Aruba: Windy and Breezy With Chance of Gusts
www.washingtonpost.com By John Briley Special to The Washington Post Sunday, February 23, 2003; Page E01
The relentless wind scours Aruba's limestone coastline, crackly desert landscape and beaches by day and courses through the palms, Divi Divi trees and hotel courtyards by night, pausing for neither dawn nor dusk. It sends umbrellas flying from fruity drinks, turns a friendly tennis game into a cussing match and transforms carefully coiffed hairdos into raging manes.
And all of this is good (minus the &%#! tennis), because for much of my four days in Aruba I am skipping across the Caribbean on a sailboard, watching through the water as the blur of the sandy sea floor melds into rock formations.
I had heard that Aruba was a windsurfer's paradise -- dry, warm, modern amenities -- and I expected such conditions to attract primarily wind pilgrims. And, yes, the fanatics are here, but they are more than balanced by families drawn by the guarantee of sun (Aruba gets but 20 inches of rain yearly; the U.S. Virgin Islands, by comparison, get about 55 inches), young groups seeking a party (available), casino gamblers and cruise ship off-loaders. Visitors come from the United States, Europe (Aruba was a Dutch territory until 1986) and Latin America (the island is 18 miles from Venezuela).
My last trip to Aruba was in 1969, when I was 3, and my only memories are of catching my first fish (an angelfish that I released) and slashing my face open with my dad's razor. I figured now was a good time to refresh my Aruba knowledge. Besides, windsurfing had barely been invented in 1969 and beachside rentals were years away.
Flying 2,040 miles for only four days may seem excessive, but United Airlines' 41/2-hour nonstop flight from Dulles makes it worthwhile. Duncan from England, a neighbor in the one-story beachside studio complex where I am staying, isn't buying it.
"You're down here for only four days?" he asks me. "From Washington?" He and his wife, Isabelle, are completing a three-week stay, which Duncan clearly views as too little island time, despite the fact that he can't do much due to the hip he shattered in a kite-surfing accident (the wind-filled kite dragged him across a beach, slamming him into a van and then a brick wall; this is another reason why I windsurf). That I would fly so far from the cold only to turn around confounds both him and Isabelle.
But I get Duncan talking about wind -- the wind in Aruba, in Barbados, in England, in the United States -- and he forgets all about my short vacation. Because of unobstructed trade winds from the Eastern Caribbean, the wind blows year-round in Aruba, peaking May through June, when it averages 35 knots. Typically, January is one of the calmer months, with winds averaging 18 knots. I love wind, but Duncan is boring me so I ask if he's found an identifiable culture in Aruba.
"I don't know. I'm really not into culture at all," he says proudly. "All the sightseeing, history and the like. It does nothing for me."
Fortunately for him, there is little danger of being ambushed by living culture on Aruba, although archaeological evidence abounds of the Caquetios nation of the Arawak Indians, who inhabited the island from about 1000 until 1515, when the Spanish shipped them off to Hispaniola to work as slaves.
Aruba's modern population is a mix of Dutch, black and Latino and, not surprisingly, I heard an almost even mix of Dutch, English and Spanish spoken. Some Arubans still speak Papiamento, a Spanish derivative developed in the 1500s in neighboring Curacao to allow slaves and their owners to communicate -- but you won't need a Papiamento phrasebook to get by.
Honestly, when it comes to Caribbean vacations I side with Duncan. I came to Aruba to play, not learn. So I rally my rented Jeep to the north end, past the upper-class hamlet of Malmok, to where the pavement turns to sand.
A vague path snakes to the beach. The landscape is lunar-desert-meets-tropical-paradise: Cactuses jut from the sand and rock, defying the wind, and dune grass billows beside the glowing ocean.
Eve, my hotelier, told me that an off-road tour of Aruba's undeveloped north and east coasts would take about two hours. Eve is exceedingly nice but also happens to be a local, meaning she's probably driven the coast 50 times, and a Dutch woman, meaning she is pathologically efficient. After two hours I have covered maybe a third of the coast, have been out of the car more than a dozen times for closer views of the scenery and am quickly running out of film.
