Category Archives: Aruba

Visits to the island of Aruba

Aruba, Vacations

Friday is for relaxing

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Christmas in ArubaFriday morning we had a swim at Nikky’s beach, which is the beach closest to the airport. It’s not quite like Maho on St. Maarten, but it’s a nice sandy beach. The sand is powdery soft! But there was very little to see in the way of fish. There was the odd French Grunt, and a couple of barracuda, but that was about it. It was really too sandy for most fish.

Boxfish and Damselfish We had lunch then spent an hour or so in at Boca Catalina. It was nice, saw a few unusual fish. There was also a really tiny little box fish, about one inch long. He was chased by a damselfish, and the damsel is no longer than tow inches. The picture shows them going toe to toe! Cute.

Blue damselThe picture of the fish with an orange back, and bright blue spots on him is about one half an inch long! He’s notoriously hard to get a shot of, because he’s so quick. He won’t stay still for a second. He usually is hanging around spiny urchins, so it makes it even tougher to get a shot, since you don’t want to be touching a spiny urchin!

Juvenile triggerfish A really nice triggerfish was the highlight for me, though. I can’t get enough of this fish. They have amazing color, and they move so gracefully through the water. This one was around a large rock. I would dive down, and wait for him to circle around the rock. I got a couple of him, almost looking startled!

This is a short movie of some French Angels hanging around some other fish. It will give you an idea of how large the Angels can be…

Spotfin butterflyfishThis evening we moved to the last timeshare on this trip, the Renaissance, in downtown Oranjestad. It’s a more upscale place than either Caribbean Palm Village or Paradise Beach Villas. It has two humongous swimming pools, one with a swim up bar. It also has a private island, just for guests of the hotel. There is a free water shuttle taxi that leaves every fifteen minutes. We’re going to be trying that out, you can be sure!

Juvenile triggerfishWe checked in late, so we really haven’t done anything here yet. Last night we checked out the local casino. I have to say, that’s the most play I’ve had in a casino for a long long time. I spent only forty dollars, for the whole evening, so that’s almost like winning!

Tiny trunkfish UPDATE: Discovered that wifi is seventy dollars a week! An outrageous fee, considering that Wifi Aruba charges thirty five a week. There is no wifi available in our room, you can only access the net using a network cable! How old school is that? The lobby is filled with people with laptops perched on their laps. Absolutely ridiculous. I take back that comment I made about this being an upscale hotel! It’s about as backward as they come.

Aruba, Vacations

Swimming about

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Pirate shipWe had a relaxing day today. A short little swim at the beach where we encountered the large bait ball a few days ago. The pelicans were still there, maybe even more! The bait ball was still there, but seemed smaller than before, maybe my imagination.

Blue striped gruntWe swam further north that we had the other day, and encountered a really cool environment. It was quite a bit different than anything we’d seen on Aruba. It seemed more rugged, less spoiled. I think it’s because there is really no easy beach access. We had to swim quite a ways to get to it from our entry point.

Parrotfish We saw some neat fish here. There was another HUGE school of Caribbean reef squid, probably the largest we’ve seen yet. I think we’ve seen more squid this trip than all the others combined.

There was a strange pink/red parrotfish which we can’t find in our books. She had blue lips, and blue markings over a mostly pink body. She was not shy and was completely unconcerned about us diving around her trying to get a good photo. I’m sure it’s not a mature fish yet, so she’s going to be even more colorful when full grown.

Needlefish There was a huge school of needlefish, which seemed to be taking the place of the palomettos of the other day. That is, they circled the bait ball, keeping it tight together, while diving in for a snack whenever they wanted. These fish swim within a couple of inches of the top of the ocean, hardly ever going deeper than a foot. Cool looking fish, and there were some quite large ones here too.

Striped gruntThere were lots of schools of grunts, and snapper just drifting on the waves. We saw a couple of big barjacks, and Pam saw a couple larger fish, perhaps a Cero. They move so fast it’s almost impossible to get a picture unless you have your camera on, and pointed in their direction.

LobsterThere were lots and lots of lobster. Must have been a party, because we could have fed half of Aruba with all the lobster there! Seemed every rock that had a shelf under it had a couple lobster hiding under it.

Here is a short movie of the pelicans diving into the bait ball. The seagulls land on their heads, and sometimes reach inside the pelican’s pouch, looking for tidbits! It’s pretty funny to see, actually.

Aruba, Vacations

Like, wow, eh?

