Aruba is one of the 3 Dutch islands in the Caribbean Sea. We arrived during a “hurricane”, and streets were flooded with water up to our knees. We certainly didn’t let that stop us from enjoying Aruba and we found plenty to do.

The places I am going to highlight on this page are of the outdoor variety…

The California Lighthouse – Named after a shipwreck and located near Arashi Beach on the northwest tip of Aruba.

Alto Vista Chapel is a small Catholic chapel also known as “Pilgrims Church” that stands on the hills above the north shore of the sea and to the northeast of the town of Noord.  Alto Vista meaning “high view” is situated overlooking the sea in the middle of desert environment of sand, shrubs and cactus.

 Arikok National Park –  with several lime stone caves, hiking trails, plantation ruins, and “secret” private beaches. There is a small entrance fee that goes towards the preservation of the park and the animals who roam freely.

Aruba is full of natural wonders and the rock formations, cliffs and natural formed bridges were nothing short of amazing.

In the Arikok National Park are several caves that can be explored; Guadirikiri Cave, Fontein Cave and the Huliba Cave.  I soon discovered that I was VERY claustrophobic and just a little nervous of all the bats that were swooping around, so it ended up being a shortened exploratory trip. But what what made this excursion worthwhile was seeing the Arawak Indian Wall drawings on the walls of the caves.

Snorkelling at Baby Beach was phenomenal. There is a mini “lagoon” with millions of fish and sea life.  We found the beach itself was buggy so we only snorkelled here. (of course we were at the tail end of a hurricane, so it may not have been buggy normally).We also hit a few other beaches as well with great reef spots such as Malmok Beach where we snorkelled with sea turtles. Amazing experience to say the least.

A really great resource for travelling to Aruba, is the Tourist website itself: www.Aruba.com