Aruba - One Happy Island!

 



December 14th 2023, the day finally arrived. We were going to Aruba! My heart was pumping with excitement. It was a 30 minute drive from my house to the airport. When we reached the airport we took a shuttle bus which took another 10 minutes. At the check in counter I was already thinking about the beach and sipping coconut water. I expected Aruba to be the same as Hawaii. Once we landed at Aruba we took a taxi to our hotel. The weather was perfect. We stayed at the Hilton Aruba and Caribbean resort. The resort was huge! 

On the island, we went on a UTV tour and we learned so many cool facts about Aruba and saw many fun places as well. We went to a Natural pool and inside the cave some people were cliff jumping. The ride on the UTV was really fun. We later went to the only lighthouse on the island and I went all the way to the top and saw pretty much the whole island. Finally, we went to a really nice beach to cool down and end our tour. During my stay, I learnt many things about the country. The locals speak 4 languages, English, Spanish, Dutch and Papiamento. Those 4 languages are all taught in schools. Aruba was originally ruled by the Dutch colonies and got their independence in 1986. I noticed that Aruba didn’t have any traffic lights. They originally did but they took them down during Covid. Currently, the country relies on roundabouts. Aruba is a very small island, their population is 106,277 people not including tourists. I also learned that in Aruba they didn’t have Ubers, they had taxi’s instead. However, I think they should have Ubers. We didn’t do much activities in Aruba besides the UTV tour but we did spend a lot of time on the beach and the pool. I got to sit in a palapa for the very first time. A palapa is a small hut that is on the beach preventing the sun from going on your body. We also saw a lot of lizards. It was really interesting that some of them were blue in the sun and green and brown when in the shade. The food was different. I was surprised that Aruba doesn’t have its own cuisine besides seafood. Based on what I saw it was either Mexican, Italian, American or Indian restaurants. We had all of those cuisines but my favorite dish was the veggie empanadas because I have never tried it before but it was so savory and it melts in your mouth. A unique type of food I tried was their Indian food. Not only did they have the signature Indian flavor they also added some Caribbean spices. 

I have so many memories in Aruba. All the amazing history I learnt, the sweet and the savory food. The most important memory for me was spending time with my family. We all worked very hard in 2023 and deserved a break and we really enjoyed our time together. 

I am very pleased to say this is my last blog of the year. I really enjoyed learning about new people and trying out blogging. I am really proud of myself for all the hard work I put into this and I look forward to doing even more blogs in the new year. Happy New Year!


I would really love to hear your feedback and comments. Please reach out to me@hanikachhajer.com.

Comments

  1. madan chhajerDecember 27, 2023 at 11:46 AM

    Dear Hanika very well written Keep doing good job hope u enjoyed trip We all r very proud of you
    keep writing more blogs

    ReplyDelete

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