Back in Aruba Again

I just thought I would do a play on words from Gene Autry's theme song "I'm back in the saddle again" to let everyone know we are still on Aruba as I continue sharing our cruise. But, before I adventure on to Aruba, I want to say I'm really happy that my cousin C.P. (that stands for Cousin Pat by the way) was able to comment again. I was a worried at first because I was a little afraid she might be upset about what I wrote about going to Hawaii. She did quell those thoughts I was having though, as she sent an email saying she was having trouble commenting. Well, I just want to welcome her back, as I really do enjoy the comments from everyone. It makes posting really fun when you get feedback, positive or negative (that doesn't happen).

C.P. did mention something about knowing a man that said "why travel to a foreign country when there is so much to see in the U.S.A." I know of two individuals that I heard that from, my grandfather Fred and my aunt Mary's husband, "Red". Both of these men were the greatest and I respected their opinion tremendously. And I do have to agree with them in many ways. However, I also think that if cruising was as popular and cost effective back in the '60's as it is today, they would have taken a cruise or two. Well, maybe not Red as he wasn't really a traveler as I remember, but I do think my grandparents would have really enjoyed cruising. I could tell you some really great stories about my relationships with both my grandfather and "Red", but that's for another time. It's been a while since I've shared family with you, so perhaps that will be another post in the near future.

Now back to Aruba. If you remember when I started on Aruba, I mentioned Skip & Mo had been there many times, so with Skip as our tour guide, he was really into showing us the entire island. It was great. After we left the grotto, we headed for a national park that was famous for some caves. Obviously not like Carlsbad Caverns, but caves the people of Aruba were very proud of because of the significance of them. However, I'm not going to share them with you just yet, but I'm going to share other photos I took as we traveled to them, or before.

As we were leaving Baby Beach,we encountered crosses and markers over a widespread area. When Skip & Mo first saw them on one of their previous trips to Aruba, they were told it was a impromptu pet cemetery. It seems one person buried their pet in the area, with a marker, and then another, and so on, until it is now a well known area for pet burial. The government has accepted the fact this is something the people wanted so they leave it as is. Good thing Aruba doesn't have a screwed up EPA as we do in the US.

The impromptu pet cemetery

Kumba. buried December 22, 2009

Some markers are very ornate.

Aruba, being a Dutch island, has a Dutch marine base located on it. As we were driving around the island we came into an area where they sometimes train. So, when we saw this sign, we were glad it wasn't a training day.

All the languages, Dutch, Spanish, and English

Continuing our travels, we came upon s small herd of burros grazing along the side of the road. Skip stopped so I could take a picture and this man stopped his car next to us and said we could get a ticket for stopping on the road. I quickly took a couple of pics, and off we went just in case there was an "officer of the law" nearby.

The herd

Baby burro. So cute.

As we approach the second cave, we encountered this heard of wild goats. As Keith and I were taking the pictures of them, Mary was chastising us for spending the time. She said "it's just a bunch of goats. If you've seen one, you've seen them all." I though it was pretty cool to have them around us like that.

The goat herd.

Hopefully, we will get to the caves on the next post as I'm sure you are getting kind lo bored with Aruba. When I share the caves with you, I'll also share leaving Aruba so that will be the end of it. Oh, not the cruise, but Aruba. I still have a few more cruise photos to share.

I'll bet you're waiting with baited breath for the rest, but until then "Adeau!"