Aruba (Part 2)

Let’s start with some sightseeing pics, throw in some fun swimming pics and end with… bad thing #2. Here we go.

We drove up to the the north part of the island to check out the California Lighthouse. Bri fell asleep in the car, so she missed this point of interest.

Bri woke up and we decided to check out the nearby dunes and shoreline.

Oh, here’s Brielle trying to get in the picture too.

Here’s Brielle… whoops, how did this picture get in here…

Bad girl.

We visited the oldest building in Aruba, Fort Zoutman, built in 1798.

It was originally built for protection against pirates, so of course they had old canons out front for display. If you ever want to avoid cannon fire, do not ask us where to stand.

 

At least Steve is kind enough to take the brunt of the blow.

At Fort Zoutman, they had a demonstration of the different Arubian celebration dances for the different months of the year. Oh yes, they’ve come up with a reason to party for each month in a year, no wonder it’s called “One Happy Island.” It was too dark to get a picture of the girls on stage with their elaborate costumes, but here’s a picture of Brielle in complete awe of the performance.

On our way back to the car that night, we passed by this large and in charge I “heart” Aruba sign. Check out the shadow on the heart of the sign. Steve rocks!

 

Here’s a taste of the lazy river Brielle loved so much. But first, another cute bathing suite (Thanks Ashlyn!).

Love to splash

Not loving to float

Another rockin’ family photo

And now we begin the adventure that leads to BAD THING #2.

It was recommended to us to rent a jeep and check out the windward (or east side, or windy side) of the island. If you all know Steve, this was not something he was going to pass up. So we rented a jeep and took off to the less inhabited, therefore unpaved side of the island with unofficial trails to follow. Pre-Bri, I would have been all over the adventure, but I must admit, the bumpy road, and I can’t even begin to explain to you how bumpy the road was, was not my favorite with our baby girl strapped in the back where I could not see or reach her easily. I think she did better on the trip than I did (despite her car seat being jostled to an upright position a few times and moved at least 5 inches from side to side). Although, she did sleep most of the time which I suspect may have been a defense mechanism.

On this journey, we saw a bunch of vacant “houses” right next to the water. I can only speculate what they are for, but for our trip, they were a nice hiding spot for a restroom stop. I know you can see an outhouse on the left side of this picture, but when I went in there, it was just a bucket on the ground with a mop to clean up but no cleanser. I’ll stop the details here except to say I did not use the bucket.

Ahhhh, look at the nice jeep all intact. But more on that later…

We decided to stop for lunch and concluded that we were indeed on the windward side of the island.

After lunch, we continued our trip and came upon one of the two famous natural bridges. Since this one is only accessed via crazy jeep drivers, horses or crazy 4-wheelers, there was not a lot of people here. Actually, by the time I made it to the top of the bridge, there was only one couple left besides us.

Although the guy kind of ruined our last two pictures, his wife was kind enough to take a picture of the three of us under the bridge.

We did drive by the second famous natural bridge but had a hard time finding it from the trail.

I looked it up when we got home, turns out it collapsed in 2005! Bummer considering that natural bridge is the one the tour buses can access. If you click on the picture, you can see how busy the area was when we drove by.

Our next destination on our trip was the natural pool. You can see it near the upper left side of this picture.

 

As you can see by all the whitewash around the pool, the water was a little rough, so I decided not to take baby girl for a swim.

Here she is with daddy.

Wait, did you see it. Look at this next picture and focus on the tire Brielle in next to.

No, that tire is not in a hole, the tire HAS a hole. In the sidewall actually. BAD THING #2 has arrived. So Brielle and I sat in a little hut while Daddy fixed a tire in the sand. No fun for all. You with think with our surroundings it wouldn’t be that bad, but keep in mind, this is about 4 hours into our trip, the last hour we were lost trying to find the pool, and mama’s been tense the whole time wondering if Brielle’s too hot or too shaken up from Mr. Steve’s Wild Ride.

Here’s Steve doing his magic to fix the tire. Abra Cadabra, fixo!

Nope, still flat

I didn’t take an after picture but Steve was able to fix it, and it didn’t take him too long actually. The spare tire was not as big as the original though, so we decided to call it a day and head home (if we could find our way out of there). I learned a funny thing while Steve was changing the tire. I told you we were not driving on paved roads, but we had been following “trails” for most of the trip that all the off-roading jeeps use. For the last hour or so, we had lost our “trail” and had been trying to find our way to the pool. We found it, but on the way, popped the tire. Well, I was talking to some other people while Steve was changing the tire and they asked me where our wrist bands were. I didn’t know what they were talking about. They told me we were in the Arikok National Park which cost $8 per person to enter, and you had to have a wrist bracelet to prove it. We had inadvertently missed the guard booth by not staying on the unofficial trails! Whoops! That is also why there are no other jeeps parked where we were, yet other groups of people. All the other jeeps are parked at the top of the hill, where the official trail led them. Hee hee. We did find the official trail on our way out, and when we went by the guard booth, kept our wrists out of sight. What horrible tourists we are!

Next time, I’ll wrap it up with BAD THING #3. So exciting!