Hello! My name is Mary and I am new in the community. It seemed perfect to speak for the first time of my trip to Aruba, "One happy island". Why talk about Aruba? This little island is special to me, I will tell you about my experiences. I traveled with my boyfriend in November 2016; we went for only 3 days, so we had to enjoy our mini vacations to the fullest.
The first stop we made was in Eagle Beach, this is one of the most famous beaches in Aruba. The sand of this beach is white and soft, very soft, the first thing I thought when I put my foot there was: "Whoa, it's really soft, I could sleep here". The water is a perfect combination of warm and cold, but warmer. Our stay at the beach was short, there were many places to visit and a few days to be on the island.
I'll be honest with something ... our main mission in the trip was to eat! So we visited as many restaurants as we could.
We went to Iguana Joe's and there I tried the Two-in-One-Soup, a soup served half black Cuban beans and half a Mexican tortilla. The incredible thing about this soup is that it doesn’t mix; it’s perfectly separated in one dish. By the way, It was delicious.
Then we shared the famous Jambalaya, a dish served with rice, fresh shrimp, Spanish chorizo, chicken tender and a spicy Creole New Orleans sauce. The sauce is extremely spicy, but it makes the perfect combination of flavors with the rest of the ingredients. I don’t have photos to show you the dish; we were so hungry that we forgot to take a picture of it. ):
The next day we went to the center, Oranjestad. This area is small, but it has many things: shopping centers, casinos, restaurants and even the Parliament of Aruba. What I liked about Oranjestad is that nearby is the port where the cruise ships arrive, that's why this area is so busy. Another thing that I also liked is that it’s very colorful with some colonial touches, and in several streets, you can see some blue horses.
What do these horses mean?
According to what I researched, Aruba played an important role in the horse trade during the Dutch Spanish rule, and at that time Oranjestad was called Paardenbai (Bay of Horses); the blue color is due to the fact that the horses had to swim to disembark. Awesome, right?
Our next destination that day was to meet another of the famous beaches in Aruba, Arashi Beach. This beach has a symbolic attraction and is the California Lighthouse, many tourists come to this place because it was built in 1910 in honor of shipwrecked Steam California.
The next day (and last on the island) we went to the famous Baby Beach, located in the extreme southeast of the island. Baby Beach is a half-moon of sand in a lagoon; the water is crystal clear and the sand white and soft too. Baby Beach has some semicircular rocks that divide it from the deep waters of the Caribbean Sea, on this side, the waves are stronger.
And to finish the great day at the beach ... my boyfriend asked me to marry him! I admit that it took me by surprise and I didn’t expect it; for that reason, this trip was so special for us.
As the last stop on the night of our last day, we went to a tapas restaurant, West Deck, here we ordered a lot of food and everything was very delicious.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed reading about my little experience on this beautiful island. If you have already traveled to Aruba, share your experiences with me.