Photo tour: Aruba

Arashi Dunes, Aruba – All photos are Copyright © Brandon Elijah Scott / Eye & Pen

When I was getting ready to depart from Columbus, Ohio's International airport in April of last year – I was off to trek around Europe for the following 8-months – my flight to Barcelona was canceled, because of an American Airlines computer system error. In fact, they ended up canceling all of their flights in the eastern-USA for the entire day. I was put up in a hotel for the night and set to leave the next morning. The problem was that I lost a sizable amount of money from having to miss my booking and reservations, for when I was supposed to arrive on time. Luckily for me, AA issued a flight voucher in my name for a total credit of $500, so long-story-short, I was able to get myself to Aruba!

The winter in Ohio has been extreme, to say the least. Some sort of 'polar vortex' weather pattern-thing sent most of the USA in a complete freeze-out (except Florida – *shakes fist*), so it wasn't uncommon to have a windchill/real-feel temperature of -40°F. Anyway, it's been ridiculous, and my week-long trip to Aruba couldn't have come sooner.

I never really knew a whole lot about Aruba, to be honest. There are so many islands in the Caribbean that I hold with some sort of intrigue and a lust to experience all that it has to offer. But unfortunately for me, I was robbed the last time I visited the Caribbean, and so I chose Aruba, out of my other options that I could have chosen instead – like that of Jamaica, Puerto Rico, USVi, etc – based on the fact that it has quite a bit better track record than other islands in the region (as far as safety goes).

California Lighthouse.

I arrived on the island late on a Monday, so there was no party or lovely receptions by beautiful woman wrapping fake flower pedal necklaces around me – or maybe I'm getting that confused with Hawaii *shrugs* – and all of the rental car companies had closed by this time in the night. I jumped in a taxi cab and proceeded on a 20-minute ride into the dark desert, with crazy drivers everywhere, going every which way. The taxi slowed to a crawl, where we went downhill, across several steep potholes. We were on a dirt road, walled-in by large cactuses and a rickety fence. There was nothing for a few moments until the road split and on my right, the sign of my accommodation loomed in the moonlight.

The weather was quite warm, toasty even, yet unlike a lot of the northern Caribbean islands, it was hot, but there wasn't a lot of humidity. The heat was dry and comfortable, mainly because of the lovely breeze that was quite consistent around the entire island. The worst part was that the sun beamed down on you, instantly burning your skin – it felt close to what I experienced in Marrakech, Morocco.

Arashi Dunes.

Since I arrived late the first night, I missed everything, so the following morning, I set out and snagged myself a rental car at the airport, then I went on a long drive around half of the island. I saw a lot, but really, I saw nothing at all, as I avoided the coastal regions, the national park, and the high rise hotel area. I wanted to just see what life was all about on the island. My first major destination of note – as I love natural scenery most – was the Arashi Dunes at the northwest tip of the island. The California Lighthouse was the last remaining sign of people once I parked close by and took to the dunes by foot. I hiked around for about an hour, exploring the dunes, and the coastal area, while I waited for the sun to set. As you can (likely) tell by now, I have a deep adoration for sunsets in my photo work. There's just something magical about them, the light, the progression, the symbolism of birth to death, or perhaps it's just the colors that I love.

Arashi Dunes.

Arashi Dunes.

The Arashi Dunes were beautiful – especially with that lovely orange-pink light that the sun was giving off! I planned on revisiting the dunes again, but I ended up spending much too much time exploring other parts of the island. For, while Aruba isn't a huge place, it's not exactly super small either. There's just so much to see, and to experience, and places that are worth spending an extended amount of time at, rather than breezing through. But all in all, I have no regrets about how I spent my time in Aruba – it was lovely!

West coast.

West coast.

The sun set all of the way down, as I filtered down through the town of Noord, and along the night-lit high rise hotel district. While life there surely seemed glamorous, with all of its all-inclusive penthouses and resorts, and what not – but I was beyond happy with staying far away from all of the materialistic luxury, and staying where I felt as though I was apart of the authentic look and feel, and lifestyle of the island.

I teamed up with a local family who owns the Cunucu Arubiano in the middle of the island, set deep in the desert next to the Arikok National Park. There maybe wasn't anything glam and glitzy about the place, but it was as authentic as you can get on Aruba. Each resident of the Cunucu Arubiano had their own villas – each building was restored for comfort, but they were still original in style and structure, each being over one hundred years old. I had a brilliant time staying here – it was quiet and private, with several lovely perks, like a pool and a full-service kitchen in my villa, BUT it was also attached to the Donkey Sanctuary, which was pretty darn neat! Throughout the day, the donkey's would walk around my villa, and sniff at my window – which was really interesting and cute.

If I could do Aruba all over again, I would still choose to stay at the Cunucu Arubiano – it's brilliant! Plus, the folks who own the accommodation are some of the nicest that I've ever met.

Ayo Rock Formations.

