We drove through the remote park as the sun was rising. The park felt more like a desert as there are cactus plants everywhere and dry dirt roads. Our first stop was Aruba's only black sand beach and the natural bridge. Apparently there used to be a really big Natural Bridge but that one collapsed 9 years ago. The one we saw was a smaller version but a natural bridge nonetheless. Betty and Erica were pretty scared and I just thought to myself omg if they were in Peru on the Inca Trail, they would have died!!! Lol this was seriously nothing (other than the fact that we were told the other natural bridge collapsed lol).
Brave driver #1
Arriving at the sole black sand beach in Aruba and Natural Bridge
Wild goats running around the park
Black sand beach - it was small
The most artistic photo I've ever taken lol
Family<3
See - it's small!
Semi-freaking-out over the bridge lol
Loving every second
Me + Eunice
Loved that we had small hikes
Back on - let's continue exploring
We love driving 4x4s!
Arikok - remote and feels like a desert
After leaving this site, we hopped back into our 4x4 to head to the Natural Pool - Eunice drove this segment again, as we were all still trying to get comfortable operating a vehicle on these "roads". When we arrived there, we bumped into a sole soul in the entire park and he was traveling through the park on foot by himself. He wanted to hitch a ride with us and personally I was less than thrilled (sorry - NY attitude!) bc he was totally intruding on our "private tour" experience. But we didn't really have a good reason to straight up say no...and I felt kinda bad. It didn't seem to phase my sister and cousins at all. He joined us for our dip in the Natural Pool, and at first I was kind of scared to go in! But it really was magical! The pool is naturally created (hence the name duh!) by the circular surrounding rock formation and ocean/sea water crashing in and trapping the water inside. There were sooooo many fish! And they were big! We had such great visibility of the fish given that it was an enclosed pool and it wasn't that deep (I believe the deepest part was 12ft) but we were all able to stand up along the rim of the pool. The fish in this pool is so used to people bringing bread to feed them. Once you enter the pool, they swarm around you as if they knew it was time to eat! They weren't afraid of people at all. My sister and I felt like we got bit a few times as well - they probably thought out pale butts and legs were bread! We spent a good amount of time snorkeling around the Natural Pool and fully soaking in how incredible it was, how remote it was, and the fact that we were surrounded by the ocean with waves crashing in every few minutes. It really is amazing. I believe we stayed for about an hour or so, and as we were getting dressed and heading back to our 4x4s, we saw all the other tour groups in their ATV and buses rolling in. This was about 9-9:30am. What perfect timing!! We finished just as the crowds arrived - the experience of being in the Natural Pool definitely wouldn't have been the same with 50 other people in it. Our guide, Tess, told us how crazy and crowded it gets when there's 50-60 ppl in there snorkeling which is why the tour is designed so that you beat the crowds. So worth it to wake up early just for this!
Coast where the Natural Pool is
Natural Pool - coolest pool I've ever been to in my life!!!
Me snorkeling - was quite easy to float given all the salt in the Natural Pool
Look how crowded it is (with fish!)
Look at the ocean crashing in around us!!! COOL
Natural pool was definitely the coolest part of the whole day. Loved it.
Look at the crowds that JUST arrived at the Natural Pool when we were on our way out!
I decided to drive to our next destination - it was SO fun driving the 4x4. It was challenging at first as I had to back out of our spot given that so many cars and ATVs pulled up into the "lot" but it was crazy fun driving that vehicle through the rugged terrain. You had the hold the wheel really tight as it keeps jerking around whenever it hits rocks, etc. Our next destination was the visitors center where we dropped off the guy from Belgium. He offered to chip in for part of the private tour but it really was a hassle to get the money from him later on - he definitely just wanted to meet up later as he kept emailing us to meet up. In hindsight, not sure why he didn't just give us some money on the spot to make life easier?
