Category Archives: Aruba

Visits to the island of Aruba

Lazy days

December 19, 2013 Maurice 1 Comment

The last couple of days have been sun and sand. We’ve gone to the beach, done some snorkeling, had dinner and basically taken it easy. As Mike likes to say, “we’re on vacation!”

Wednesday was kind of cool. Pam and I swam out to the turtle grass near Boca Catalina and saw a couple of turtles (naturally!) but while swimming a little further south we saw a stingray. Now that’s something we’ve never seen in Aruban waters! That was quite cool. Our pictures didn’t turn out that well, but I’ve put a little movie here so you can see him.

On Tuesday we saw another giant “bait ball” – a large school of fish with about a billion fish in it. There were several ceros running herd on it, moving it north. Pelicans swooped in for a tasty morsel every now and then, and you had to be careful to get out of their way. Mike nailed a couple of shots of a wily seagull catching a ride, then a snack from the pelican!

We took another drive up to the California Lighthouse to snap some sunset shots, but it was spectacularly lame! So we took a couple panoramas and called it a night. I like this one of the lighthouse with a big billowing cloud. And of course Pam likes the silhouette one of the palm trees. Maybe we need to have a vote??

Some of the local guys hanging around the pool at Caribbean Palm Village don’t even wear a suit! (Some of the guys wearing speedos you wish they had bought boogie shorts instead but…) Here is one of Pam’s favorite locals.

It’s been interesting on this side of the resort. The pool has been less crowded, I guess because it’s a bit smaller. But it’s also been a bit louder, since this is the side where the daily games are played. Still been nice, but I kinda miss “our side” of the place!

Aruba, Vacations

Nice day in Aruba

December 17, 2013 Maurice 1 Comment

I really like this picture Pam took of the beach at Boca Catalina. Nicely framed with the palapa, looking out over the ocean, it’s a keeper.
We picked up Mike from the airport on Sunday and had a quick little swim in the ocean. We had an all you can eat rib fest at the Sweet Peppers restaurant attached to our resort here. The ribs were nice, but the service was not great. They automatically add fifteen percent to the bill for a tip, so that often translates into mediocre service, and Sunday was no exception.

On Monday, we headed over to Boca to see if we could spot some turtles, and it was a turtle party! Seemed every where we turned, there were more turtles. That was nice. But the real unusual thing Pam saw was the color change on a porgy. They are usually a pale silver color, with a jolt of yellow across their head. Well she spotted this unusually colored fish, and thought she’d seen a new fish. She flicked on her camera and watched in amazement as the fish changed color back into a porgy – or stayed a porgy and cycled its color? Or was it a porgy with a new suit? Either way, pretty neat stuff. Turns out they change color when feeding, so Pam showed up at dinner time.

The visibility was quite good, and the surf was not really crashing so it was a nice swim. We can always tell how good the visibility will be almost the minute we enter the water. There is a school of fish who hang around the entrance to the water called a palometa. They are very silvery, and hard to see if the water is not clear. Here is a picture we took of one, so you can tell it was darned clear!

Aruba, Vacations

Short little post

December 15, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

We had a nice short snorkel. We got in at Malmok Beach since Maurice can’t swim long before he tires. Pam has been nervous about getting in here, but she found that it wasn’t as bad as she remembered. It’s sandy, but only for a very specific pathway! The water was not super clear, until we got a little ways out.

Below is a short movie of a couple of crazy French Angelfish. They kept coming right up to our faces! Pam even reached out and touched them, and they didn’t take off in a huff. Quite silly these two.

Here is another video I compiled of various videos we had laying about from our snorkeling. I’ve chopped out some sections of lots of different videos. It’s a first attempt at a lot of clips, so it’s not that great of an editing job, but it gives you an idea of the various things we might see on a single one hour session in the ocean.

We saw a few turtles on the 14th, and the video contains a brief view of one of the bigger greens. There is also a short piece that has a couple of porcupine fish, and some other fish. It starts with a brief bit of an octopus, changing color as we move the camera close to him.

Aruba, Vacations

Short snorkel, big casino

December 13, 2013 Maurice 4 Comments

We had a nice little snorkel. We got in the water at Boca Catalina, but I had to get out at Malmok. Just couldn’t stay in too long. We saw some nice fish. The visibility was pretty good. I have purchased a “red color filter” that is supposed to make underwater pictures better, but so far all we’ve noticed is that my pictures are just yellow!
We had dinner in again, and then headed over to the little casino at La Cabana resort. Last year, it gave us lots of play for the money, and last night was no different. Lots of play and Pam hit a nice little bonus of a couple hundred dollars. Can’t complain about coming home from a casino with more money than you went in with!

We’ve been pretty laid back here – fitting into the island vibe nicely. Only thing we’ve bought is a couple of Hawaiian shirts for me. Oh, and of course we had to get a string of Christmas lights to jazz up our unit’s window!

The picture to the right is of the pool out front of our unit. We are facing “Pool One” this year, so a little different vibe over here.

Aruba

Return to the “Lighthouse”

December 12, 2013 Maurice 2 Comments

We had a really nice swim yesterday. The clarity was the best we’ve had so far. We swam over to the turtle grass just off of Boca Catalina and saw a pair of turtles gnawing on the grass. Then there was another just a few feet away, then another…. All in all we spotted five turtles! Quite a collection for the first good day of snorkeling.

We saw lots of the regular fish, and since we’ve posted many shots of the same fish over and over, I thought we’d cut you guys some slack and not post any shots of fish! We kept our swim short – don’t want to over do it. Still feeling wonky.

We had a nice dinner in and then headed down to San Nicolas to see the famed “Lighthouse” in all its glory. And wow, did it live up to the billing. There are a TON of lights. Lots of people were coming by, and tons of people were wandering around the site. Music was playing, food was being served – it was really festive!

The Lourdes Grotto was also lit up, but not quite as many lights as at the Light House. Still, pretty impressive display there as well. I really like the way they have covered the tree trunks in lights. Really sets off the displays. I’ll have to steal that idea next year on our display!

We have a movie, but the internet connection is not great here, and I’m struggling trying to get it uploaded – if it ever does, it will show up at the bottom of this post!

Aruba, Vacations

Return to the Lighthouse

December 12, 2013 Maurice 2 Comments

We have a movie, but the internet connection is not great here, and I’m struggling trying to get it uploaded – if it ever does, it will show up at the bottom of this post!

Aruba, Vacations

Do you hate Mondays?

December 10, 2013 Maurice 1 Comment

The waves were still high, so we decided to see a couple of things we’ve never seen on Aruba. We drove south to San Nicolas in search of the Lourdes Grotto. It’s a religious shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It’s in the hills above San Nicolas. It’s all decorated in lights this time of year for Christmas, so we’ll definitely have to take a drive back in the evening sometime.

Close by, there is what looks like a magnificent church. It turns out to be an artificial house constructed to be a “lighthouse” as one of the locals told us. She insisted we MUST come back at night in order to see it. She said it was most beautiful.

We took a drive over to the east coast to watch the kite surfers get pounded by the surf. We have a short movie showing one guy taking a face plant into the ocean.

Roger’s Beach is a small not very busy beach, just north of Baby Beach. The snorkeling is never very good there, but it’s a long sandy beach, just right for sun tanning.

In the evening, we took a drive up to the California Lighthouse to check out the sunset. Pam loves the palm trees silhouetted against the evening sky. The sunset was really golden this evening. Usually it’s got a red, red glow, but today it was golden!