Aruba's Countryside Puts Beach to Shame

O R A N J E S T A D, Aruba, Dec. 17 -- Should you get lost in Aruba, follow the divi-divi trees.

That was the tip from Leroy King, a tour guide, as my mother,aunts and a busload of people ventured into the rocky, parchedinterior that defines much of this unique island.

The divi-divi trees — gnarled and outstretched to the CaribbeanSea — have been contorted by the steady tradewinds into huge,bonsai-like figures, and their limbs point west, to the bustlinghotel district.

But we quickly realized that many of Aruba's points of interestare far from the hotels and the island's Main Street, with itscolorful casinos and storefronts. Away from these developments, weencountered white sand dunes amid rugged desert landscapes. Thecoastline is strewn with coral-encrusted shipwrecks. Volcanic rockformations, lagoons and gold mine ruins wait to be explored, andtowering cacti and aloe dot the arid countryside.

"When people think of the Caribbean, they think of a lush,tropical island. Aruba is not," said Theo DeJongh, a statisticalmanager with the Aruba Tourism Authority in Oranjestad.

A Mixture of Everything

The island's interior instead brings to mind the starklandscapes of the American Southwest. "It's not just beaches andcasinos," DeJongh said. "It's a mixture of everything."

The island's most photographed attraction, the Natural Bridge,is a coral formation that was once a cave entrance on thenortheastern shore. The entrance eroded over time and collapsed toform an arch 100 feet wide and 25 feet above the sea.

"We've been all over in our travels, but we were looking forsomething different," said Sylvia Scott, 63, of Sussex, England,as she and her husband, Don, watched the waves crash against thecliffs around the bridge. "Shop after shop after shop, that's notmy type of holiday. For the scenery alone, it's worth cominghere."