For an island that cannot be considered large to any degree, Aruba offers an unexpected variance of climatic zones. Its west- and southwest-facing coasts are a vacationer paradise, with great beaches and pleasant if generally windy weather year-round. The northeast-facing side, where rocky shores abut an arid desert, is much less hospitable. The Arikok National Park, covering nearly 20% of Aruba’s total land, showcases the geology and biology of that mostly unpopulated area.
As befits a nature reserve thousands of acres in size, Arikok offers miles of hiking trails. Nobody will ever confuse me for an enthusiastic hiker, especially when it’s approaching 100 degrees and there is literally no shade for miles. So we never ventured too far from the car on our drive through the park.
The landscape largely looks like this.
In places, compositions of rocks offer something more dramatic…
… or you can find a specimen of cacti with more colors than solely shades of green.
Two caves are open to visitors in the park. This is the smaller of the pair, Fontein Cave, a limestone cavern with colorful dripstone formations.
There are ancient pictograms and not-so-ancient graffiti in a part of the cave that can only be visited with a guide.
The entrance area to the larger Quadirikiri is a good illustration of how these caves are located within limestone plateaus, with karst depressions providing access.
Quadirikiri is formed by a couple of large chambers, lit through the openings in their “roofs” (unlike the passageway that connects them, which gets absolutely no light and requires phone torches to navigate). There are fewer dripstones, but still a lot of color.
If there is a park ranger around, ask them to put you in the spot where the contours of the rocks and the lighting combine into a heart-shaped perspective.
Of the other defined points of interest in the park, Boca Prins is emblematic of the beaches on this side of the island. The color of the water is beautiful, but the rocky sea floor and the force of the tide are not conducive to swimming.
One other attraction that we did not get to is Conchi Natural Pool, where you can actually swim. Sadly, you cannot reach it with a regular car – it’s either a moderate-effort hike (which would likely be out of the question even if it was marked as “easy”), a 4×4 (which we did not have), or a guided-tour vehicle (which wasn’t an option under consideration). That we did not recognize the access limitation in advance led to quite a disappointment at the visitor center.
Emma and I got a chance to swim in another natural pool later in the trip.
I suspect that for bigger nature lovers –Â or better nature photographers, as it were – Arikok National Park would evoke more superlatives. As something to explore away from the beach – assuming that you, like me, do not intend to sunbathe from sunrise to sunset – it is deservedly one of the top attractions on Aruba.