Aruba…a tiny little desert island (well, 17×6 miles). Windy as heck, but beautiful.
We spent 4 nights in Aruba recently, with two of our friends. We had a great time, and certainly experienced adventure on our “jeep tour gone wild”, also know as “the path to the Natural Pool is treacherous”. Well, we got lost, and didn’t make it, but the off-road jeep experience will never be forgotten. Now that we know the way, perhaps we can make it next time?
We stayed at the Tamarijn all-inclusive resort area. While it was decent, there were some things we wish had been better. The pool area was always a mess. Because of the wind, cups, paper plates, and straws littered the area. Apparently, there wasn’t any staff dedicated to picking up the trash that people left behind. The pool water itself could have used more chemicals or something…it was quite cloudly and dirty looking early in the day.
Being all-inclusive means drink and eat, drink and eat. Well, almost. It could take 10 minutes for you to get a drink, and when you ended up getting one, it was usually pretty weak. Stick with Bacardi & Coke, or the local beer, Balashi. Some folks in our party complained that the desert tray needed more variety. And, you’ll also want to glance at your food to avoid eating cooked flies or other flying insects that end up on the grill or sautee pan. 😮
Be sure to check out the other resorts close by…Tamarijn is part of the “mega resort” (or something like that). You can walk to the Divi Resort and your armband will get you drinks and food there, too. That resort seemed nicer (the grass is always greener on the other side): less kids, cleaner pool, and a more packed and livelier crowd at night. The accomodations weren’t as attractive as the Tamarijn’s, tho.
When touring the country-side, wear heavy shoes – we found several 1” long cacti needles embedded in our rubber soled casual shoes, and some of them went through the sole and pricked at our feet. We thought we had rocks in our shoes, but nothing came out when we shook out the shoes. It took some work removing those needles, too.
Be sure to put your (expensive) camera equipment in protective gear (water-proof plastic case/bag or something similar) when taking pictures at the southern-most tip of the island. The ocean spray is sure to cause an issue with your camera’s lenses or internals. I had to send my camera and lens in for repair, and ended up having to purchase a new lens. Be sure to bring lens cleaner liquid and cloth to clean the ocean spray off your lens, otherwise you’ll get fuzzy pictures.
These pictures were taken with the Canon EOS 10D.
