone beach nearby. We headed back into the cunucu (countryside) along the eastern side of the island, where we saw wild goats eating cacti, which was unexpected. Since much of Aruba is desert, the goats have had to learn how to work around the spines in order to survive. We drove down to Fuente Bridge, a narrow, tunnel-like natural bridge with the open sea visible at the end. Unfortunately, a lot of litter washes up there; Gabriel found an uneaten Venezuelan candy bar that isn't imported to Aruba and presumably made the 20-mile trip by sea, he said occasionally things wash ashore from as far away as Africa. After a brief stop at the National Park Visitors Center to use the restrooms, we drove to Dos Playas, a pair of beautiful, sandy beaches with even more dangerous surf than Hadicurari Beach; apparently, a Dutch tourist recently drowned there after not being careful enough about the undertow. Although this was the last official stop on the tour, we had a bit of time left, so Gabriel took us up the tallest hill in Aruba, Mount Jamanota. At around 620 feet, it wasn't really that tall, but we got great views of the mostly-uninhabited center and eastern side of the island, as well as the hotel zones to the north, Oranjestad to the west, and the water distillation plant and beer brewery at Balashi, to the southwest. It was a really nice day, and we enjoyed getting to see some of the lesser-known sights.
After dropping the Massachusetts folks back at their resort, Gabriel dropped us off at the MVC Eagle Beach, and we headed straight for the shower to rinse off the dry Aruban dust. Once clean, we went down to lunch at the Tulip Restaurant -- Jer had a steak sandwich with mushrooms and bacon, and Jess had a Dutch pancake with chunks of apple added to the batter, both of which were quite tasty. We then stopped by reception to drop off our postcards and to ask about attractions we might visit the next day (we only had a half-day, which cut out a snorkel trip, but we were considering a bit more off-beach snorkeling). Jer started yawning, so we came back to our room and Jess updated this journal; Jer helped for a while, before falling asleep, and Jess soon joined him. Jer woke up first and looked at pictures for a bit, before waking Jess up from her nap (which wasn't an easy task). We put on our shoes and walked back to Aqua Windies to ask if they could recommend a snorkeling spot, but they told us we'd visited them all already: Baby Beach, Mangel Halto, Boca Catalina, Malmok and Arashi. While a couple of them had been pretty awesome, we didn't feel like revisiting places we'd already been, especially since we were already somewhat sunburned and it would mean bringing home wet clothes. So we thanked them and returned to the MVC Eagle Beach to chill out for a bit, check in for our flights and get ready for dinner.
Once again, we took the bus to the Radisson in the high-rise area, then turned inland and walked quite a distance, turning up at Papiamento a bit before 7pm. The restaurant is set in a 150-year old mansion and its garden; although we had no reservations, we were seated promptly at a nice table not far from the edge of the swimming pool. We perused the menu, seeing lots of tempting choices, before settling on soups (cream of tomato with herbed sour cream for Jess, fisherman's bisque with brandy for Jer) and a main to share (pan-fried grouper with a lime-caper cream sauce); like many of the fancy restaurants on Aruba, Papiamento charged a small amount to split an entree, but it included caesar salads for both of us. We were brought crusty rolls to dip in olive oil as we waited for our soups, which were delicious, as was our main course (which came with crispy fried okra that was actually good -- who knew? -- and mashed sweet potatoes, plus a slice of the best watermelon we'd had on the island). Even though we were quite full, we split a Dutch apple pie (nothing like in the US, it had apples, raisins and sweet cherries in a flaky pastry crust, not a crumb topping). It was one of the best meals we had on Aruba -- great food, good service, and a lovely setting.
We walked back to the Radisson and waited 45 minutes for a bus (we missed one, and the next didn't stop), passing the time by chatting with other waiting tourists. It was quite a pleasant way to pass the time, and we did eventually make it back to the MVC Eagle Beach. We sat on the balcony enjoying the breeze, updating this journal and trying to decide where to have lunch the next day (as there are relatively few options on Sunday). Then it was time to review the day's pictures, before heading to bed.
We awoke a bit before the alarm, got dressed and headed down for our hearty continental breakfast. Since we didn't have anything planned before our late afternoon flight and we'd arranged for a late checkout, we had a lazy morning. Jer went for a run along Eagle Beach, while Jess settled herself in the sand under a palapa and read her book, glancing up periodically to watch the pelicans and the people (tourists and locals) bobbling in the ocean. It was a pleasant, relaxing way to spend a morning. When Jer came back from his run, we headed inside to shower and pack.
We left our bags at reception (along with our postcards, for the hotel to mail) and walked down the beach to see about having lunch somewhere new. Unfortunately, Mango's wasn't open for lunch on Sunday and nothing on the Passions Beach Bar menu really appealed, so we returned to the MVC Eagle Beach and had lunch at the Tulip restaurant. We then reclaimed our bags and the desk clerk called us a cab. There was little traffic, so we made it to the airport in 20 minutes.
Unfortunately, Continental has no kiosks at the Aruba airport, so we waited for 45 minutes to get our boarding passes. We had plenty of time to get through security, peruse the overpriced souvenirs, and get annoyed at other people%u2019s poorly-behaved children (and admire the few well-behaved ones). We also learned that Continental had been beset with problems; several flights had been cancelled during the week, so there were a number of standby passengers trying to get home and no extra seats on our plane, which was the last departure of the day. Yikes! Our flight was delayed a bit taking off, but eventually we made it home to NYC.