After an insane itinerary from Madison, WI from a 3 hour overnight bus to Chicago for a 5 hour flight to Oranjestad, Aruba, we arrived in the afternoon with 5 hours to explore before having to make it to our 40 minute connecting flight to Caracas.
So the first thing we did was to eat. We asked our taxi driver ($28 USD from the airport to the city, each way) to drive us to a local restaurant that would be open on Sundays when mostly everything else was closed.
We ordered the Keshi Yena first, the national dish of Aruba: a spicy mixture of chicken and peppers, capers, olives and tomatoes traditionally baked in a Gouda cheese “shell”.
Afterwards we walked around the “High Rise” area of Oranjestad and witnessed gentrification at its finest/absolute worst.
Then we headed to Palm Beach to soak up the sun for an hour before having to return to the airport to catch our flight to Venezuela.
Literally, the simple life/layover.
- At time of posting in Oranjestad, Aruba, it was 27 °C - Humidity: 79% | Wind Speed: 32km/hr | Cloud Cover: sunny