Aruba....Stack A Rock & Make A Wish

I've been promising stories from our recent trip to Aruba but have been delayed by the horrible head cold that I brought home with me! I just haven't been able to get my head straight ever since I returned to Pittsburgh. I'm starting to feel a little bit better, so hopefully I'll get back in my good blogging habits.

One of the neatest things that I discovered in Aruba was a tradition involving stacking rocks. (If you look very closely at the picture, you'll notice how carefully stacked all of these rocks really are!)

On our next to last day in Aruba we took a Jeep tour of the island, and I was amazed by the expanse of stacked rocks along the shoreline. I couldn't believe how many people had obviously taken time out of their vacation to take part in this tradition.

Here's how the stacking of the rocks works: you select several rocks that you think you might be able to stack (which is not nearly as easy as it sounds), and you begin stacking them one on top of another making a wish as you place each stone. Rob & I didn't go crazy with ours, we're pretty simple people, I think we only used 3 or 4 rocks, after all, it's not easy stacking odd shaped rocks in really wild ocean wind! Here's a picture of our modest little rock stack!

The best part of the Jeep (or Land Rover, in this instance) tour, is that you get to see the "real" Aruba and just not the tourist part of the Island.

I've got a lot more pictures from our Jeep tour and a lot more stories too, but I'll save those for another day! In the meantime, here's a picture of Rob & I after we were done building our rock stack... I guess the wishing thing works, because we're both looking pretty happy!