A is for Aruba and we ride trikes!

Aruba is another island just off the coast of Venezuela in the Dutch Caribbean.

We have been to Aruba a few times and we always spent our day here at one of its most wonderful beaches.  It's hard not to want to float away the day in a setting like this:  white sand and blue waters

With all our visits, this is all we have experienced in Aruba.  So, we thought, this time let's see more of the island.

With the recommendation from our friend, Susan, we chose riding trikes as a fun way to see what lies beyond the beautiful beaches of Aruba.  We were picked up right outside the port gate and driven to the office of Trikes Aruba.

With a little orientation we are ready to take off.
No, I'm not going to drive...

It will be Terry's job.

Off we go.  This island, too, is full of cactus.

Our guide, Gabriel, is very kind to stop and take photos of us and post them on Facebook.  At this point he had just squatted down and sat on some cactus needles.

And all of the photos he took after that had a blur from a smudge on the camera lens.

We stopped at the Alto Vista Chapel.  This is supposedly where Spanish missionaries converted the island's Indians to Christianity.

 The California Lighthouse is named after the steamship California, which sank off the coast of Aruba in 1891.

Onward we travel toward the beaches.

Ahh...it is a very hot day and this looks so inviting.

Then Gabriel said a prayer and led us through the busy streets of the capital, Oranjestad.  Our parade of 4 trikes was quite the sight and many people snapped our photo as we drove by.

Gabriel's smudgy photo as we passed by the I "heart" Aruba sign

Then we tried this photo instead.

 Back on the road...

We stop by the ruins of an old gold mill.

The abandoned gold mill  once processed ore from mines in the nearby hills during Aruba's gold rush of the nineteenth century. In 1824, gold was finally discovered in Aruba, and eventually, the industry produced more than 3 million pounds of gold.

And wander around inside.

Back on the trikes...

We pass colorful houses

 and colorful flowering bushes

 Almost back to where we started our tour of Aruba.

It was a lot of fun to drive/ride the trikes and a great way to see what lies beyond the beaches...but those beaches are hard to beat.

Our next port is Bonaire.  Click on "Newer Post" below the comment section for:  B is for Bonaire, and of course we snorkel!