Page 11 - MIN TTC 22 OCT 2015
P. 11
A14
LOCALThursday 22 October 2015
Another Treasure of Aruba’s Beaches: Sea Glass!
ARASHI - It is hard to imag- ated is the product of a The colorful pieces of glass Then, the sapphire rocks
ine this happening today, very long and interesting are being used for decora- are the remnants of bro-
but years ago people process. tion, handcrafts and jew- ken apothecary bottles.
dumped all kinds of refuse It can take anywhere from elry! The most common and
straight into the ocean, in- 10 to 30 years to make sea Once glass makes its way the easiest to find are the
cluding old cars, and their glass. into the ocean, the glass is brown (Amstel & Polar
household garbage, which The name for any piece broken up into shards and is beer), green (Heineken
of course included lots of of glass that finds its way tumbled around in the wa- & Balashi beer) and clear
glass. to the ocean and tumbles ter, where sand and other glass which are the soft
Over the next 30 years the around in the water long rocks act like sandpaper to much loved “soft drink”
pounding waves cleaned enough is “Sea glass. smooth out its rough edges. bottles.If you like to see the
the beach, by breaking Sometimes as the sea glass sea glass for yourself, and
down everything but glass is passed through fire, it be- be in awe of the power of
and pottery. comes fire glass, the rarest nature, rent a car or jeep
The pounding waves of sea glass with certain and go explore our desert-
washed the trash up and inclusions, just like precious ed beaches on the north
down, back and forth. gems.For years, the wa- side of the island. Make it a
Tons of polished, broken ter beat against the dif- fun family day!
glass pieces were created ferent kinds of trash being Even if we didn’t mean to
by the pounding surf. dumped. Glass, household pollute the Beaches how
These smoothened, col- appliances and even mo- we did, it is inspiring to see
ored glass particles then tor parts were discarded on just how the earth can cor-
settled along the sea shore the beach. The waves and rect our mistakes.
in millions, and that is why weather conditions wore Funny, how trash can
you can find these beauti- down the overwhelming change into treasures!
ful and colorful pieces on amount of garbage in the
the north shore beaches water, creating millions of Everybody knows that you
of Aruba. Especially on are not allowed to take
the strip on white sand be- local shells home, but the
tween the famous Natural people working at the air-
Bridge” and the huge red port have no problem you
anchor close to “Grape- taking sea glass home. A
field” beach you will be few of those pieces make
able to find your own piec- great souvenirs. You can
es of sea glass. place them in a wine glass
The sea glass that was cre- or large bottle for decora-
tion and every time you
beautiful smooth rocks. look at it a smile will light up
It’s hard to believe the your face thinking back of
your unforgettable Aruba
short-sighted mistakes we vacation!q
were making that could
have potentially ruined
these beautiful beaches.
But thanks to natural pro-
cesses, the ocean trans-
formed the trash into the
sea glass.
Each colored gem on the
beach has its own story.
The ruby red glass stones
are typically from old car
tail-lights.
