31 | May | 2009 | Snorkeling the ABC Islands

We said good-bye to Curacao and returned to Aruba on Saturday; the short flight was nice and quick. We grabbed the rental car and were checked into Caribbean Palm Village by two. It’s nice to be back in Aruba. It’s smaller and cozier, and both of us commented on how we feel comfortable here.

We quickly got our stuff together for a dip in the ocean. We chose a site just north of the wreck, with a nice sandy entry to the water. There was a Pelican catamaran there, so we figured that it was a snorkeling trip. At first, we wondered if we’d picked the wrong spot – then blammo! Did we see some happening stuff!

As we went around to the right, there appeared to be a cave. I said to Pam, I just know there is a cave there, but I don’t have the guts to swim into it. Down near the bottom, I saw a movement, that looked like a large log, and turned out to be a large porcupine fish! He’s a shy guy, and when I snapped a picture of him the flash went off, and it startled him. Later on, we found him again, shyly hiding in a small hole in the rocks. I have a small movie of him, that I need to edit a bit, but I’ll get it up tonight or tomorrow. He’s a cute guy.

We saw another chain moray and stalked him for a while. I’ve got a cool movie of him slinking around, too. He didn’t seem to really care that I was stalking him, and he spent as much time staring back at me as I did staring at him!

We hadn’t really seen any hermit crabs, but we’ve seen a couple in the last couple of days. Here’s one who has taken over a conch shell. When I approached, he seemed to get very agitated and tried move off.

We had dinner at Sole Mare, an Italian place five minutes from the Caribbean Palm Village. It was magnificent. Wonderful food, wonderful service. I had the veal pizzaiola, and it was simply fantastic. So tender, the sauce was piquant without being spicy, and came with steamed vegetables. Pam had lemon chicken and it was great as well. The coffee they served was the best I’ve had anywhere in the Caribbean.

Truly a memorable meal.

Friday was Pam’s big day with Herby, the gigantic grouper. She got instructions on how to use the scuba gear, since it was a dive, not just a snorkel. She got in a sea water pool with stingrays, tarpons, Herby, and tons of other fish, including a huge porcupine fish.

She was able to feed lemon sharks and nurse sharks, as well as some gigantic sea turtles, stingrays and the other fish hanging about! She was certainly pumped about it, and seemed to have a great time.
After her dive, we headed “north” to Westpunt for more open water snorkeling. We visited a small beach called Playa Kenepa, which had the usual assortment of fish. Entry into the water was easy, with a nice sandy bottom. We got to see quite a few flounder here, on the sandy bottom. Along the left wall, there was some very nice looking coral that was in surprisingly good shape.

We were hoping to see some turtles, so we bailed out of Playa Kenepa and headed a little south to Playa Lagun, another small cove. As we entered the water, another snorkeler mentioned that there had been lots of turtles here – Yesterday! arghhh… We paddled around and it was very nice as well. Sandy entry to ocean, with lots of nice coral.
The left side had some really fine coral, with a big school of blue tangs. Hidden amongst them was a pair of trumpetfish, with the mouths and head all turned to a purple color, so they could hide with the tangs. Very cool to see.

The right side was covered in crabs! Was really something to see so many of them, basically everywhere! We saw two little tiny flounder, one about 3 inches, the other about 2 inches, chasing each other across the sandy bottom.

We had dinner at a place Pam has been talking about for about 3 months! It’s on Mambo Beach, which is basically a 10 minute walk, or a 5 minute swim, from our condo. We’d read about it on the internet, and people describe it as a fish buffet. That’s wrong, it is not a buffet. It is more like a fish market, where they have displayed fresh fish and seafood. There was grouper, barracuda, silk snapper, red snapper, parrotfish, shrimps, scallops, lobster, moonfish, flounder…. You chose what you want, how much you want, then pay by the 100 grams. A skewer of 5 shrimps was $12, scallops were $4 EACH, lobster was $19 per 100 grams – some of the fish was as cheap as $7 per 100 grams. They then grill your selection and serve it with coleslaw and potatoes. At close to $150 bucks for dinner, I don’t think it’s good value.

The restaurant is very romantic, with large cushions to lounge on, and it’s right on the beach. The waitress was friendly and good. The only problem is that I want to get a hold of the putz who thought up this serve fish rare idea, and give his head a slap. Fish should be cooked. Period. Those people who want to eat raw fish, oughtta check out this new invention called fire.

Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao