Fontein Cave |Â April 23, 2012 | Arikok National Park, Aruba
Arikok National Park contains the most well known of Aruba’s caves. I visited one of them, Fontein Cave, guided by a park ranger.
Arawak indians inhabited Aruba around 1000 AD. They adorned the walls of this cave and others with petroglyphs.
At the park’s visitors center, a display suggested that the following petroglyph might be an ironclad beetle.
Ironclad beetle, stylized, so forgive the missing legs
My guide quizzed me on a few others. I was asked about this one first.
Bzzzzt, what do you think this represents?
I guessed honeycomb. My guide smiled and vigorously nodded.
Bees were definitely on my mind though. I had just seen a bee hive in the limestone not far from the cave entrance.
Bee hive entrance in limestone.
As I stared at the bees coming and going, I started to wonder if I might be watching killer bees, since I was well within their range. As that thought crossed my mind, I was suddenly stung on my arm. Fighting the urge to run, I calmly walked away, without further incident.
Getting back to the cave though, my guide shone his light on another spot. Here, I had no clue what the petroglyph might represent.
Can you guess what this might be?
I’ll leave that one as a challenge of sorts. Feel free to comment with your guess. I’ll post a comment later on with what my guide told me.
