On Friday, our last full day in Aruba, we split up the pack. Pete rented a jeep and toured the island with a local woman he met while at our first condo.

Pam, Mike and I were happy to see calm, clear oceans, so we headed north to the lighthouse, and Arashi beach. We had jumped in here early in the first week. The water is clear and calm and we saw some things we’d never seen before!

Tops on the list, was an octopus! Was that cool! Mike spotted him as he moved from the sand to over a rock and changed color from sandy white to a mottled kind of color matching the rocks. He was as tough to see initially as the scorpion fish. If you look at the enlarged picture, you’ll see his eye, and toward the center/right you’ll see one of his tentacles turned over, exposing his “suction cups.”

Some other intriguing fish we saw were the Queen Angelfish, a brilliantly colored fish that is on the cover of our “fish book” for identifying species. We’d never seen one in the ocean, and she was certainly worth the wait!

Also appearing was a lobster, a huge school of Caribbean reef squid, another Queen triggerfish, a smaller barracuda, and of course the French Angelfish.

By early afternoon. we’d tired ourselves out, so we decided to pack in a bit of shopping. Pam and I had been shopping for pinky rings, but had found nothing we really liked. We stumbled upon a nice small shop, A Touch of Gold, run by a nice family. Pam regaled them with her Punjabi swearing, and we had buckets of laughs with them.

It’s funny – you go into a jewellery store, tell them you are looking for a pinky ring, wanting to spend in the $500 range, and suddenly $1500-2500 rings are appearing. Nice – thanks for listening. I tell these guys what I wanted, and they show me 3 rings all under 600 bucks. Guess what? They got the sale! Then Pam started with her tales of Punjabi cussing, and suddenly she’s layered in gold! hah If we ever come back to Aruba, you can bet they’ll get a return visit from us!

Pam wanted another night in a casino, so we went over to the Seafront Casino. Nearby was a nice little shopping mall, open late. There we had dinner at a restaurant recommended by Linda earlier in the week, the Waterfront Crabhouse. Dinner was terrific! I had the same dinner I ordered at the disastrous Petit Cafe. The fish was PERFECTLY cooked, the shrimp were stunningly prepared and scallops a thing of beauty. A wonderful singer performed for us a few short steps away. The full moon was gorgeous; the stars twinkled merrily in the sky; sadness was in the air, but it was really a perfect finish to a really marvellous vacation.

I want to thank Pete and Mike for coming with us and joining in the fun. We had some fun times, some great meals, saw terrific vistas, met some great people, saw some amazing fish – all in all, just a great time.

Thanks Aruba. We’ll see you again some day!

(I’m going to post one more page of Aruban pics – of just the birds we saw. Some really cool birds make Aruba home – as you’ll see! )