Bouncing Around the North Shore of Aruba - 14 Jan 2024 Part 1

What a busy, bouncing, fabulous day! Since this was the only day I didn't have to work, we decided to take an island tour. We booked the Two Pools Northshore Safari Tour through Viator.

We meet the company by the cruise port at the I Heart Aruba sign. The first great photo op of many.

We loaded into the back of a pickup truck with padded bench seats. Five of us total, all ladies, and we were joking about the seatbelts. Little did we know how much we would appreciate those seatbelts later on.

We were off to explore the island. Aruba is breezy, blustery, windy, whatever you want to call it, the wind is strong. Talking was about impossible in the back of the truck but the views were amazing.

We left pavement and hit the dirt road into Arikok Natural Park. If you didn't know, Aruba is a volcanic desert island. All the cacti were so neat. It reminded me of Arizonia.

Pretty soon the dirt road became a rocky road. We were not laughing about the seatbelts anymore! Although we were now laughing about all of getting jostled and tossed around.

It was really difficult to take pictures. Although, I didn't have a camera, since my phone was broken. Thankfully, I had Jamie.

The higher we went, the more beautiful it got. Since Aruba is only 7 miles wide and 20 miles long, you could see a lot of the island.

Notice those rocks in the foreground, that's the road we are driving on. Not to mention big holes.

I was so enthralled with the contrast of desert and ocean. The east side of the island is the wild side. It is very rugged and thanks to Arikok National Park, protected.

We survived the trek and made it to the first stop. Conchi Natural Pools. Continued in part 2.

Here's our route so far.