My camera spins from wind-rippled tide pools and wild ponies to broad limestone shelves, hideaway beaches and unrelenting waves that curl from dark sapphire to bright indigo before exploding on the rocks. (You can access some of the coast without four-wheel drive but not the bulk of it; I haggled a Jeep for $180 for four days, not much more than a standard car.) This expanse of wild, hilly coast surprises me. Aruba is heavily promoted to gamblers, honeymooners and cruisers and, per the brochures, appeared well developed. In fact, in a hilarious case of poetic justice, many of the high-rise hotels built to attract windsurfers actually block the wind, making windsurfing directly in front of the hotels far less desirable than along coastal stretches where only low-rise buildings stand.
But almost the entire east side of the 19-by-5-mile island is undeveloped. Aside from taking the trade winds -- and the associated non-family-friendly waves -- head on, the east coast consists largely of rock. It is not what most developers would consider prime vacation real estate.
Just to be safe, the government in 2000 established Arikok National Park, an 8,000-acre preserve that includes about one-quarter of the eastern coastline. The park harbors numerous caves, many with Caquetios drawings, the ruins of a 19th-century gold mine, the Boca Prins sand dunes and the Boca Keto natural pool (a deep, calm pool on the sea encircled by rock).
Away from Arikok and the rustic coast, Aruba is less than beautiful. Mostly flat, developed and dusty, it bears evidence of the almost 100,000 residents who share the crudely shaped parallelogram. Oranjestad, the capital, is a zoo of traffic and cruise ship escapees, who throng the same shops (with the same prices) one could find in many U.S. cities. Farther from the capital, middle-class neighborhoods mix with businesses and industrial lots. One of the nicer restaurants I try, Captain's Corner, is in a small strip mall (a huge plate of grouper and rice, a salad and two beers costs me $23, including tip).
Most tourists crowd into Palm Beach or Eagle Beach, a few miles north of Oranjestad, where high-rise hotels line the shore. I am staying just south of Malmok, in the Sunset Boulevard Studios, a tranquil collection of about 10 units with kitchens, cable TV and air conditioning.
The $100-per-night apartments, each of which has a private outdoor table, ring a courtyard with a small pool, hot tub and two gas grills. The studios are 100 feet from the beach, directly across a two-lane road. Every morning I sit in the courtyard with cereal, coffee and a book, and repeat the routine with beers at sunset. Besides Duncan and Isabelle, guests include a New York couple and their baby, an older pair from Kansas, and Alex, an Australian here for three months to teach windsurfing.
Similar lodgings line the road near Sunset Studios and, aside from being far more relaxing than the imposing hotels, are a quick drive from the island's nicest beaches -- soft sand, pleasant coves and thatched palapas -- near Malmok.
One exception, at Aruba's southern tip and resting in the shadow of an oil refinery, is Baby Beach, so named for its broad, shallow lagoon, which is guarded from the wind-whipped currents by a long breakwall. Outside that barrier is the best snorkeling on the island, a descending field of coral and rock swarming with fish. I get a decent workout kicking against the wind for 20 minutes, then drift back to the narrow opening in the wall and return to the placid lagoon.
A group of American southerners stand knee-deep in the water, drinking beers from the on-site concessionaire, their guts jiggling as they rave about car racing. They are having a blast, but the scene reminds me that you don't come to Aruba to get away from it all. Yet 20 minutes later, as I hike over a shoulder of petrified lava below the Seroe Colorado lighthouse, a half-mile from Baby Beach, and gaze down into the whirling churn of the Caribbean with no other people in sight, I think that maybe, just maybe, you could lose yourself here.
