After a really rough start to our trip, I was finally able to get myself close enough to normal to start exploring the island with Ariel and the kids. Amazingly, despite blowing the first 4.5 days of a 7 day trip, we managed to reach basically every corner of the country.

Which really isn’t saying a whole lot as the entire island is only 69 square miles. For reference, Middlesex county in New Jersey (where we live) is over 300 square miles.

But Middlesex County, New Jersey sure doesn’t look like Aruba does.

Aside from the beach and ocean – which are really quite beautiful and warm/inviting – Aruba has quite a few sites worth renting a car to see. One of the most unique aspects of Aruba is the fact that unlike the vast majority of Caribbean island destinations, it’s effectively a desert island. So while you will see plenty of palm trees (including coconut trees – pro tip you can get fresh coconut water at various stands), but also CACTI.

Not quite the elusive Saguaro Cactus, that I once dragged Ariel 6 hours off of our most direct route through Arizona to see (which she DEFINITELY thought was worth it), but the cacti here are very impressive and grow in in wild groves all over the island. There is also quite a bit of prickly pear cacti, which we’ve also found in Bermuda and in some remote corners of the Jersey Shore, believe it or not. There are also a lot of low trees that reminded of me of trees I’ve seen in Judean and Nevadan deserts. It definitely does not look like any of the islands in the West Indies.

And that makes sense. Because of its location just north of the Intertropical Convergence Zone – aka the Doldrums where the Trade Winds go to die – tropical waves almost never make it here, let alone hurricanes or cyclones of any kind. It just barely rains in Aruba, so while you’re literally surrounded by water, very little of it comes from the sky. Although it is generally very breezy, the jet streams that bring major storms generally turn north well before this part of the world.

So you end up with a landscape that looks more like the Middle East than Caribbean. Or maybe a more apt comparison is the Joshua Tree National Park area of California because of the extremely odd rock formations – but more on that later.

At the northern end of the island we drove up to the California Lighthouse, but it was way too hot, and I was still not feeling well enough to start climbing up hundreds of stairs. But the views even at the base were really stark and different from anything we’ve seen in years.

The second area we visited was the Bushiribana Gold Mill Ruins. We had been on the road to the Natural Bridge landmark, but sadly it collapsed decades ago. I was still interested in seeing it, but the road turned decidedly… sandy… as we neared the coast. After my past experience driving a sedan on the sand, I was not looking to risk putting my family into that situation… So we decided to just make due with the ruins of an old gold mill.

This was pretty cool – and as an added bonus, I got to take Jacob with me exploring the ruins while Ariel waited with Ethan at the bottom. It’s definitely not suitable for toddlers (unless you’re willing to carry yours), but Jacob did an excellent job of navigating the uneven/collapsed stairs to get to the top. I was so proud of him.

Finally, on Wednesday, it was time for our main driving day. By this point I was finally feeling like my old self again (although I now had to contend with the emergence of a truly nasty series of cold sores on my face), so we all drove in together to Arikok National Park. But first we made two quick stops at the Casibari and Ayo Rock Formations (pictured in the featured image for this post). I may do a short post on this experience because we had some… issues at Casibari, but both were definitely worth visiting. Jacob and I climbed to the top of the Casibari rocks, but at Ayo we all just hiked up a few hundred feet to see the prehistoric carvings.

Absolutely fantastic views, including of the Hooiberg hill that dominates the center of Aruba… but neither was especially toddler friendly. Both locations really reminded me of the Joshua Tree National Park area in California, which was really very crazy because I haven’t seen that kind of thing anywhere else in the world.

Eventually we made our way into the national park. While it’s not nearly as big as most American national parks (many of which are substantially larger than Aruba in its entirety), Arikok National Park has as varied a landscape as several American states. At times I was reminded of Arizona, Nevada, California, New Mexico, and Hawaii. All in an area roughly half the size of Manhattan.

The two main stops we made were to see the Fontein and Quadirikiri caves. Fontein was really small, but had some interesting prehistoric cave drawings, along with some 19th century (and later) graffiti, which honestly kind of ruined it for me. It’s just so frustrating to see people not being able to leave well enough alone.

Quadirikiri cave on the other hand, was really quite astonishing. First of all – it seemed to be mostly untouched. There were no electric lights and seemed to be no employees working there either. So we were free to explore on our own. And after a slightly underwhelming start, Jacob kept sasying he wanted to go “deeper” into the cave. At first I scoffed at him, literally saying “what do you think there’s some secret passage back there?” But after looking where he was pointing, I noticed there was indeed a natural light source and an opening in the back of the cave! You would think someone who has read The Hobbit multiple times — including twice to his son — would have learned the lesson that sometimes caves are a lot bigger than they first appear!

And it turned out there were MULTIPLE rooms like that, with gaps in the cave ceiling allowing light to filter in from the outside. It was really incredible, and made even better by the fact that it took other visitors time to also figure it out so we were able to explore somewhat on our own. This was really a Middle-Earth type of experience, which is not something you would expect in the Caribbean!

Just be mindful of the fact that in between the ceiling holes it can get nearly pitch black. Your phone light should be sufficient, but a proper flashlight would have been quite handy – especially with a toddler. The ceiling can also be a little low so mind your head. Oh and there were bats. Not a ton, but several flapped around us as we walked, which if you’re not especially comfortable with rodents flying around you… well… you’ve been warned.

Aside from the caves, there was a portion of the park we couldn’t visit because you need a 4×4 to get there. But the road we drove on still had some pretty awesome scenic views of Arizona-like cactus fields, as well as one ocean overlook that really reminded me both of the Seven Sacred Pools area in Maui, as well as the Spitting Cave on Oahu(depending on which direction you’re looking).

After the park, we went down to the southern tip of Aruba and got treated to some phenomenal 360-degree views. We even were able to catch a glimpse of Venezuela in the far distance. It was crazy to look over and know the turmoil going on over there.

Our second to last stop was at Baby Beach, and I’m sorry to say it’s rather overhyped. The water and beach itself was fine, but not really a substantial improvement over where we were staying (or any other Aruban beach from what I saw). It’s also right next to a massive oil refinery that kind of towers over everything. I don’t know, it really didn’t seem that special to us.

After struggling to find somewhere to eat with air conditioning (we were all completely overheated by this point) we ended up stopping for a very late lunch at a Domino’s Pizza, one of the most embarrassing food moments of any trip Ariel and I have been on together. The kids were sure happy though.

We ended up getting back to our room with enough time to put Ethan down for a very late nap before going out for dinner that night. On the way, we stopped at the Anne Frank monument in Oranjestad. It was fine, but you know, it’s not like she was ever in Aruba. Still, for Jewish people it’s important to take the time – even on a vacation – to acknowledge our own extremely troubled history (which sadly continues to be troubling today today).

And that was it for our adventuring around Aruba by car.