Page 16 - AHATA

Friday 20 January 2023 locAl
A10

Another Treasure of Aruba’s Beaches: Sea Glass!

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