Tuesday we went back to Boca Catalina, but the ocean was a little rougher than it has been, and so the visibility was not terrific. It was ok, just not great. We saw the usual suspects, and of course, our turtle friends made an appearance. The other turtle movie I put up was of a hawksbill, so today’s turtle movie is of a green turtle. He seems to have been in a playful mood, as he kept circling and coming back to the snorkelers.
The beaches have been “crowded”… just look at this picture! Where are we supposed to fit in? I mean really… I think there have been fewer people here this year. Perhaps it has to do with so many people recovering from Sandy’s path of destruction? Pam wants me to remind you that you can make any picture bigger, by clicking them with your mouse, even the larger pictures, like the one here of Boca Catalina Beach.
Here’s a nifty picture Pam took of me looking under a rocky shelf… I didn’t find any pirate treasure, but it never hurts to look.
This last picture is of a blue tang, in the intermediate phase. When he’s really small, he’s all yellow. When he’s in the intermediate phase, like here, he’s got a yellow tail. Full grown he’s all blue with just a small spot of yellow. This is not a big fish, he’s maybe two inches at the most. Full grown we’ve seen them up to fifteen or sixteen inches.
Monday was a beautiful day. Super warm, super blue sky and super calm water in the ocean again. Aruba’s weather is certainly better than Curacao’s and I’m not sure why… the two islands are very close together, but we’re not complaining! There was barely a cloud in the sky, and the water was again nice and clear. We decided to try entering the water at Malmok Beach, and it wasn’t a total success. It was quite difficult for Pam, so I don’t think we’ll enter here again. Usually we enter the ocean at a beach just south of Malmok, then swim up to Malmok, but since the best snorkeling is at Malmok, well, we decided to give it a go.
Snorkeling-wise, it was a good decision. We hadn’t been in the water more than two minutes when we saw our first turtle. We saw another turtle later on in the day too. One of the neater things we saw was a golden moray eel. Nothing too usual in that, but this guy was “on the move.” Usually they might move from one rock, to another hidey hole. But this guy was out for a drive! I’ve uploaded a little longer video of him, moving from rock to rock.
This was International Get Close to a Pelican Day. The picture of the pelican I took. In the background is one of the lovely homes on Malmok Beach. The picture of me getting close to the pelican was taken by Pam. We thought it was pretty funny stuff. The pelican let me get to within a foot of his rock, and he never took off, but he did spread his wings just in case I reached for him I guess!
The water has been so calm we’ve gone out a little further from shore than we normally do. We encountered this group of four trunkfish, seemingly having a union meeting. Not sure what was on the agenda, but it was fun to watch. This is a little shorter movie, of fish we don’t normally put up in a movie. We also saw a couple of fairly large barjacks, hunting and catching dinner! We see the barjacks cruising the reefs, and smaller fish swimming away from them. Today we saw the reason they’re running! Gulp. Down goes dinner.
We came home, had a soak in the hot tub, and decided to have a happy hour drink. The bar here at CPV is nice, and we’ve often had a happy hour drink – they are priced two for one. Well… it cost 19.80 for the “two” drinks! WOW – that’s a pricey happy hour! So we went to the store, got a bottle of rum, and bottle of pina colada mix, some limes, and a pineapple, and it was less than the cost of the drinks! Needless to say, we’ll be doing our own happy hour from now on. Dinner was home-cooked again, so no restaurant review.
We flew out of Curacao on Saturday, leaving at 12:30 and arriving in Aruba at ten to one. A short flight on a larger aircraft than we are used to… we’ve taken the Insel Air flight a few times from Aruba to Curacao and back again, and it’s usually been on a little fifteen seater. This aircraft had two seats down either side and sat around fifty or so. It was a nice little flight.
We had a bit of a tough time getting our car rented – I don’t think I’d use Avis ever again. It is very annoying to see three couples who were served after you get their cars ahead of you! When I said to the lady, you know, that’s the third person who has gotten their vehicle ahead of me, she said, hey the traffic is bad! Ahhh… ok?? Anyway – we finally got a car, and we got checked in nicely here at Caribbean Palm Village, where we’ve stayed nearly every time we’ve come to Aruba.
We had a little swim in the ocean and it was nice. We had a nice dinner at Rembrandt’s, a nifty little restaurant near the high rise hotels. It’s a Dutch run restaurant (I guess the name Rembrandt’s kind of gives that away huh?) and the food is quite nice. The menu has changed since we were here last, and the owner told us it will change again soon since a new chef is coming from Holland next week! They had a “Sinter Klass” celebration – quite unique to have Santa bring you your beer!
Sunday we thought we’d rest, but the weather was so wonderful we decided to check out Malmok Beach, a beach I’ve come to call Turtle Beach. And guess what?? It was prophetic – we saw two turtles, a hawksbill and a green! And one VERY large barracuda too, about five feet long! And lots of moray eels. And tons of French Angels – it’s a very common fish here in Aruba. Pam calls them dinner plates – they are big round fish, visible from quite a ways away. They always attract your eye, because they are so much wider than most fish.
But the water! WOW! So clear, so calm, so warm. It was easily the best we’ve had so far this vacation. It’s nice to be back on Aruba. It just feels so comfortable here. I’m guessing it’s the familiarity of the place – we’ve been here so often, we know the streets, the beaches, the people. There are a lot of improvements going on – there is a nice new grocery store much closer to our condo. Several bad roads have been repaved. There is a big lovely looking hotel nearly completed, with a slightly Spanish style of architecture.
We also saw a number of Queen Triggerfish, my personal fave of all the fish we see. Pam took a great little movie of her, so you can see how she moves about with her flowing fins, lovely colors, and big eyes!
We had dinner in the condo tonight. It was a nice to have some home cooking after a solid week of restaurant food. And we found a package of our favorite Dutch cookies, speculaas with almonds. I had to drive to three grocery stores before I’d buy THE package – Pam kept saying, “These will be fine” and my reply was, “Not interested in Fine. Want the Best!”
Tuesday we went back to Boca Catalina, but the ocean was a little rougher than it has been, and so the visibility was not terrific. It was ok, just not great. We saw the usual suspects, and of course, our turtle friends made an appearance. The other turtle movie I put up was of a hawksbill, so today’s turtle movie is of a green turtle. He seems to have been in a playful mood, as he kept circling and coming back to the snorkelers.
The beaches have been “crowded”… just look at this picture! Where are we supposed to fit in? I mean really… I think there have been fewer people here this year. Perhaps it has to do with so many people recovering from Sandy’s path of destruction? Pam wants me to remind you that you can make any picture bigger, by clicking them with your mouse, even the larger pictures, like the one here of Boca Catalina Beach.
Here’s a nifty picture Pam took of me looking under a rocky shelf… I didn’t find any pirate treasure, but it never hurts to look.
This last picture is of a blue tang, in the intermediate phase. When he’s really small, he’s all yellow. When he’s in the intermediate phase, like here, he’s got a yellow tail. Full grown he’s all blue with just a small spot of yellow. This is not a big fish, he’s maybe two inches at the most. Full grown we’ve seen them up to fifteen or sixteen inches.
