A
day in DePalm-adise on the Natural Pool Jeep Adventure (pt. 2)
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| Rocky :) |
As we pull away from the jeep tour, Rocky instructs
us females to take as many pictures of ourselves to capture the before shots – “Once the wind gets hold
of your hair,” Rocky chuckles, “it will look like Tina Turner’s from shaking
like Shakira.” After a couple of pounds on the horn, a few whiiiewwww wiet whistles, and fist pumps the excursion begins. We
start off going through the District of Santa Cruz.
*I’ll be honest with you – Aruba has been my home
for over 10 years, yet something as simple as knowing precisely how many
districts there are on the island (a whopping six, in case you were wondering)
or the actual size in length and width (19.6 miles long and six miles wide
f.y.i.) are among many of the facts I learned while playing tourist on the
trip.
We finally arrive at the first scenic stop of the day:
Arikok National Park. As we pull in past the visitor center Rocky halts the
jeep to talk to the gate keeper. I can tell that they are familiar with each
other when they do the Aruban handshake, (slapping both hands together like a
sideways high-five only to slide the fingers back against one another’s palm
and snap as they jerk it back), before Rocky tears open a value pack of
snack-sized chips and gives Mr. Gate Keeper a bag of cheese Doritos. After
handing over bright blue wrist bands (the Park charges a fee to enter that is
already included with the tour), Rocky starts in on the history of Arikok
National Park.
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| The Cascabel Rattlesnake (taken from http://www.wildaruba.org/unicolor.jpg) |
Once owned by, and named after, Dutch farmer Mr.
Arikok, the land was given back to the government when he passed. Taking up over
18% of the island, you can only imagine the life it holds, like the Cascabel
snake. Indigenous to Aruba, the Cascabel is the island’s prevalent rattlesnake,
that doesn’t actually “rattle,” and
sports the distinct markings in pale pink, blue and brown with a grin on its
face and piercing glass eyes – ew!
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| The Male Cododo (taken from http://www.wildaruba.org/Arubensis.jpg) |
The Male Cododo lizard is another critter that’s
recently spotted in the Park. Rocking a navy blue scale coat with a pattern of
electric indigo polka dots, this whiptail reptile is a soothing site to the
eyes and not to be missed! As we continue to bobble along in our school bus yellow-painted,
zebra striped four-wheel-drive Land Rovers, tropical colors of the flora and
fauna, like mango peach, sunset red, and parrot green catch my eye. The array
of Candle cacti that coats these rolling hills is quite the view.
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| The "adushi di pushi" cactus (notice the big hill coming up...*gulps) |
Referred to by the locals as “adushi di pushi,” (a-doo-shee
dee poo-shee), the bundles of eight to nine cacti that stand upright have lengthy
white hairs and long yellow spines atop each stem. At night they bloom so that
during the day we can all get a slight glance at the cream-colored flowers
nestled in-between this spineless, yet spine-full, plant and its red fruit sweet enough to pick off and treat
your taste buds to.
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| How many shades of blue can you decipher in this picture? I count at least four. |
While venturing along the only man-made path in the
Park that is two cars wide, I see up ahead that this cobblestone-like trail
comes to an end. I start to feel as though I am on a rollercoaster at an
amusement park where I suddenly feel as though I am a few feet from the sky – chugging up the hill unaware of what comes after the drop, or
in this case, the end of the road............
Want to find out what happens next on my “Rollercoaster
of Aruba” adventure? Tune in next week for pt. 3!
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