Tag Archives: Baby beach

Baby Beach

Big Mamas restaurantToday we headed to the south part of the island to check out Baby Beach. We basically have to drive the whole length of the island to get there, so it’s a nice way to see it all. There is some road construction going on, so there are a couple of detours. They added signs to make finding Baby Beach very easy. It used to be quite a challenge, but now anyone can find it. And it was quite crowded! Big Mama’s little food hut is now a very large restaurant, with big wooden chairs and tables – no longer the cheap folding lawn chairs stuck around a mobile kitchen.

Durgon They have added some buoys and markers to warn people about different water depths, and riptides. Well, today they did not need any of them. The water was calmer than I’ve ever seen it there. We could easily exit the bay, and get into the open ocean. Usually you have to swim like a maniac to get through the channel, but today the ocean had hardly a ripple. It was really amazing to see how many black durgons were out there! WOW. Literally hundreds of them out there! TriggerThere was also a very pretty Queen Triggerfish swimming with them. (The black durgon is a type of triggerfish.)

Cool coral, Baby BeachBaby Beach is really three swimming sites in one. The “Baby” part is a beautiful white sandy bay, with water barely waist deep. There are no rocks on the bottom, so it’s just terrific if you want to wander around the warm water, splashing and having fun. It’s very popular with families, since kids can easily have a great time in the shallow water and soft sand.

Snorkeler PamThe second part is the channel, where tons of fish like to hang out. It’s where 99% of the snorkelers go. And with good reason. You get to see most everything the Aruban waters have to offer, from large barracuda to the smaller damselfish.

Yellowtail snapperThen there is the northern portion of the bay with enormous coral formations and larger fish. For some reason, most snorkelers never head over there. It’s my favorite part though! The coral is just enormous, as big as the formations at the Seaquarium on Curacao. Baby Beach was quite crowded, but just Pam and I and one other snorkeler was on this side.

Small4EyePam has taken lots of videos of lots of kinds of fish. I’m going to include a couple in this post, so you can see various fish we’ve posted pictures of, actually swimming! This one is of a couple of foureye butterflyfish. Normally, they swim in pairs, but often there will be more, with a young one. This video is cool since it shows a pair, joined by a little tiny guy.

DamselfishDamselfish, Baby BeachThese two shots are of the same fish, called the yellowtail damselfish. The blue one is the female, and the primarily yellow one is the courting male.

The Spanish hogfish is a favorite of Pam. The split colors are nice to look at, and no two hogfish have the same split in colors. This one has quite a dark yellow; some are much brighter in color.


Wild Donkeys, ArubaTo reach Baby Beach, you have to cross a section of scrub land – wild desert, with huge cactus. And several roads traverse this way and that, on which you need a four wheel drive. There is a lot of animal life, if you have sharp eyes. On the way out, we saw a “herd” of the famous wild donkeys. It’s not often you get to spot them!

 

Baby Beach

Baby BeachWe avoided the Boxing Day sales by heading to Baby Beach! Hope you didn’t get crushed in the rush!

Baby Beach has been evolving every year, and this year is no different. They have been adding palapas all along the cove, and there are two snack shacks, and a souvenir vendor who also sells fish food, and snorkel gear. The water itself was different too!

Lotsa fish! They call it “Baby Beach” because it is a protected cove, with very shallow water, over a white sandy bottom. It’s very easy to get into the water, and the shallow portion goes out quite a ways. It’s always a crowded beach, with lots of families. Once you’ve moved out into the deeper water, there is a channel that opens to the ocean, and that channel is full of fish. The picture here is of the numerous types of fish that inhabit the channel. The current is very strong there, and you have to be a pretty good swimmer to battle up the current.

Coral at Baby BeachOnce you are past the first narrows, there are awsome coral formations, inhabited by large black durgons, and huge parrot fish, and lots of other fish too of course. It’s difficult to get good pictures there, because the waves come crashing over the coral, and send everyone for a ride. The crashing waves stir up the water, and make it impossible to get a decent shot.

