A Day on the Beach

Today was a beach day.

We awoke pretty early, after a big dinner, several glasses of wine and one blue mohito martini that made me sleepy last night, and hit the beach for a run. It was another sunny, hot day in Aruba, but didn't seem too bad at 7:45am. The beach is a beautiful white sand, and the water is turquoise blue, so not a bad setting for our 1/2 hour run.

After a good breakfast, we made our way to the beach. The hotels have these palm-leaf umbrella huts, and we asked for the shadiest one. #41 lived up to its reputation and shielded us from the sun for the afternoon. We relaxed, reading, chatting, people watching and enjoying the birds flitting about. The tropical mockingbirds, ground doves, and grackle were everywhere, but I enjoyed the tiny bananquit the most. They flitted in and out of our umbrella and squeaked in the palm trees above.

We managed to make it into the water twice. Very salty but a very comfortable temperature. Nice.

Despite enjoying our relaxing day on the beach, we both admit to not being totally comfortable that such a lush, manufactured and opulent, yet admittedly well-done, oasis has been created here on the coast of this arid, desert-like island for such sheer escapism. As with many tropical vacation spots I'm sure, the high-rise hotel area is totally separated from the rest of the island. This is not the "real" island. From our tour yesterday, I'd say few visitors go out of their way to the park or see the rest of the island, preferring to remain in their isolated cocoon. We really did enjoy having a chance to see what we consider more of the "real" side of the island yesterday, and although we know this sort of high-end tourism is many Arubans livelihood, it is odd to us that so many people come here for vacation only to revel in a manufactured paradise. Why is it odd that we want to spend our vacations communing with nature in the woods when this is not? Seems backwards to me... But then again, who thinks I'm normal?!