Aruba!

[kmusser]

I’m back from another trip, this time to the island of Aruba, with auror as my traveling companion. Less than an hour after landing I’m on the beach with a cocktail, Aruba definitely gets bonus points there. For a desert island it proved more humid, cloudy, rainy, and full of mosquitoes than I was expecting. That’s all thanks to Sandy who’s outer edges were with us throughout our stay. In retrospect that may have been a good thing as it probably kept us from melting in the heat. Overall it's a pretty lazy vacation, spent eating, drinking, reading, and playing games. Pictures are here.



Sunday we arrive around noon, taxi to our resort with a brief grocery stop to get some essentials. Our resort is lovely, just across the road from the beach, a beautiful room and the staff proves friendly and helpful throughout the trip. Lunch is on the beach. I’m really not much of a beach person, but I will say this is one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to - fine white sand and that's it, no rocks, seaweed, barely any shells, tame waves, and not very crowded either. Dinner is at the Tulip and is most excellent - we both have fish, in fact I think most of our dinners this trip are fish. Also, cheesecake. Nom.

Monday is our non-lazy day, we rent a Jeep and take our own tour of the island. Most the time is spent at the National Park on the other side of the island viewing desert landscapes, rocky shores, caves (and bats), lizards, goats, donkeys, and views over the islands from one of the hilltops. Fortunately it is cloudy as I get the impression this side of the island can be pretty brutal, now it's kind of green, probably helped by some rain the previous night. Outside of the park we take advantage of having the car and also visit Alto Vista Chapel which has a lovely labyrinth and the lighthouse. Dinner is at Barefoot, more delicious food (and I think my one non-fish dinner, went for the goat cheese tempura, Mmmm, cheese. The place has a great view, probably even better if the sun wasn't hiding, with tables right on the beach. Disappointing cheesecake though.

Tuesday is snorkeling day, we rent some equipment and take the bus north to Boca Catalina, a beach with more critters than our local beach. We come to appreciate Aruba's private buses, running the same routes as the public buses but cheaper and more frequent and with more colorful drivers. Anyway we arrive and have the beach to ourselves, the surf is higher than ideal, but in we go. Despite visibility not being great (it's still cloudy and the waves are stirring up the sand) there are indeed a ton of critters, a wide variety of fish and Merry even spots a sea turtle on the move. I can just imagine that the snorkeling here is spectacular when the sun is out. We do get a little banged up with the waves and the rocks, but nothing too bad. It turns out that it's really a good thing we went when we did as the weather worsens and rains the rest of the day - back at the resort our formerly tame beach now has 2-3 foot waves. We stay in and play games. Dinner is a buffet at the resort along with a show of carnival-style dancers.

Wednesday was potentially going to be another snorkel day, but those waves are now 3-4 feet - nobody's doing any water sports today (never mind that I managed to lose my flippers on the bus - doh!). So instead we sleep in. Later we go return the snorkels and do a little hike to that we can have lunch at Linda's Dutch Pancakes - the Dutch pancakes (aka crepes) are exceedingly yummy, and I think its a good thing this place is in another country. Otherwise it's another lazy day of reading and games (mostly playing Innovation for you gamer geeks). For dinner we visit one of the all-inclusive resorts because a steel drum band is playing there - is interesting seeing how the big resorts are, even as visitors they fling free drinks at us.

Thursday, our last full day. Waves are still big thanks to Sandy, though the sun is feebly attempting to come out. We go over to the neighboring resort for lunch and they have a bunch of iguanas which kindly pose for us. Otherwise it's pool time, reading, gaming, and taking advantage of the resorts happy hour. Dinner is at our resorts own beach-side restaurant and we both have some excellent fish.

Friday the sun comes out just in time for us to pack up. Nothing much today, just lunch and a taxi ride to the airport. The heat is rather oppressive, which makes us thankful for the earlier clouds. All in all a lovely time.