I... have... returned!!

Vacation was very nice. White sand beaches, palm trees, beautiful sunsets...

Cactus, iguanas, barren rocky dried-out land...

Impossible, you say? Not on Aruba.

According to the locals, Aruba is a tropical desert. On the southern side, it's what everyone thinks of when they think paradise. Gorgeous beaches, crystal clear water ranging from palest blue to rich aqua to deep royal, and lots of green palms, aloe plants (aloe is a big cash crop here) and divi-divi trees. The weather is constant: sunny, windy, mid-80s most every day.

Start heading inland and within a mile you're surrounded--and I mean this literally--by cactus, thorn trees, more cactus, and rock. Cactus plants line the roadways, so lush and thickly bunched that bushwacking would be life-threatening. The thorn trees could probably puncture tires were you to run them over. And the farther north you go, the more barren it gets until you hit the shore.

What's the north shore like? Think rough midnight-blue seas, cliffs, and dirt. No one lives over there. There are some tourist spots, and many cool photo-ops of caves, natural bridges and the like. There are miles of cairns--seriously, thousands of these rock formations--along the shore, built by, I'm guessing, tourists and locals alike. The very starkness and strangeness of it made the north shore cooler, IMO, than the south.

Aside from that, what were my favorite things? Snorkeling was pretty good; we saw urchins and eels and all sorts of stuff--even a sunken ship. Our last dinner on island was fabulous--we went to the Trattoria Faro Blanco and had some nice Italian while watching the sun set. Touring the island in a rented jeep was lots of fun too. And there was the pool, and the beach, and the other beach, and the outdoor restaurants, and...

Okay, there's too much to list. Want to know more? You'll have to go there.

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