Yellowtail SnapperWhen you head back into the protected cove, and swim to the opposite end of where you enter the water, there are terrific coral formations, too. We had not really swam to that end before, so were quite surprised by the range of coral formations! We met this rather large fish, about thirty inches or maybe even three feet, who we think is a yellowtail snapper. He was totally fascinated by us.
Juvenile tangHe followed us for the next half hour or more! It was really quite hysterical. He’d follow us, and when we turned to look at him, he’d nip behind a chunk of rock or coral.

Four eyed angel fishBack at the timeshare, we had a drink at Happy Hour – called a Hurricane. It’s made with a pina colada mix, rum, blue curacao and grenadine – looks very colorful and it’s very good! Couple of those, and time for a nap in the sun!

Tuesday ramblings

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.

Tuesday at Baby Beach

Black durgonWe took a drive to the beach, and things seemed to be calming down, so we drove down to the south of the island to Baby Beach. It’s always been a great place to snorkel, with a man made barrier that creates a bowl of calm water, that is never over five feet deep.

ParrotfishWell, it was a great decision! The water was clear, and there were just tons of fish to see! We were very surprised how good it was. The water levels are high, and we were able to easily go further out than we ever have before. We saw all the usual suspects, chubs, yellow tail snapper, parrot fish, blennies, damsel fish, Sgt Majors, plus durgons, Caribbean reef squid and many others.

SquidI took a few nice movies, that I think are worth taking a look at…

They are in high def, so I think they give a better feel of what it is like to be in the ocean here in Aruba. The first movie is of the Caribbean Reef Squid. They hang out in schools, and there were about eight or ten of them together. They communicate with each other by changing color. They are pretty shy, and move off when you get too close to them.

This movie is of a Black Durgon, a type of triggerfish. It is quite a dark fish, but it does have some yellow around its eyes. I like the way to moves, quite graceful.

TrumpetfishThis last movie is a little longer, but I was just drifting along a rocky ledge. When I paused, you can see several fish coming up to the camera. The smallish darker colored fish that is quite aggressive is called a Damselfish. He is the most aggressive – and will often nip at you! haha Delusions of grandeur I guess – or maybe a shark in a previous life!

Just a reminder about the photos: if you click on the GALLERIES link at the top of any page, you will see a new Gallery called Aruba 2010 – that has all the pictures from our trip this year. I have not referenced all the pictures in the blog posts. As of today there are 13 pictures in the gallery, but I have referenced only 10 in the posts. So if you want to see more pics, then head to the Aruba 2010 Gallery.

Tuesday at Baby Beach

Black durgonWe took a drive to the beach, and things seemed to be calming down, so we drove down to the south of the island to Baby Beach. It’s always been a great place to snorkel, with a man made barrier that creates a bowl of calm water, that is never over five feet deep.

ParrotfishWell, it was a great decision! The water was clear, and there were just tons of fish to see! We were very surprised how good it was. The water levels are high, and we were able to easily go further out than we ever have before. We saw all the usual suspects, chubs, yellow tail snapper, parrot fish, blennies, damsel fish, Sgt Majors, plus durgons, Caribbean reef squid and many others.

SquidI took a few nice movies, that I think are worth taking a look at…

They are in high def, so I think they give a better feel of what it is like to be in the ocean here in Aruba. The first movie is of the Caribbean Reef Squid. They hang out in schools, and there were about eight or ten of them together. They communicate with each other by changing color. They are pretty shy, and move off when you get too close to them.

This movie is of a Black Durgon, a type of triggerfish. It is quite a dark fish, but it does have some yellow around its eyes. I like the way to moves, quite graceful.

TrumpetfishThis last movie is a little longer, but I was just drifting along a rocky ledge. When I paused, you can see several fish coming up to the camera. The smallish darker colored fish that is quite aggressive is called a Damselfish. He is the most aggressive – and will often nip at you! haha Delusions of grandeur I guess – or maybe a shark in a previous life!

