Tour of Aruba - the Aloe Vera factory

Finally we went to an Aloe Vera factory.

The first problem when we arrived was that another group was at the starting point so our driver said we'd have to wait in the bus until they had moved on.

The company owns many acres of Aloe Vera plants

The horticultural side of he business is all done by manual labour

They take only the outside leaves of the plant and the plant then grows new ones from the inside outwards

Having topped and tailed the plant, you then strip the leaves away and are left with a slimy centre.  It's like fresh food and will quite quickly deteriorate if not refrigerated

A well tended plant can live for up to 25 years

We'd already thought that it wasn't good planning for the cruise line to have us in Aruba on a Sunday as most shops are shut and the shop owners don't make much of a concession to the fact that cruise ships are docked - I guess because cruise ships are docked mos days!

And in we go!

Being a Sunday, the factory part of the Aloe Vera enterprise was closed and we had to wait a long time for the guide to start his demonstration and tour, again because it was a Sunday and he was he only guide on duty rather than the several they have during the week.

We were allowed to sample a variety of products with all sorts of stated purposes and our visit was rounded off by a visit to the company's shop where some pretty high prices were on display!