On my third day on the island, I thought it would be fun to signup for a snorkeling cruise trip with De Palm Tours. We set out midday just after lunchtime, on a massive 100-200 person sailboat. I didn't realize that it was a booze cruise, and seeing as how it was loaded with several gorgeous girls, ready to swim and drink; the trip turned from what I thought would be a chill experience in the water, to a whole hell of a lot of fun. A group of like-minded, youthfuls grouped together and we made the best of an already awesome trip. Surprisingly, I had never snorkeled before now. We stopped at two interesting snorkeling areas. The first stop was near the California Lighthouse and Arashi Dunes, and the other was closer to the high rise hotel strip, but was much further out to sea. The second location was definitely the best – while the first stop offered some coral and fish scenery, the second was right above a large shipwreck. The ship seemed to elongate for hundreds of feet, right under us – it looked old, and jagged, and covered in sea growth. It was a pretty amazing experience!

The worst part, however, was that I woke up the next day with a helluva sunburn – haha, *smacks forehead*.

Cunucu Arubiano.

One thing that Aruba had NO shortage of was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous sunsets – as you can probably tell by now, as you're looking through this tour. Once 6:30-7:00 PM came around, it was time to relax and watch the sun go down, I particularly loved sprawling out along the Arashi sand dunes (pictured above), but hanging out at my villa, in front of the pool wasn't so bad either.

Boca Andicuri.

One day I was feeling anxious, with some especially itchy feet, so I set off and started to randomly drive around. I took several random turns, and finally I ended up on a bumpy dirt road. Luckily for me, I'm typically pretty solid with the direction and topography of a place once I've been there for a few days, so I knew where I was going to end up – a part of the island that I had yet to explore. The dirt path lead me to the mostly uninhabited northern coast, where there were several interesting attractions, like that of an abandoned mine, various animal attractions, and loads of natural wonders – like that of the Natural Bridge and of course, the seemingly endless and lovely rigid cliffs and rock formations.

Arikok National Park.

The next day I ventured into the Arikok National Park, which was only about five to ten minutes from my villa. After a few dirt paths, I came to the park entrance, where everything was closed down for the night. The sun was getting ready to set, so I wasted no time getting as far into the park as I could. The worst part of driving into the park was that I had a small economy rental car, and there were deep drops and notches cut into the roads, that went across the road from one side to the other, every couple hundred feet. If I didn't slow to the absolutely slowest crawl, then I would have probably found myself stranded due to a blown tire. But luckily, it wasn't SO bad, so nothing bad ended up happening.

Arikok National Park.

Arikok National Park.

At first, the park seemed to be just a hilly desert, but as I proceeded forward, exploring all I could, the place evolved and expanded, and ended up being the highlight of my trip.

Arikok National Park.

Arikok National Park.

Arikok National Park.

I ended up driving all of the way into the park, until I reached the coast again. Nearby there were several caves, which wound throughout the park – apparently one of the caves runs underground for nearly a mile. But seeing as how the sun was beginning to set, I took a quick walk through and then turned around to set back out of the park. There were several areas that I wanted to snap a photograph of, but wanted to wait until the sun painted the landscape – as you can see, this tactic paid off.

Arikok National Park.

Arikok National Park.

Visiting the Arikok National Park was absolutely a favorite experience of mine! If I return to Aruba someday, I'll be sure to visit again, and to explore further into the park. For the path that ran along the coast split into two separate paths, both of which had a terrain that was just too much for my poor little economy car.

Coco Beach.

Early the next day, I took another tour – which I thought was going to be absolutely spectacular! The Atlantis Submarine company has a tour available, where they take you out to a dive site, where they submerge you in a real submarine. The thing looked like what I would have imagined being produced between World War 2 and the original Cold War flareups. It was a legitimate submarine, but the problem was that the current blew up a lot of sand where we were diving, so I couldn't get any useful photos, and even with my naked eye, I was unable to see a whole lot. It was a very cool idea, but the experience didn't come close to my expectations. I mean, you look at the promotional material and photos offered for the tours, and it was just a total misrepresentation.

Coco Beach.

Coco Beach.

On my last day on the island, I took a trip to the southeastern most edge of the island, driving down to the beaches you see above here, and then up past the Aruba Golf Club, where you can find some interesting sand dunes, rock formations, and giant windmills – oh, and you can find a curious group of kite-flyers.

On my way back to Oranjestad, I stopped near San Nicolaas at the infamous Zeerover restaurant. It sits atop a beach, built up like a large dock topped with a roof, where fisherman boats straight up tie themselves to the building and deliver the freshest fish you can find on the island. You order at the front of the building, through a small window; they tell you what they have fresh that day, and you simple ask them to stop while they're weighing out how much you want for your meal. You proceed inside the covered building, where you stop at another window, which is essentially a bar; so you grab your drinks and take a seat. Within minutes, your meal is brought out to you, cooked in some sort of an oil, which keeps it healthy, yet tasting amazing. All in all, THE BEST fish I've ever had – well worth a stop if you find yourself in Aruba sometime in the near future!

Routing map, thanks to Google Maps.

This was the second time that I had visited the Caribbean (unless you count Miami), and if you're an avid reader, you already know about what happened the first time. So, it was of high priority for me to stay out of any trouble, and as far away from any issues that could possibly happen – thankfully, the island of Aruba is a very safe place, compared to some of the other islands in the region.

Overall, Aruba was a lovely experience. It was warm, with a nice breeze, sunny and beautiful – you really couldn't ask for better weather! The attractions around the island are well worth a minimum of a week-long visit. I'll be sure to come back again – maybe next time I'll actually try to relax and have a real vacation – haha. Although, perhaps my adventurous spirit simply has an unquenchable lust.