Anyway, we met Arias there (the owner of the hotel and tour), and he gave us out wrist bands for the National Park, and an extra 4x4. We now had to pair up for 2 ppl per vehicle, which was great since it gave us more opportunities to drive. Betty and Erica both drove next and we were on our way to the caves where the park rangers gave us a short and brief tour of the caves. We saw some bats (and roaches! Ew!) that were dwelling inside but it was nothing too impressive or memorable. The park ranger then took us to a small pond nearby for fish pedicures and an old house. I was the only one brave enough to dip my feet in for the fish pedicure :P
My turn to drive!
More wild goats
Bats hanging in the caves
In the caves
Fish pedicure yeah?
The outside of the caves
After this, we drove some more around the park passing by some 10 windmills for energy generation and then ended up on the beach within the Natural Park. Arias told us this was his favorite beach in Aruba. They left us alone to each lunch on the beach here (basically to eat everything that we brought in the coolers) as they drove a few mins down the beach to the most popular kitesurfing area. The beach was nice and remote but the waves were big which was so different than the beaches we saw back on the other side of the island. We started to eat on the beach but noticed a storm/rain coming heading inland from the ocean. As expected, it started to drizzle and then rain pretty hard on us. Luckily, Arias left us a bag full of raincoats and we quickly put them on.
Driving along the coast
Betty's next!
Rocks, watch out for Erica! Try not to pop out of nowhere!
Arriving at our lunch spot on the beach
Grubbin' beachside in complete privacy
We had no place to go when it started raining since our vehicles had no windows and the rain was coming in sideways! Raincoat time.
Arias and Tess came back to find us briefly after the rain started, and let us know that this basically concludes the tour, but we were welcomed to join them for some kitesurfing viewing and lesson. Given the weather, that was pretty much not an option. I was a little surprised that the tour ended kind of earlier than expected. I think if the weather held up, it would have been nice to actually enjoy a longer lunch and relaxing on the beach, and possibly hang out and watch the kite surfers do their thing, and maybe even take a lesson. Remembering that I had negotiated a visit to Baby Beach which is not far from where we were, we were able to "extend" the tour to include this visit. Baby beach was a well known beach in Aruba and I definitely wanted to check it out. I'm so glad we were able to squeeze it in on this day since it made the most sense logistically.
Baby beach - the water was so clear. I wish we had the snorkel gear from the tour but unfortunately they were in the other vehicle
Look at the storm that was still brewing on the other side of the island
We hung out at Baby beach for about 30-45mins. We kind of felt bad since Tess was waiting for us in her 4x4. We took a dip, snacked a bit, and got back in our 4x4 to head back to Club Arias, where Tess then drove us back to our hotel. On our drive back to Club Arias, we passed by a crowd of cute wild donkeys whom were super friendly, and hungry! We fed them with whatever snacks and scraps we had left, but there were so many of them! I really wish we had brought our extra loaf of bread with us that we picked up from the grocery store for our sandwiches since we had no use for them anyway.
Once we started feeding them, they were all crowding around us
So cute. Loved them.
We hit a little bit of traffic on our drive back to our hotel from Savaneta due to cruise ships docking around the downtown area. In summary, it was so worth it to wake up early and do this sunrise tour because we started before all the other tours. We had the whole Natural Bridge and Natural Pool (this was especially cool to have to ourselves! I can easily see how this would NOT be an enjoyable experience if there were 50 other people in the pool at once). The tour was a bit pricey but you get what you pay for!
After we got back to the hotel, it was still early around 4pm. I love how we had so much time during the day since we got up early to do everything. We decided to go look for Eduardo's beach shack since we had the rest of the afternoon and evening free. After a bit of hunting, we finally found it! YAY! The smoothies were delicious and all made fresh to order and very reasonably priced. I finally got to try my acai bowl!!!
We walked back to our hotel and decided to hang out in the adult pool. It was much less crowded and more peaceful. It was nice to relax and hang out in the pool after a long day of exploring. We wanted to stay "local" for dinner so we ate at the Moomba Beach Bar (where it was popping last night!) but the restaurant was pretty empty. It was a slow night. We were secretly hoping that there was some night life going on so that we can party a little.
I can never get tired of that sunset view
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