Aruba: Eagle Beach & Palm Beach

Day 4:

Last night was a rough one...

Somehow I developed quite the UTI over night.  I woke up at 2am and felt it coming.  They're not terribly uncommon for me, but it's been a long time since I've had one.  (TMI?) ;)  Usually I can just chug water and get rid of them pretty easily, but not this one.  I had a fever and the whole 9 yards.  This one was bad and not going away.  I never even went back to sleep, just drank water and sat on the toilet...

So my day began with an 8am visit to Urgent Care Aruba.

NOT what I had planned for my last full day in Aruba!

An hour and a half (and $150) later, the doctor came in and said "eeesssss hoooooge UTI" in his thick accent.  Language barrier was real today.  I was like, "Yeah, I know it's bad.  Give me all the drugs." 

So off to the pharmacy I went.  Just down the road, thank goodness, and it wasn't called a pharmacy -- something in the local Papiamento language.  But I found it, and another $80 later, they hooked me up with an antibiotic and a pain reliever.  

I can't imagine how I got this.  I'm prone to UTIs anyways, but this is an exceptionally bad one.  I guess it could have to do with the fact that i got super dehydrated yesterday when I hiked and hung out at the beach with no water. Mine spilled in my bag. Oops. 

The doctor kept saying E coli, I swear.  Unless that was some misunderstood language barrier thing.  Can I get Ecoli in my uriniary tract from gross ocean water?  Ugh. If so, I'm definitely staying out of the water for a long time, because this sucks.

So anyways, the morning and most of the afternoon was spent sitting at the table, drinking water, and sitting on the toilet.  Just kind of waiting for the drugs to kick in some.  {Awesome.}

By mid afternoon, after lunch, pomegranate juice (closest thing to cranberry the store had) and more drugs, I'd had enough of laying around.  

The only part of Aruba left to see was the famous touristy part, especially Eagle Beach, and I wasn't leaving without seeing it.  Sunburnt, sick, and all.   

So a little before 3pm, down to the hotel zone we went.  Parked on the side of the road and walked between buildings to see what this famous Palm Beach was all about.

The view to the left and the view to the right of where we walked in:

 

It was a nice beach, but not nice enough to keep me there.  The water wasn't good for snorkeling there (the waves had stirred it up too much) and you couldn't swim out past the break because the hotels had it all roped off for swimming for hotel guests.  

I had to pee (imagine that), so I decided to try and sneak in to the closest hotel, which happened to be a Mariott.  No one was checking anything anywhere, so I just walked right in. 

Problem was you had to have a room key to swipe the bathroom door to get it to open.  But today was my lucky day.  The door was jammed open just barely, to the mens room.  I couldn't have cared less.  In I went - quickly.  

 

And why yes I will take a dip in your nice refreshing clean pool while I'm in here, too!

I don't even remember all the beaches we stopped at after that.  A couple of spots along the long Eagle Beach, then Manchebo beach...  They all looked similar and they were all gorgeous.

I mean, I get why the tourists come here.  The beaches along the hotel zone really are fantastic, and the hotels and casinos are top notch.  It's just the rest of the island that is lacking a little!  But I doubt the majority of them ever leave the resort to see that part of Aruba...

I had to try my luck at sneaking in to the bathroom at Contra Linda, right at the end of Eagle Beach...too easy...and then took a little dip in their pool, too!  

From there, we decided to try and snorkel at the ship wreck off Malmok beach, further north.  But when we got there, the waves were way too rough to get in.  The wind had really picked up!

So we went north a little further, and the beach just wasn't that interesting.  But I had to pee again, so I snuck in to the closest hotel, which just happened to be The Ritz!  Man, that was a nice bathroom!

The view from the beach behind The Ritz:

We basically zig-zagged up the western coast, from north to south and back again, just beach hopping and trying to find the perfect spot.

Along the way, we went by another giant cruise ship docked -- which meant loads of tourists were nearby.

This was the one part of Aruba I had not seen yet.  The tourist trap area right where the cruise ships dock.  And sure enough, it was just what I had imagined.  Fancy, expensive shops, nice restaurants, green grass and palm trees galore.  Funny thing is, the palm trees and green grass aren't anywhere else on the island!

 

I can't pass up a good little market, so we had to stop at this trap.  And I'm glad we did because I found a Christmas tree ornament for $2!

 

It was getting close to sunset time, and after all the beach hopping during the afternoon, the winning spot was the end of Eagle Beach.  Trees for a hammock, nice open white sand beach, a hotel close by for a bathroom...what more do you need?

And finally, finally, the sunset did what I'd been wanting it to do this whole time:

The light show in the sky was spectacular, and the perfect way to end the last night in Aruba!

I'm feeling better now - the drugs are kicking in - and I'm off to Bonaire tomorrow morning!  Pretty excited.  I've done some research and it looks way more interesting than Aruba...and way less touristy.  I have a whole sheet of things I want to do there, so might end up staying for a week or so.  Who knows...  Booked a $9/night hostel close to a beach, so that should be fun!