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.