After a wonderful afternoon at Arikok National Park, we decided to look for some other sights on the eastern side of Aruba. Next "stop" was Frenchman's Pass. A scenic tree lined area where legend has it some Frenchmen tried to invade Aruba but were met by some hostile natives. The natives were driven back and went into hiding where the Frenchmen found them in a cave and then proceeded to set the cave entrance on fire, killing the natives. Ellie stopped the car and as I attempted to hop out, we were chastised by a native for stopping in such a DANGEROUS stretch of road! Many tourists have been killed here by crazy drivers! But yet it was SAFE for him to pull alongside of us where someone could hit him head on?!
So, onward we went. We drove through some quaint little
towns with some interesting signs that made us laugh (perhaps I'll dedicate a post to those later!) and eventually drove past a wind farm and the penitentary. We wound up at Bachelor's Beach and watched a few folks kite surf for a while. The water was quite rough and windy, but perfect for them! Now the lighthouse, Seroe Coronado would definitely have to be near, right?
We took a left at the Valero Oil refinery and wound up on a bluff overlooking the rocky coast. We decided it might be a nice spot for a short hike.... It was, although it was horribly hot, the winds were quite strong, so it took the edge off a bit! This looks like at one time was a natural bridge that eventually collapsed.
On the way back to the car I was pretty excited to see this little fellow! Not sure what kind of lizard it was, but was rather friendly and wasn't at all disturbed and let me get within a few inches of him! Not at all skiddish like the Whiptail ones!
Even though it's clearly shown on the map we hadn't been able to locate it ourselves, we were continually directed to the California lighthouse at the WEST end of Aruba. We made one last effort to ask someone....persistance paid off! They knew RIGHT were it was! They pointed a few hundred feet away..... FOLKS! This structure is NOT a "lighthouse" and it should NOT be advertised (especially on a tourist map) as such. Call it a range light, beacon, light in a box, whathaveyou, but do NOT, for Pete's sake, call it a lighthouse!
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