California Lighthouse | Snorkeling the ABC Islands

We picked up Mike from the airport on Saturday evening. He’s darned pale! haha Being new to the vacation thing, he wanted to watch a hockey game… (He’s confused – we’ll get him relaxed soon enough….)

So Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast by the pool. Then we decided to take him up north to the California Lighthouse and do a bit of snorkeling nearby. Note the size of those coffee cups! Pam felt they were a little too small, mind you!

We stopped at the flea market to grab a t-shirt or two and some shorts for Mike…. Well – we kinda hit a bit of weather! Aruba typically gets 20 inches of rain a year – and we got about 10 inches in this downpour! Too funny – Mike’s first day on the island and we get rained on!

We made it to the California Lighthouse, and the sun came out and it was lovely for the rest of the day. How about this flower? This was taken with the new camera’s “Super Macro” mode – not to be confused with “macro” mode…. Not sure of the name of the flower, but it was around the restaurant at the base of the Lighthouse.

Then we hit the beach. And did we pick a great spot! Some terrific fish to see and tons of stuff to see. Even the odd piece of coral! Mike is now hooked. He said, forget the shopping, let’s get right back to the ocean!

We had dinner in a nice beach side restaurant called Tulips. Pam and I had a local Aruban dish called Keshi Yena, a baked chicken dish with tomato sauce and cheese. It was sensational. The flavor was amazing. I’ll definitely be ordering that the next time I see it on the menu.

Today – Sunday – we spent some time in the water, and some time doing a little exploring. We headed north to the California Lighthouse, but stopped for a swim at Malmok beach. The water was good and clear today, and we saw a number of fish we had not seen in the Caymans.

The water seems a tad cooler to me, than last year in the Caymans – not that it is difficult to get in or anything – it’s still warm enough to walk right in, but I do think it’s cooler. Some of the fish seem bigger too. The ubiquitous Sergeant Major seems to be fatter here! Maybe more tourists feed them! hah

After about 90 minutes in the water, we headed to the California Lighthouse for a beer and a rest. The view from here is pretty good. Aruba is not as flat as the Caymans, but it’s not like it has towering peaks, either!

After our rest, we headed back into the ocean at Arashi beach. It was a little rocky getting in, but man, was it worth it! We saw some Carribbean reef squid – very cool looking beasties that travel in schools of 20 or more. Big eyes and kinda alien looking. We also saw what we initially thought was a sea snake of some sort, but turned out to be a type of eel.

The coolest thing tho, was seeing some French Angelfish! In the Caymans, we bought a photo by a local favorite diver/photographer of the French Angelfish, but we never actually saw it in the water. Here in Aruba, we’ve seen at least a half dozen already.

For dinner, we headed to the Amazonia Churrascaria (steakhouse). It was quite an experience. There are no menus – they start you off with a big salad bar, and some pumpkin soup. Then they give you a little wooden peg, painted red and green. Put the green side up, and you’re going to get meat! They bring around meat, meat and more meat skewered on swords – if you want some, he cuts you off some. There was steak, and porterhouse, and filet, beef roasts, pork roasts, chicken, sausages, lamb…. you name it, it was there! Quite an experience!

Then we came home and lounged in the swimming pool and hot tub for a while. We ended the evening listening to some karaoke in the pool bar. It was lots of fun, with some real talent there… Simon Cowell better get his butt down to Aruba!