Falling in love with the lush powdery white beaches of Aruba is easy, but appreciating the bare interior countryside is not everybody's cup of tea. Although these fascinating plants play a vital role in Aruba’s fragile ecosystem. Luckily, the dry windswept lands are full of uncountable cacti. This spiny plant has amazing ways of conserving water, while humans use its flesh for making syrup and alcoholic drinks. Cacti are also used as construction materials and in furniture, while the very fine spines and hairs were used as a source of fiber for filling pillows and in weaving. Living cactus fences are employed as borders to mark the land where people live and work or to keep unwanted free roaming animals like goats, sheep and donkeys out.