The Caves

Yes, we are now at the caves! What does that all mean? It means we are almost through with our visit to Aruba and then just one, or two, more post about our cruise. I know you'll be happy for me to get on another subject, but to be honest with you, I don't know what I'll post about after the cruise. There may be even longer gaps between posts after I'm through with the cruise. Just have to wait and see.

So, let's get on to the caves. There are two caves that are significant in Aruba. The first one is pretty small and me being as claustrophobic as I am, I didn't go up to see it. Keith climb up to look into it but didn't venture inside. He really wasn't very impressed as he couldn't see much.

Keith waving from in front of the first cave.

Coming down from the cave was somewhat perilless.

The second cave was much larger and is well protected. You can venture inside but you must go with a guide as there are places you are not supposed to go. There are a couple of reasons for that, the first being there are hieroglyphics on the ceiling and the second is the cave is home to a very rare species of bat. Obviously, they don't want people distroying the hieroglyphics by touching them, so you are pretty restricted when you do enter the cave. You are also restricted as to how deep you can go into the cave because they don't want the bats disturb during the day. they are some sort of a fruit bat and are important for pollination of some of Aruba's plants. They are becoming less abundant because of the encroachment of people, so that is why Aruba is so strict about the caves. No one wanted to go into the cave except Mary and I, so off we trudged. Mary couldn't believe I ventured into the cave because of being so claustrophobic, but it was no big thing. Only tight places bother me and the cave was wide open.

These hieroglyphics are from some South American indians and are pretty well preserved. You are not supposed to touch them, so the first thing Mary does is touch them.

Mary and our guide. I can't remember his name but he was very informative and helpful. I don't know if I was supposed to tip him as he works for the state, but I did. Mary thought he was cute!

As you look at this formation, it looks as if there are areas that were scooped out. That is actually the high water mark at one time and was about 7 feet high.

Looking deeper into the cave. we weren't supposed to go past these stalagmites but our guide actually took us a little deeper into the cave.

Mary and I posing for our picture. The guide thought we were "together" so we had to inform him it was on the "q.t.". Just kidding!

Helping Mary back to the trail, The rocks were pretty slippery and I almost fell helping her.

A terrible picture taken by our guide. I know it is hard to ruin perfection, but this photo certainly did. It was a total surprise when I reviewed the photos on my camera, but I threw it in here so everyone could have a big laugh. Hve you ever seen so many chins?

This last photo has no rhyme or reason for being here except I thought it was a nice unique picture. The cacti growing out of the tropical plants still is beautiful to me. I know it's not as "lush" as other places, even some of the islands we previously visited, but I still think it is pretty.

I have a surprise for all you lucky people. I had more photos of Aruba than I thought so, guess what? Yeah you're right! One more day on Aruba!!!!!!!