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Boca Catalina BeachToday was a unique swim, to say the least. The weather was gorgeous and hot, and we had slept in a little. Squirrel fishWe decided to head to our favorite place, with a nice easy entrance to the ocean, Boca Catalina. All the snorkel operators stop by here, since it really is a great place to see lots of different kind of fish.

Couple of lobsterWe worked our way north, stopping off at the rock we have seen the triggerfish twice before, and while there was no triggerfish in sight, a couple lobster had made a home under the rock. The rock is very low so my pictures didn’t turn out too well – an unfortunate precursor of the day, I’m afraid. We watched a large school of squid lazily drifting with the waves, then headed over to the main reef.

Bloody big fish Suddenly, every fish in the ocean goes flashing by us in a panic – all headed one way, and FAST. Now, we know that means a big predator has arrived, and it’s usually a couple of barjacks. What was unusual this time is that ALL the fish took off – not just the small ones, even the large parrotfish took off. Now that WAS unusual. I turned to look at what was causing it, and saw two of the biggest barjacks I’ve ever seen. The book says they max out at two and half feet, and these were easily that size. Big deal eh? Yeah, well, their traveling companion was TWICE their size! It is easily the largest fish I’ve seen in the ocean! IT WAS HUGE! I got two shots of it, but for some reason, they both came out very blue. Take a look at that picture and keep in mind that the fish on the left, and the upper right were both very large barjacks, at least two and a half feet. That makes that fat bugger in the middle at least five feet long! And look how thick he is! That was one big fish. Pretty cool experience!

Octopus After they left, we almost immediately found an octopus. It’s the first one we’ve seen on this trip, so we hung around for a bit. He seemed agitated and was moving constantly around the rock. Suddenly he went into an almost dance, his tentacles going crazy. We realized he was grabbing onto a scallop and ripping it open for lunch! That was pretty cool – haven’t seen an octopus do that, except on National Geographic.

The first part of this movie is a bit jerky, since I swallowed a big gulp of sea water and had to turn over to spit it out! So I lose the octopus for a bit, but bear with it – it’s pretty cool, even if a bit jerky.

Along the main reef we saw lots of French Angels, and today we saw all three stages of this cool looking fish. In the juvenile stage he is pretty much black with prominent yellow stripes. As a teenager, he has some yellow stripes, and some of his body is covered with yellow dashes. Then as an adult he’s all yellow dashes, with no stripes.

French angel, juvenile French angel, transitional French angel, adult

Cool fish!

Just one more of the octopus. In this one, I approach him and he retreats into a tiny little crevice. The closer I get, the more he retreats.

Octopus in the garden Small octopus Good sized octopus Octopus
Aruba, Vacations

Tuesday ramblings

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Baby beach sceneryWe had two nice swims at Malmok Beach and Baby Beach in the last couple of days. But there are a couple of things that are kind of bothering me. First, I simply do not understand this predilection with feeding the fish! In fact, it drives me crazy! In Canada recently, some tourists were fined for feeding wild animals. It is possible to get up to a $100,000 fine. It’s a dangerous practice to feed wild ANYTHING. I just don’t get it.

Barracuda I don’t like the way the fish act when this occurs. They get almost rabid, circling around, snapping and generally acting like animals! The problem I see is that this will encourage larger fish to see this as an opportunity to gobble up the smaller ones, and if a barracuda decided to strike, someone’s arm might get in the way. Barracuda are a nasty looking fish, but there has never been a recorded instance of them attacking humans directly. Humans have been bitten by barracuda, but only because they get in the way of them feeding. They circle near the bottom of the ocean, spying prey above them, as their eyes are in the top of their head. When they see something tasty, they can strike very, very quickly. If your arm gets between them and their prey, they’ll lay a chomp into you. So by feeding the fish, you’re covering yourself with barracuda dinner. And you could wind up the appetizer.

Juvenile blue parrotfish The other thing is the way people seem to think that coral is a chair in the ocean for them to stand on! Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve seen people standing on the coral. This will kill the coral. The more tour operators bring boat loads of people to great snorkel locations, the more beat up it gets. I’ve been on only one boat snorkel adventure, and that was on Grand Cayman. The operator was very clear that we should never stand on, or touch the coral. There is also a possibility that if you stand on the wrong coral, you’re going to get some nasty reaction. Fire coral for instance, will give you a nasty rash, and drive you crazy with itching. Some people even have allergic reactions, which can cause anaphylactic shock. So I don’t know if people are not being told by these operators, or if they are just ignoring what they’ve been told.