Just a reminder about the photos: if you click on the GALLERIES link at the top of any page, you will see a new Gallery called Aruba 2010 – that has all the pictures from our trip this year. I have not referenced all the pictures in the blog posts. As of today there are 13 pictures in the gallery, but I have referenced only 10 in the posts. So if you want to see more pics, then head to the Aruba 2010 Gallery.

Tuesday at Baby Beach

Black durgonWe took a drive to the beach, and things seemed to be calming down, so we drove down to the south of the island to Baby Beach. It’s always been a great place to snorkel, with a man made barrier that creates a bowl of calm water, that is never over five feet deep.

Parrotfish Well, it was a great decision! The water was clear, and there were just tons of fish to see! We were very surprised how good it was. The water levels are high, and we were able to easily go further out than we ever have before. We saw all the usual suspects, chubs, yellow tail snapper, parrot fish, blennies, damsel fish, Sgt Majors, plus durgons, Caribbean reef squid and many others.

SquidI took a few nice movies, that I think are worth taking a look at…

They are in high def, so I think they give a better feel of what it is like to be in the ocean here in Aruba. The first movie is of the Caribbean Reef Squid. They hang out in schools, and there were about eight or ten of them together. They communicate with each other by changing color. They are pretty shy, and move off when you get too close to them.

This movie is of a Black Durgon, a type of triggerfish. It is quite a dark fish, but it does have some yellow around its eyes. I like the way to moves, quite graceful.

TrumpetfishThis last movie is a little longer, but I was just drifting along a rocky ledge. When I paused, you can see several fish coming up to the camera. The smallish darker colored fish that is quite aggressive is called a Damselfish. He is the most aggressive – and will often nip at you! haha Delusions of grandeur I guess – or maybe a shark in a previous life!

Just a reminder about the photos: if you click on the GALLERIES link at the top of any page, you will see a new Gallery called Aruba 2010 – that has all the pictures from our trip this year. I have not referenced all the pictures in the blog posts. As of today there are 13 pictures in the gallery, but I have referenced only 10 in the posts. So if you want to see more pics, then head to the Aruba 2010 Gallery.

Tuesday at Baby Beach

Black durgonWe took a drive to the beach, and things seemed to be calming down, so we drove down to the south of the island to Baby Beach. It’s always been a great place to snorkel, with a man made barrier that creates a bowl of calm water, that is never over five feet deep.

ParrotfishWell, it was a great decision! The water was clear, and there were just tons of fish to see! We were very surprised how good it was. The water levels are high, and we were able to easily go further out than we ever have before. We saw all the usual suspects, chubs, yellow tail snapper, parrot fish, blennies, damsel fish, Sgt Majors, plus durgons, Caribbean reef squid and many others.

SquidI took a few nice movies, that I think are worth taking a look at…

They are in high def, so I think they give a better feel of what it is like to be in the ocean here in Aruba. The first movie is of the Caribbean Reef Squid. They hang out in schools, and there were about eight or ten of them together. They communicate with each other by changing color. They are pretty shy, and move off when you get too close to them.

This movie is of a Black Durgon, a type of triggerfish. It is quite a dark fish, but it does have some yellow around its eyes. I like the way to moves, quite graceful.

TrumpetfishThis last movie is a little longer, but I was just drifting along a rocky ledge. When I paused, you can see several fish coming up to the camera. The smallish darker colored fish that is quite aggressive is called a Damselfish. He is the most aggressive – and will often nip at you! haha Delusions of grandeur I guess – or maybe a shark in a previous life!

Just a reminder about the photos: if you click on the GALLERIES link at the top of any page, you will see a new Gallery called Aruba 2010 – that has all the pictures from our trip this year. I have not referenced all the pictures in the blog posts. As of today there are 13 pictures in the gallery, but I have referenced only 10 in the posts. So if you want to see more pics, then head to the Aruba 2010 Gallery.