Our exploring started on Wednesday with the Alto Vista Chapel. The Alto Vista Chapel is a small Catholic chapel also known as “Pilgrims Church” and stands on the hills above the north shore of the sea and to the northeast of the town of Noord. The church, painted on the outside in stark bright yellow, makes it a conspicuous religious monument for people to visit. The present Chapel of Alto Vista was completed in 1952 and stands in the same location as the original chapel, which was built by Domingo Silvestre, the Venezuelan missionary in 1750. It is said to be the location where the conversion of the Aruban Indians to christianity started.

To the side of the church there was a contemplation maze, which I completed while the others jumped the rocks to get to the centre 🙂

Once we had finished our contemplation we were pleasantly surprised to find the Alta Vista walking trail that meandered us through the many beautiful cacti and took us to the seashore, where the landscape was eroding lava fields filled with fossils of the seabed that must have one time covered them.

Next stop was the Bushiribana Gold Mill Ruins. Gold was first discovered in Aruba in 1824, eventually leading to the production of more than three million pounds of it on the island. Remnants of the gold rush remain at this former mill that processed ore from mines in the nearby hills.

From the ruins we drove a little further up the coast to the Natural Bridge. The Natural Bridge was formed by waves crashing against the limestone cliffs and is no more as the archway collapsed in 2005. However, there was a baby bridge beside it and the area around the Natural Bridge was beautiful with many rock formations that we could walk through.

Our final stop was Baby Beach for a nice swim and beach walk.