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A9
LOCAL Wednesday 8 February 2023

Another Treasure of Aruba’s Beaches: Sea Glass!

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