Aruba

What a busy day this has been. We met up with private tour guide, Frances, whom we found through "Tours by Locals" - they are a Canadian based company and offer tours in a number of countries around the world. In this case, we are in Aruba. Hiring a private guide for just the three of us was a good decision as today is Carnival - and many streets are closed. Frances knew how to manoeuvre around this all!

We started with a tour of sites in Oranjestad.  

 The island measures about 12 km by 30 km and is 25 km away from Venezuela. 

We headed to see the Casi Bari Rock formation near the town of Santa Cruz.   

The town of Santa Cruz has the claim to fame that Betico Croes is from here. He took Aruba out of the Dutch West Indies - they were fed up with the dominance of Curaçao and so separated in 1986. 

There is a desalination plant in Balashi. First time visitors are told they must try a Balashi Cocktail- and that is a glass of water!  Balashi also makes one of the three local beers. 

Frances took us to a beautiful local beach called Mangel Halto Beach near the town of Pos Chiquito. There are mangroves, snorkelling and shadey spots!  I learned the thatched roof umbrellas are called palapas. 

Aruba bus transportation is good - a trip from the ship to the resorts (and common beaches) costs $4.50. A day pass costs $10. 

We headed west and visited Alto Vista Chapel where there was a labrynth in the yard. Mom lit a candle in memory of Dad. We had a chuckle as Mom nearly burnt the church down trying to light the candle!!

We stopped at Tierra Del Sol for a bathroom break and our guide told us that ship's tours will bring guests here for a day trip. Looked like a lovely resort and pool overlooking the ocean. 

Other beaches we passed included Arushi Beach. This was very busy. Boca Katalina offers great snorkelling. San Nicholas has Baby Beach and that is a great place to take kids snorkelling. 

The geology student in our house would have been interested in seeing the volcanic rock that erupted some 80 million years ago and coral remains!  Sorry - I was not allowed to take a sample of what remains!

The California Lighthouse is at the far west end of the island. It is named for the ship California that sank there after reportedly failing to respond to the calls for help sent out by the Titanic. 

Frances then drove us to Eagle Beach area where Mom and I went in for a swim. Mom found the surf a little too strong for her to feel comfortable in the water so I walked her out the floated for a few minutes. Refreshed, we returned to her vehicle and headed back to the ship. 

Just before we stopped at Eagle Beach, Frances mentioned we were passing her local bakery and I asked her to stop!  We all clambered out and bought an individual bun that was fresh and a little something to hold is over until supper tonight!

We enjoyed swimming in a quiet section of Eagle Beach!

Frances dropped us off about 1 block away from pier exit and then walked us across the Carnival parade route - still no sign of the parade so we could safely return to the ship!

After a shower and cleanup LC and I returned to the Aruba wifi zone and paid $5 for an hour of free high speed wifi. $10 for the day. We walked out into the street hoping to see the parade and many tourists and locals lined the streets by no parade yet to enjoy. 

So we returned to the ship and LC showered and I updated my blog!

We enjoyed dinner in the dining room followed by by the BBC documentary called Frozen Earth. The footage was filmed in the Artic and Antarctica over four years and accompanied by live musicians. 

We raced to the big screen over the pool to see the Oscars begin at 8 pm. Fun to watch - we had a cabana on the tenth deck to watch the action. By 11 pm we still weren't through 50% of the awards so we headed to bed. 

It has been a great day!