By Alexander Britell

It’s a short drive on a dusty road from the Gold Mine Ranch to Bushiribana, where a century and a half ago they used to take mined gold and process it here.

Today it is but a stony ruin, holes and crevices just across from the furious froth of Aruba’s eastern shores.

The road is surrounded by cacti, pale green in the hot summer, a landscape you’d expect to find in Arizona, not at the edge of the Caribbean Sea.

This is Aruba’s frontier, the Wild East, home to vistas foreign and breathtaking, another planet entirely, better traversed on a Rover — or at least an ATV.

The dry silence and the empty wilderness have a calming effect, giving travelers the feeling that they have journeyed far longer than half an hour from the stunning white-sand beaches of the west coast.

It is wild and wonderful terrain, home to exotic beaches and craggy coastlines and even an Ostrich Farm.

And if you’re looking for a fascinating, transformative day trip, it’s, well, a gold mine.