One of the most shocking, to me personally, stops was Aruba. While most the other stops were lush green tropical rain forest Aruba was a barren desert cactus riddled rock! I had never much thought about Aruba and just assumed it would be or was a colourful, vibrant, alive place. Instead it was incredibly incredibly HOT, dry and not a place at first blush one would want to visit.
Huge thorny cactus were everywhere and even the bushes that grew green leaves sported enormous thorns. I have no idea how early explorers made any headway at all into Aruba as you really can't step anywhere that doesn't have huge pricker bushes. Also there is no rain. The entire island now exists via a desalinization system. Lawns and anything green just isn't in Aruba. The tour guide said that the cost of water monthly is about $150USD which takes a big bite out of local wages. I also noted that many of the houses there were really really small. I'd guestimate most houses on the middle class streets were about 500 to 600 sq ft.
Typical street scene. Smallish houses with exterior decorations in gravel and rock. Some potted cactus type plants decorated the outside of homes but geez the place looked barren.
The day we docked in Aruba was their national "Labour Day" holiday thus everything was totally locked up. Not a store was open anywhere when my feet hit land. Some of the other passengers on the ship who got off real early said that some of the businesses in the downtown were open but they watched as police came through telling everybody it was a holiday, selling wasn't allowed and to close up (and they did.) By the time I got off the ship (9am) my only option was to take a tour. The fellow had a van with A/C and was somewhat furtively coming up to passengers asking if we wanted a tour of the island. Soon as he got 8 people he was off and there really was not much to see on Aruba.
First we went to a small Catholic church built in 1750 that was located high up on a hill well outside the city. You can see again how barren the land looks around the outside of this church. Nothing but cactus and scrubby bushes growing.
Inside the church was very small and I took a photo of the alter area. Not being Catholic I didn't think much about the alter area and it wasn't until later back on the ship I overheard other passengers talking about their visit to the church and how the front alter area did not have Jesus on the cross. The alter area had the Blessed Mother (Virgin Mary?) holding the baby Jesus. As per what I overheard the Blessed Mother is never the main figure on the alter which is always Jesus.
After the church we went to see the lighthouse which was built in 1913. We couldn't go into it as it is apparently being restored. From the hill the lighthouse was located on you can see, in the distance, the city of Oranjestad. The area of land in front of the lighthouse is sand and scrub brush and gives an idea of what the natural beaches in Aruba are like.
The tour fellow did take us to a Butterfly farm but it was closed
so lacking anywhere else to show us he did head to the Resort strip and showed us some of the bigger Resorts (I don't remember exactly which hotel this one is but it WAS a known chain resort i.e. Marriott, Wynham, Hilton - can't remember). The beach areas connected to the resorts sure didn't look at all like the natural beaches of Aruba 
One of the things however that did really strike me and impress me was that as we drove up and down streets in residential areas of Aruba almost everybody who was outside yelled "HELLO" at our tourist van and waved. These were just regular people going about their day yet soon as they recognized 'tourists' they called out from their front veranda's or porches and waved. Methinks Aruba is VERY happy to have tourists coming to their shores and very much wants us to keep welcome and come back.
Nice set of photos though 
the hotel / beach area look nice 
