Page 17 - ARUBA TODAY

A17
Monday 23 July 2018

Another Treasure of Aruba’s

Beaches: Sea Glass!

NOORD - It is hard to imag- broken up into shards and is
ine this happening today, tumbled around in the wa-
but years ago people ter, where sand and other
dumped all kinds of refuse rocks act like sandpaper to
straight into the ocean, in- smooth out its rough edges.
cluding old cars, and their Sometimes as the sea glass
household garbage, which is passed through fire, it be-
of course included lots of comes fire glass, the rarest
glass. Over the next 30 of sea glass with certain
years the pounding waves inclusions, just like precious
cleaned the beach, by gems.
breaking down everything
but glass and pottery. The For years, the water beat
pounding waves washed against the different kinds
the trash up and down, of trash being dumped.
back and forth. Tons of pol- Glass, household appli-
ished, broken glass pieces ances and even motor
were created by the pound- parts were discarded on TOLL FREE 1 866 978 61 92
ing surf. These smoothened, the beach. The waves and
colored glass particles then weather conditions wore + 297 699 29 79
settled along the sea shore down the overwhelming FOLLOW US ON: @arubaslife
in millions, and that is why amount of garbage in the
you can find these beauti- water, creating millions of info@arubaslife.com | www.arubaslife.com
ful and colorful pieces on beautiful smooth rocks. in awe of the power of na-
the north shore beaches of It’s hard to believe the ture, rent a car or jeep and
Aruba. short-sighted mistakes we go explore our deserted
were making that could beaches on the north side
Especially on the strip on have potentially ruined of the island. Make it a fun
white sand between the fa- these beautiful beaches. family day!
mous Natural Bridge” and But thanks to natural pro-
the huge red anchor close cesses, the ocean trans- Even if we didn’t mean to
to “Grapefield” beach you formed the trash into the pollute the Beaches how
will be able to find your own sea glass. we did, it is inspiring to see
pieces of sea glass. The sea just how the earth can cor-
glass that was created is Each colored gem on the rect our mistakes.
the product of a very long beach has its own story.
and interesting process. The ruby red glass stones Funny, how trash can
It can take anywhere from are typically from old car change into treasures!
10 to 30 years to make sea tail-lights. Everybody knows that you
glass. are not allowed to take
Then, the sapphire rocks local shells home, but the
The name for any piece are the remnants of bro- people working at the air-
of glass that finds its way ken apothecary bottles. port have no problem you
to the ocean and tumbles The most common and taking sea glass home. A
around in the water long the easiest to find are the few of those pieces make
enough is “Sea glass. brown (Amstel & Polar great souvenirs. You can
The colorful pieces of glass beer), green (Heineken place them in a wine glass
are being used for decora- & Balashi beer) and clear or large bottle for decora-
tion, handcrafts and jew- glass which are the soft tion and every time you
elry! much loved “soft drink” look at it a smile will light up
bottles. your face thinking back of
Once glass makes its way If you like to see the sea your unforgettable Aruba
into the ocean, the glass is glass for yourself, and be vacation! q