So I planned a nice getaway to Aruba and one of the main draws for me was the Flamingo Beach on the private island of the Renaissance Hotel.  This place was amazing and the proximity to good food was equally so.  No, it wasn’t Taco Bell and I’ll go more into that later so people don’t assume all I eat on vacations is Taco Bell…

Anyway, the private island boasts being able to spend up close and personal time with flamingos inside an adult only section where they get to wander freely.  Though I saw some parents ignore the adult only part and no hotel staff seemed to mind which was a bit annoying.  Anyway, in my glee I was incredibly excited and decided that sounds perfect!  In my head I suppose the naivety stemmed from the passing thought that I assumed the flamingos just nested there and hung out to get fed a bunch.

It was until maybe the 2nd or 3rd day when my girlfriend pointed out the flamingos aren’t flying away at all and maybe they are kept here that this may be a bit of the animal tourism I had a ton of moral dilemmas with back in China with the pandas here.

I had to come with terms that I was easily duped again and that this is very likely a form of animal tourism that is harmful to the animals.  I ended up have 2-3 days there taking amazing photos and not even realizing it.  There are small justifications I suppose, such that they seem well taken care of however that doesn’t cover one of the main issues in that tourists can be dicks.  I saw people clearly making the flamingos uncomfortable in the name of the perfect photo, trying to herd them around, and as slightly mentioned before the staff didn’t really care.  I think this spot could be a great destination with a little bit more monitoring as the beach is amazing, there’s beautiful birds and iguanas everywhere, and the cocktails definitely do the trick.

I don’t want to defer people from going to this place it is hands down one of the best beaches I have been to and I am picky on beaches because my body was not built for the sun.  It’s just that tourists can’t control themselves, and I factor myself into that group, we need monitoring and regulation or we will run wild.  Sometimes travel has some truths I don’t like and I do things I regret, all I ask is people have some awareness.  This place could be self regulating if everyone was just living up to the expectations Mr. Rogers set for them. That’s all I have to say on that because there was some awesome stuff too.

The rest of the island had a ton of other wildlife as I mentioned but for the sake of it here’s a few pictures.  I’ll definitely be adding more soon too.  Another perk is getting to the island the water taxi pulls right into the hotel interior, it’s really cool.

Basically if you are into lizards and birds this place is a constant orgasm.  I’ll get more on this place this week!  Primarily on the dozen or so restaurants I went to as all the food on this island was friggen dope.  Yea I don’t regret using those words at all.