EXPLORE ARUBA

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Oranjestad, located on the southern coast, is the capital city. Here you'll find tall multicolored houses that combine traditional Dutch tiles and carved wooden doors with airy island galleries and sloping roofs. The oldest remnant of Dutch architecture on the island is here at Fort Zoutman, completed in 1796 and named for a Dutch admiral who outwitted a British convoy. In 1868, the Willem III Tower was added to the Fort and served as a lighthouse equipped with a spire and petrol lamp. Today the buildings house the Museo Arubano, a museum displaying many artifacts from Aruba's earliest times up to the present day.

Surrounding Mt. Arikok near the center of the island is Arikok National Park, a natural preserve which features ancient cave drawings. There's also an old Aruban "cunucu" house made of mud and grass. The park has trails that showcase Aruba's great variety of plants and animals like the divi-divi and kwihi trees, rare and exotic cacti, aloe, tropical flowers, birds and iguanas. Together with the Coastal Protection Zone, Arikok National Park encompasses 25 percent of the island.

Aruba's has several natural bridges carved out of solid coral by the centuries of relentless pounding of the Atlantic surf. They are among the Caribbean's highest and most dramatic coral structures. The most famous of these bridges rose 25 feet above the sea with a hundred-feet span, but collapsed in September 2005.

Most visitors don't expect to find underground caves on a tropical island, but they'll find them on Aruba. At the Guadirikiri Cave, sunlight filters through two inner chambers, providing visitors with perfect photo opps. The cave's 100-foot long tunnel is home to hundreds of harmless bats. Nearby, the Fontein Cave features drawings by the ancient Arawak Indians, whose decorations on the cave's ceilings are a reminder of the island's indigenous history. The cave's heart-shaped entrance has led it to be dubbed the Tunnel of Love: a 300-foot long channel that winds through eerie rock formations and narrow passages. Helmets and flashlights can be rented for $6 at the entrances to both caves.

The old stone California Lighthouse is located on the isolated northwestern tip of the island known as "Hudishibana," an area that features some of the island's most spectacular scenery and large rolling sand dunes.