Tag Archives: San Nicolas

Aruba, Vacations

Wednesday

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The exterior of Charlie's BarSorry, but I’m posting this on Saturday! We’ve been busy doing the tourist thing – shopping, laying on the beach, swimming, eating….

But Tuesday night there was a big tropical downpour, and it lasted almost 20 minutes! Man – talk about a deluge! It made the ocean kinda cloudy and the snorkeling wasn’t great, so we made the tour around the island again, catching Charlie’s Bar.

Sign in Charlie'sIt’s quite a place – it’s in the refinery town of San Nicolas and it’s worth the drive to experience the place. People from all over leave, or send, memorabilia and it’s quite the pile of stuff in there. Inside Charlie'sYou could spend three days just checking it out.

Charlie's bartenders.Unfortunately, we forgot our money, and we’d ordered and ate lunch and couldn’t pay so Charlie put us to work behind the bar for a couple hours.

We snorkelled Baby Beach again, but it was fairly cloudy from all the storm stirring things up.

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Cool fishYes Mike arrives today (Saturday) – we change condos, moving close to the beach this morning. Yes the camera we bought on the internet arrived the morning we left. Some pics on the site are from the new one. My Olympus died – got some water in it and that’s that. So – I bought the new model here, and we’ll have some pics from it up tomorrow – it’s a 10.1 megapixel camera, and can be underwater to 100 feet, versus only 10 feet from my other one.

I’ll have more to post today – Thursday we were on De Palm Island and it’s great – I’ll save the details for later.

OH – BTW – if you click the GALLERIES link on the top menu, you can select the Aruba gallery to see all the pics i’ve uploaded. Most I’ve put into posts, but some I didn’t. It’s a cool slideshow anyway…. (you can even make it full screen to view them in the slideshow.)

Aruba

If it’s Tuesday, it must be Baby Beach

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Southern Coast of ArubaYesterday we had explored the north side of the island, with the California Lighthouse. Today, (Tuesday) we took in the South End of the island, with the small town of San Nicolas which has an oil refinery. San Nicolas refineryI was under the impression the refinery had stopped producing in 1985, but it sure looked busy!

South coast wavesThe south coast sure takes a beating from the waves, and because of the volcanic nature of the island, the waves sculpt the earth with the constant pounding. There are rock formations, created that are almost works of art! There are a number of “bridges” around where the ocean has worn away the lower sections. One for which Aruba is/was famous for has collapsed.

GeckoMolting geckoThe undulating topography of Aruba is in stark contrast to the flatness of the Caymans. One could even say there is a mountain on this island! There are a number of cliffs where the views down into the crashing surf are quite amazing.

After chasing geckos and looking for places to shoot the surf, we took a dip in Baby Beach.

Baby BeachLotsa fish - Blue tangs etcIt’s a very busy beach, the most crowded I’ve ever seen down here! And it’s little wonder – there is a naturally protected bay, with beautiful white sand that is quite shallow. It is sandy for quite a while. As you get closer to where the ocean enters the bay, suddenly TONS of fish fill your space!

Needlefish? Maybe...The ocean rushes into the bay at the point, and comes over some very shallow areas. Stoplight parrot fishThe fish just sort of hang around the rushing water, and drift with the waves. The bad thing, is that the speed of the water stirs up the sand, and it creates a “haze” in the water that makes it tough to get a good clear shot.

We did see some cool fish – trumpetfish, houndfish, stoplight parrotfish, tons of stuff. We Fisheven saw a little trunkfish, but he took off before I could get his pic. There were a couple of houndfish, and either a needlefish or a ballyhoo.

My water baby...I’d read quite a bit about Baby beach, and people complained it was too crowded, too this or too that – take it from me – what Baby beach is, is a place to go for a cool swim, to see some cool fish, and to be with people. If you’re looking for a quiet place to get away, then this is not the beach to be!

Cool trumpetfishWe made our way back downtown and had dinner in an ultra cool restaurant called the Buccanneer. It’s made to resemble a sunken galleon in one dining room, with aquariums lining the walls. There are all sorts of cool memorabilia along the walls, too.

Buccaneer RestaurantThe other dining room is dominated by 7500 gallon tank with 3 large sea turtles! I want to swim with one of those suckers! They also had a couple of barracuda closed off from the main inhabitants of the big tank.

Definitely a nice finish to the day!

Barjack and a cuda Y-Knot Fishing
Aruba, Vacations

If it's Tuesday, it must be Baby Beach

4 Comments

San Nicolas refineryYesterday we had explored the north side of the island, with the California Lighthouse. Today, (Tuesday) we took in the South End of the island, with the small town of San Nicolas which has an oil refinery. I was under the impression the refinery had stopped producing in 1985, but it sure looked busy!
Gecko
The south coast sure takes a beating from the waves, and because of the volcanic nature of the island, the waves sculpt the earth with the constant pounding. There are rock formations, created that are almost works of art! There are a number of “bridges” around where the ocean has worn away the lower sections. One for which Aruba is/was famous for has collapsed.

Molting geckoThe undulating topography of Aruba is in stark contrast to the flatness of the Caymans. One could even say there is a mountain on this island! There are a number of cliffs where the views down into the crashing surf are quite amazing.

Baby BeachAfter chasing geckos and looking for places to shoot the surf, we took a dip in Baby Beach.

It’s a very busy beach, the most crowded I’ve ever seen down here! And it’s little wonder – there is a naturally protected bay, with beautiful white sand that is quite shallow. It is sandy for quite a while. As you get closer to where the ocean enters the bay, suddenly TONS of fish fill your space!

Lotsa fish - Blue tangs etcThe ocean rushes into the bay at the point, and comes over some very shallow areas. The fish just sort of hang around the rushing water, and drift with the waves. The bad thing, is that the speed of the water stirs up the sand, and it creates a “haze” in the water that makes it tough to get a good clear shot.

FishWe did see some cool fish – trumpetfish, houndfish, stoplight parrotfish, tons of stuff. We even saw a little trunkfish, but he took off before I could get his pic. There were a couple of houndfish, and either a needlefish or a ballyhoo.

My water baby...I’d read quite a bit about Baby Beach, and people complained it was too crowded, too this or too that – take it from me – what Baby Beach is, is a place to go for a cool swim, to see some cool fish, and to be with people. If you’re looking for a quiet place to get away, then this is not the beach to be!

Buccaneer RestaurantWe made our way back downtown and had dinner in an ultra cool restaurant called the Buccanneer. It’s made to resemble a sunken galleon in one dining room, with aquariums lining the walls. There are all sorts of cool memorabilia along the walls, too.

The other dining room is dominated by 7500 gallon tank with 3 large sea turtles! I want to swim with one of those suckers! They also had a couple of barracuda closed off from the main inhabitants of the big tank.

Definitely a nice finish to the day!

Barjack and a cuda Y-Knot Fishing