Sunday, April 3rd

We started the morning walking the beach sidewalk past the Westin to the end of the Riu property promising we would add one property each morning.  When we got back while have coffee we made a list of the places we wanted to try to find today and thought we would head to the lighthouse first.
Debbie was nervous maneuvering the traffic circles but became a pro at it by the time we turned the car back in.  We soon learned that maps were useless here since few roads have road signs and even fewer are paved.  We did find the lighthouse though since it was at least tall enough for us to keep in our sights.

At the end of our explorations this week we decided that Aruba is more of an atoll than an island.  The rocks and ground (what little there was) is covered in coral rock.  The lighthouse sits on the northwest tip of the island and has great views of the Palm Beach hotel area.  You can also see the the vast difference in the wind and current here.

After leaving there we head back along the beach road and try to drive through some neighborhoods to find a subdivision under construction they were advertising in the local paper.  All roads seemed to lead to dead ends or to unpaved ones that were lumpy, bumpy or swampy.  We spent a lot of time backing up and turning around but here are some homes we did see on these dirt roads.  The area between the Marriott and the lighthouse is almost all residential and some of the nicer we saw on the island.

The photo above will give you an idea of the wind on this island which is always strong but seemed even worse than usual this trip.  The Divi Divi trees grow as the wind blows them as you can see in the beach photos of the trees above.  We were good the first day and stayed away from the casino but decided to go to Alhambra late this afternoon.  Surprisingly, they are renovating and have torn down the shopping area that is attached to it.  It is known as the casino where the locals play and we have always liked it there before but this time it seemed a bit sleezy and neither of us did well on the slots nor did we feel comfortable there.  We were back home before dark and made our list of places we will try to find tomorrow.