New Stamp Issue: Caves of Aruba

The northern coast of the island is home to most of Aruba’s natural attractions. The largest of these is the Arikok National Park, which covers 18% of the island and contains several noteworthy sites accessible by a network of hiking trails.

In the deep recesses of rock along the island’s windward coast, shallow cave formations intrigue visitors, who, in seeking to penetrate its damp chambers, are rewarded with mysterious views of rock drawings, the sudden, flapping wings of a nervous bat and nature’s artwork of stalagmites and stalactites.
There visitors will find the bat-filled Quadirikiri, Fontein, and Baranca Sunu or better known as Tunnel of Love. Taking in consideration that those three caves are main attractions of the Island, Post Aruba decided to issue a set of 3 stamps with this theme.
Stamp 175c: The Baranca Sunu Cave or also known as Tunnel of Love, is 300 feet long and is located on the Northern part of the island. In English “Baranca Sunu” means Naked Rock, but the origin of this name cannot be traced. Baranca Sunu has five chambers and in one of them there is a Virgin Mary that is shown in one of the natural rock formations.

The name Tunnel of Love offers more adventure than romance. The entrance of the cave has steep and narrow stairs downwards into the cave. In this tunnel the visitors will have to bend in some of the parts to discover its mysteries and to go through it. The exit is a little more challenging because you have to climb up a small stairs carved in the rocks. The tunnel is closed at the moment to preserve it and to make sure that the resident bat population reestablishes itself. The two bat populations are better known as Long Tongue Fruit Bats and Insect Eaters Bats.
Stamp 200c: Located about 100 meters from Aruba’s natural Fontein is the Fontein Cave situated in an escarpment of a terrace of coral limestone and it has an airy and easily accessible entrance of 3 meters broad and 2 meters high. Inside, the first vestibule is 4 meters high by about 50 meters, so it can be visited by the public.

The Fontein Cave is the most popular of the caves as it is the only one that has the ornamental drawings of Arawak Indians, providing a real sense of island history to this cave. These drawings are located in the flatter part of the ceiling and on the walls. These drawings have a particularly brownish red, reddish brown or more purplish color. It is also believed that in that cave the Arawak Indians celebrated rituals and ceremonies typical for their tribe.

Stamp 225c: The entrance of Quadirikiri Grot (Guadirikiri Cave) is located at the base of a cliff and is famous for its two chambers, illuminated by the sunlight, shining through holes in the roof of the cave which is 98 feet (30m) long. The cave is inhabited by hundreds of harmless bats. For this reason it was decided to have it closed starting at the second room to make sure that the bats could reproduce.
This emission is available at the post offices in Oranjestad, San Nicolas, Santa Cruz and Port of Call starting on April 01, 2009 until March 31, 2010 for all our clients who would like to have this special issue.

These stamps can be ordered as well via email: philatelic@postaruba.com