Aruba

Our all too short day in Aruba began when I opened the curtains at 6 AM to find us gliding along the coast of Aruba. I woke Hubby and we stood on our balcony for a bit watching the island slip by us. Such a pretty sight to watch, as the sun rose over the island.

Aruba is a very beautiful. There is great care given to most all of the homes. I think the Aruban’s have a lot of pride in their home and their country. They are also extremely kind people.

After a nice breakfast on-board the ship, we headed down to the dock area to get our tour. Campbell was our driver and tour guide and he was in charge of showing us “The Best Of Aruba”. What I learned was, the island has great variety, sand beaches and rocky beaches, high hotels and low hotels, tourist shops and shops for the residents, and the only thing that stays the same here is the weather (4 inches of rain per year). There is so much to see that one cannot do it in a few hours.

First we drove through Oranjestad, and went off to the Casibari rock formations. The views were beautiful from the top of these rocks, but I do admit I was a little nervous at those heights.

After climbing slowly back down these rocks we got back in the bus and drove to the north coast of Aruba to see the collapsed Natural Bridge, and the Baby Natural Bridge. The Natural Bride remains are still there, but sadly this natural rock formation fell apart in 2005.

Our driver, Campbell was always trying to get us on-board the bus so we could get to see as much as possible in the limited time we had, so he made a rule up, the last one on-board had to sing to the others! Here is the Australian woman who took too long at the Natural Bridge and was the first victim singing, Walzing Matilda!

We went to see the Aruba Aloe Factory and it was quite a sight to see the large Aloe plants and then take the tour.

While we waited for our bus to leave I made a quick call home to say good-bye to Dori, as we will now be out of cell phone coverage until we reach Guatemala.

We decided not to go to the beach to swim, and so our bus driver dropped us down town to do some shopping. Not that I wanted to buy anything too expensive, but I wanted two small table clothes for our family room. We walked around until we finally located the shop and there they were, two beautiful table clothes for our home!

We looked at our watches and realized we had better get back to the ship, as it was leaving at 12:30 PM! We needn’t have worried.

We got back in plenty of time, took some pictures and with time to spare, went up to get a Mexican lunch! As we were eating, the ship slowly departed Aruba. I do wish we had had a little more time to visit and explore the island, it is such a pretty place.

Now we are heading toward Columbia, where I will spend my 49th birthday.