Aruba 2024
Visited Aruba this past month to celebrate our 10th anniversary. A fairly small island that I learned has a pretty desert climate. I guess the appeal for a place like Aruba is the weather is consistent. Limited rain, ton of sunshine and not on the hurricane belt.
Food was hit or miss depending on the restaurant, but Eduoado’s cafe for breakfast, brunch and lunch was always consistently good.
The people were super nice and the island was easy to commute.
San Nicolas
San Nicolas is a bit of dichotomy. The city itself felt a bit desolate compared to every where else we had been on the island, while also featuring some of the best art.
There’s a mural ally about 3-4 blocks wide with some amazing work. Obviously this meant that I had to pose up against it and take selfies.
Arikok National Park
We had originally planned to spend an entire day out at the park checking out both the natural pools, but our schedule got shifty and we ended up cramming in both snorkling and the park in the same day.
Leaving the park for the afternoon we weren’t able to hit up the pool and in hindsight don’t feel like we missed out. While I’m sure the pools would have been nice I’m not sure I’d have been up for the 30 minute unpaved ride towards them and back out.
The Quadirikiri Cave and Fontein Cave’s though were super dope to check out. Saw a few bats scurrying around in the shadows which is a bit eery but otherwise a super surreal site with the way the light broke back into the caves.
Mangel Halto
In hindsight we should have probably come hear earlier on in our trip since this beach was way better than I expected.
Mangel Halto came heavily recommended by our snorkling guide. It’s smaller than the other beaches but it being 30 mins away from the hotel strip also meant it was a lot quieter.
The water wasn’t near as deep, being like knee high for a good 50 yards so its a nice little wading beach.
They had some kayak tours going out when we were hear which actually looked like fun.
Final Thoughts
The hotel strip gets pretty busy so if you can its worth getting away from there.
Aruba really made me appreciate round-a-bouts. They’re way more efficient than lights. I doubt Brampton could ever figure these out, but I’d take roundabouts over lights any day. Not sure how pedestrian friendly they are but that’s for the city planners to figure out.
Eduardo’s was 🔥🔥.
San Nicolas was a nice drive and I think worth checking. Caves were my highlight.
But really I was just there to hang out and enjoy the sun and company, so just enjoying the pool at our rental house felt nice.