Three hours before my flight home, I am windsurfing again, zipping past beautiful wooden sailboats moored offshore. A strong gust sends me out of control and I wipe out in a flurry of arms, legs and equipment. Swimming back to my board, I see a plane descending to the airport and I know I'll be back in D.C. before my bathing suit is dry. I also realize that in four days in Aruba I have not thought about work once, the worries of my world carried off by the wind.
John Briley last wrote for Travel about ski biking in New Hampshire.
Details: Aruba
GETTING THERE: United has seasonal nonstop flights from Washington Dulles to Aruba on Saturdays only, from December through April, with March departures starting at $850 round trip. US Airways and American Airlines have midweek flights starting at $600 round trip, with connections. Continental, Delta and Northwest also serve Aruba from the D.C. area, with connections.
WHERE TO STAY: Most beachfront lodging starts at about $200 per night during high season (through April) and drops to $130 per night and up in late spring and summer. For example, the Renaissance Aruba Resort in Oranjestad (800-421-8188; www.arubarenaissance.com) has doubles starting at $209. The Occidental Grand in Palm Beach (800-858-2258, www.occidentalhotels.com) has doubles starting at $228 and dropping to $185 off season. Many hotel rates include breakfast.
Prices at many of the low-rise hotels are similar: The Best Western in Manchebo Beach (800-528-1234, www.bestwestern.com ), for one, has doubles starting at $200 during high season, with occasional promotional rates of $140. The caveat: March and April require a seven-night minimum stay.
To save money, consider an apartment. We got lucky with Sunset Boulevard Studios (800-813-6540, www.aruba-sunset blvds.com), which offers doubles across the street from the beach starting at $104 per night. Cheaper beds are available, especially if you don't mind driving to the beach. Aruba Harmony Apartments (011-297-588-6787, www.arubaharmony.com) lists small apartments in Oranjestad from $85 per night in winter and $65 per night off-season. Note, however, that Oranjestad is a congested city housing a massive cruise ship dock.
Most lodgings, including villas and private rental homes, are listed on the tourism office's Web site at www.aruba.com, with links to each property's Web site.
GETTING AROUND: Shuttles serve the major hotels and taxis are plentiful. If you want to rent a car, expect to spend about $160 a week for a compact. I paid $180 for a Jeep for four days and could have done better per day had I rented for a week.
WHERE TO EAT: My most scenic meal was at Ventanas del Mar at the Tierra del Sol Resort and Country Club in Malmok. The property sits on a hill -- so go early, grab a fruity drink and stroll the terraces at sunset. The grilled tuna with Oriental mango-tomato chutney and soy sauce is a winner, as is the seafood ceviche appetizer. Dinner for two, with wine, runs about $100.
La Trattoria el faro Blanco,next to the California Lighthouse, has perhaps the best sunset vantage on the island. The prices seem high for Italian food -- entrees average $30 -- but the mood is romantic.
WHAT TO DO:
• Sail boarding. The owners of Sunset Boulevard Studios also own Aruba Boardsailing School, south of the studios. Look for gear-packed trailers along the beach (the "office"). Rentals start at $30 per day for guests, $40 for non-guests. Other rental operations, with similar rates, include Aruba Sailboard Vacations (800-252-1070, www.arubasailboardvacations.com).
• Snorkeling is average along the Malmok coast, and the best beach in this area is Boca Catalina, about 11/2 miles north of the Marriott. The best snorkeling I found was outside the breakwall at Baby Beach, on Aruba's southern tip. Red Sail Sports rents gear for $10 per day. Info: 877-733-7245, www.redsail.com; located at the Hyatt Regency, Allegro Resort and Marriott.
• Touring the east coast is a must, in a four-wheel drive Jeep (as I did) or on horseback or mountain bikes. Numerous outfitters offer horseback tours, including Rancho del Campo, with tours from $50 a person. Info: 011-297-585-0290; www.ranchodelcampo.com.
INFORMATION: Aruba Tourism Authority, 800-TO-ARUBA, www.aruba.com. -- John Briley