Side-By-Side Tour

Last night, I woke to my last cold sweat and knew the flu was losing its hold on me.  This morning, I feel much better.  Today, I am posting what I intended to post several days ago.   

The day my illness first struck me, we rented side-by-sides and toured the undeveloped north shore of Aruba.  This is the windward side of the island.   Big waves curl against the mostly rocky shores.  Vegetation is sparse.

The side-by-side tour was interesting, if not something of a free-for-all.  A dusty one at that.  At the beginning of our tour the lead guide suggested the first stretch was something of a test of our skills.   He urged everyone to “keep up.”

And off we roared.  Over rocky terrain.  Through stands of cactus.  Up hills. Down hills.  Bouncing.  Sliding around corners.

I’m talking Baja 500 stuff here.  But with regular, everyday people behind the wheels instead of drivers who know what to expect.

I quickly realized the neck scarfs they gave us at the rental shop were necessary.  We were creating our own raging dust storm!

And we beat the hell out our machines to keep up.  Larry and Chris ended up with a broken tie-rod and had to take a machine from one of our guides.  Patrick and Mary got a flat tire, which was repaired on the spot.

At the turn-around point of the tour, we bounced straight down a rocky outcrop to reach “Conchi.”  Conchi, also known as “Natural Pool,” is a pool protected from the high crashing waves by a natural rim of rocks that disperse the waves allowing only tamed, white, bubbling inflows of water to drain into the pool.  

On the way back to our machines after swimming in Natural Pool, Larry borrowed a string of fish from a local spear fisherman so I could take his picture.  As he said: “How often am I gonna get a chance to pose with a string of barracuda?”

-- Mitchell Hegman