Seroe Colorado, Aruba

This should have posted on December 20, 2017...

We generally use vacations as a time to be really active, but Aruba was not as ripe with such opportunities as other places we've been. We decided to climb their "mountain" which was just a large hill with 642 stairs leading to the top.

Started from the bottom...

A little intimidating, still.

Made it! 

Views of the whole island!

Looking back to where we were staying

Happy hiker

Let's go back down...

Taking a quick break to look around

For once, I was WAY ahead of Jackson!

Aruba's landscape is so different from the
other nearby islands we've visited

Desert meets the tropics

We finished the climb rather quickly and debated doing it again (only for a moment before deciding that was insane) before deciding to do a little more exploring. We had no GPS or cell service and didn't even really have a map, but the island is tiny so we weren't too concerned with getting lost. We decided to follow signs to the Natural Bridge as we'd heard good things about the area.

The Natural Bridge

A perfect illustration of how we felt

Ok, we did not realize that you were supposed to have a 4x4 until we'd already committed to getting to the Natural Bridge area. Our little Kia was doing its best to keep up. I'm 99.98% sure we voided our rental car contract with this little adventure, but Jackson likes to throw caution to the wind so we kept going. I was a nervous little Nelly, but the area was awesome and renting a 4x4 would have been expensive! ;)

The beach area near the Natural Bridge

Rocking waves

Petefish

After we'd explored that area we decided to brave the way back in our Kia. It was just as exciting on the way back as it was on the way there. We were actually sideways sometimes, I swear. We were on these dirt roads trying to avoid massive holes, puddles and who knows what else.

Senior photos

In a gold mill's ruins 

The views from the mill were awesome

Where the lookout was stationed during the mill's operating times

Check out that background! WOW! 

Petefish.

We eventually found our way back to the one main road (we only got slightly turned around which was a real victory in my book) and headed back for our Airbnb. We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's which was pretty exciting. We bought some extra burgers for the stray dogs outside and ended up spending $25 on a fast food lunch for two people! The prices for food were pretty inflated since everything has to be shipped in. In good news, though, the Wendy's food tasted just like it does at home. ;)

We wanted to get a little more exercise so we went to the park near our place to do some more exploring. The area we stayed was called Seroe Colorado and had some of the most interesting coastline we'd ever seen.

Seroe Colorado

It was like how we imagine it would be to walk on the moon

The drive back to our Airbnb was through a field of cactus. We'd never seen anything quite like it!

Cactus field

We took a quick break then decided to spend the rest of the day at Baby Beach again.

Baby Beach

A Flintstones- themed bar on the beach

The dogs from our neighborhood LOVED us

We attempted to get dinner that evening on the quiet side of town without luck. It was actually kind of a nightmare. The little town nearest to us is also their redlight district on the island so we drove into some areas that were mighty shady. We decided not to tempt fate and just headed back to the Airbnb. Luckily I'd packed microwave popcorn from home so we did not starve! :)

Giving my leftover milk to the kitties

Needless to say we were not sad when Tuesday morning rolled around and it was time for us to move to the busy part of the island. We gave the neighborhood cats and dogs some treats and headed on our way!

and some to the puppies