What ever the reason, just stop! Stop feeding the fish. Stop standing on coral. Stop being a bad tourist! respect the world around you, and it will last longer.

Aruba, Vacations

Swimming with turtles

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Boca catalinaMonday we headed out to Boca Catalina beach. The weather was amazing, sunny and calm. As we approached the beach, we noticed a lot of snorkelers in the water. And with good reason! The water clarity was the best we’ve had so far. Green Turtle Near the shore, it is quite sandy so it was a little cloudy, but once out about 15-20 feet you could see for miles! We got some really amazing shots. It was hard to pick just a few for the blog!

Here is a movie of what we think is a green turtle. I’m including both movies I took, Just Because it is so awesome to swim with these dudes! The Red Sail snorkelers had gone right over the top of him and missed him. I saw the guy, took a few pictures, then dove down hoping he’d some up for a swim. Green turtleWell, he didn’t disappoint us! One of the girls from the Red Sail group couldn’t stop giggling with glee when she saw him. Lucky for them, Pam called them back for the view!

Queen triggerfishWe also saw so many Queen Triggerfish I can’t believe it! It’s a fish I just love! It’s so elegant in the water, with such amazing colors and patterns. I’m posting pictures of two in particular, an adult one, and a juvenile one. Queen triggerfish The juvenile one has a more delicate color, almost lavender, and she was about eight inches. The larger one is a deeper blue, with darker colors on her facial features. She was well over a foot, maybe eighteen inches. They are usually tough to get a picture of, because they swim away from you, but the little one in particular let me take a lot of pictures of her.

I was busy taking pictures of a French Angel, when Pam said to me, “Are you taking pictures of the Angel, or the scorpionfish?” I hadn’t even seen the scorpionfish! And this brief movie will show you why it’s so hard to see them! He’s laying right on the shelf and looks like the rocks and coral he’s around!

French angel The picture of the French Angel is kind of remarkable too. Usually they swim away from you too. They just don’t like you pointing a camera at them. This particular Angel kept coming right up to us, approaching within three or four inches! The sun hit her at a remarkable angle, and made her gleam and glint with amazing sparkles. I really like this picture!

Barjack Another shot I managed to get was of a barjack. These fish are tremendously fast swimmers, and come shooting across the reef, usually in small schools, but sometimes they are alone. The other fish scatter in their path, because they are predators, using their speed to snatch the unwary. This jack was very large, and paused right beneath us, allowing me to snap this shot.

Caribbean reef squidWe saw a large school of Caribbean Reef Squid, maybe the largest we’ve seen. Usually these fish will move away when you get too close, but again, they just hung around. Not sure what it was about today, maybe all the great sunny weather made them lazy! Anyway, here’s a brief movie of them just hanging around. Interesting colors on them in this movie.

Turtle
Aruba, Curacao, Vacations

Back in Aruba

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Winging itWe flew back to Aruba on Saturday. We were sad to leave Curacao. It was a nice week. We saw several new beaches, lots of new fish, a wild boar and her babies, and we had a spectacular swim on the Friday through the coral forest. That swim is a memory that will stick with us forever. We’re already making plans to come back next year, so we can explore it even more!

Aruba from the air The flight out of Curacao was on time, and arrived ahead of schedule. It’s a great little flight using Insel Air. The only real drawback is the “departure tax” the government charges. It was $32.00 each, and that was about one quarter the cost of the flight! Too funny… but like Jorge says, “Everybody’s gotta have a job!”

We arrived in Aruba at 1:30 in the afternoon, grabbed our car and checked into our new timeshare, the Paradise Beach Villas. This is a new condo for us and it’s quite nice. It’s right across the street from Eagle Beach, a fabulous Renaiissance Islandswimming beach. We got our room right away, and went and lay in the sun for a while, sampling the hot tub and the two free form swimming pools. Of course, happy hour starts at three, so that’s a great bonus!

Here is a brief movie of the plane we flew over on… we were in the BACK seat! ALL the passengers were in front of us, so you can see it was a packed flight! haha

=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnrkiHyXx10

Turtle
Aruba, Vacations

Saturday is school day!

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Pair of TrunkfishFriday 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. Face on 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 Alto Vista Chapel 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.

Alto Vista ChapelWe 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.

Around the cornerWe 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. Riding shotgun

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.

BallyhooThe 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.