Friday was our last day in Aruba, before we head to Curacao for a week, so we decided to hit two beaches we are familiar with. We started at Arashi Beach, which had huge waves the first few days we were here. It was nice and calm today, and it’s a great beach to come and swim at. It has a long sandy entry, and it’s very popular with locals and tourists alike.

We picked a spot and simply walked in. The bottom was quite littered with debris, from the effects of Hurricane Tomas. Still there were lots of fish to see, but most of the usual suspects. I took a short movie of a flounder, who was much more active than the peacock flounder we saw yesterday.

After floating around for ninety minutes or so we decided to try one more time to find the Alto Vista chapel. Of course, it is a truly simple route to find and it’s unreal we never found it before. Boy did we feel silly!

Anyway, it’s a quaint little church, with a ring of outdoor seats. It’s still very much in use, with tons of flower arrangements and several people praying. It is atop a small hill with good views of the east coast of Aruba.

We were glad to have finally found it, but honestly it was a bit of a let down! It is not particularly ornate, not does it have a particularly attractive exterior. It is just a basic church, in a rugged setting, with nice views. I guess we shouldn’t have expected more.

We then headed back to the beach, and jumped in the water at Hadacuari Beach. It is near the place where they have all wind surfing lessons and competitions. We had noticed this beach because it has a ring of stone, like a very short cliff. Perched on this cliff were up to a dozen pelicans, and lots of seagulls.

The reason for this was apparent the moment we entered the water.

The area was chock full of fish and I mean chock full. To say there millions of fish here, would be an understatement. There were so many fish here, you could not see the cliffs on the other side of them! Schools of palamettos were herding the fish, then attacking them at their leisure. Barracuda hung around, as did schools of ballyhoo, striking down at the bait fish whenever they felt like it.

The bait ball went on for easily a couple of kilometers. It was unreal how many fish there were there.

We also saw a chain moray, the same place we had seen a chain moray last year. Probably the same one, as they hang around the same area for years.

It was a remarkable swim. I’ve taken several movies of the area, and I’ll post at least one. It was something to see these huge schools of fish, hugging the cliffs, while the palamettos ran shotgun, herding them into tight groups.

There were loads of other coral eaters like the parrot fish and trunkfish and all the usual suspects, but the bait ball was something to see. Sure glad we decided to jump in the ocean here! Tomorrow we have a 1:30 pm flight to Curacao. It’s a short flight, we took last year in a small puddle jumper, about 15 seats. It’s a neat flight and we’re looking forward to it.