seahorse | Snorkeling the ABC Islands

Going to just add a short note to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We’ve been busy here hitting the beaches everyday with Mike in town, and we might not get a break to post something on Christmas Day so I wanted to put one in today! Having an early Christmas wish is ok, it will help you as you rush to finish all your shopping. In Curacao, we do Christmas trees differently – the picture on the right is a stack of Christmas tree worms on a piece of coral.

We got to Kokomo Beach yesterday (it’s just a short 5 minute drive from where we live) and had a great snorkel. They’ve added a swing set – in the water. A great way to cool off after a session in the hot sun.

Kokomo Beach has a lot of great coral to snorkel over, and there’s always some fun fish to see. Today was no exception as we got to see a little seahorse holding on to a little tiny sprout of coral.

Hope you all have a great Christmas and Sinter Klaus brings you everything you could hope for, including warm weather, sunny skies and beautiful blue oceans to swim in!

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope Santa brought you everything you wished for, and then some! He sure did here in Aruba! Today was dead calm, so we decided to go back to Mangel Halto. Because it is the best coral reef on the island, it’s where you want to be if the weather permits, and Santa delivered.

When we got to Mangel Halto, the water was the calmest I’ve seen any Aruban water. Completely flat, with next to no movement! Unreal – so we suited up and jumped in. We literally did not have to swim; a small kick of the fins was more than enough to move around. We got to explore the reef like never before.

Lots of fish to see and watch. The best thing we saw is one that has eluded us everywhere we’ve been. We saw a seahorse! Yep, first time ever, in any water. Very very cool. They look so frail, easily blown by the barest shimmer of a wave. That will be a highlight of this trip, and something Pam will talk about over and over, I’m sure!

There were some octopus we saw in the very shallow part of the reef and it was cool to see him use his jet propulsion close up like that.

We saw a fish called a butter hamlet, something we rarely see. This might be only the second or third time we’ve seen a hamlet, but the first time for this type. It’s always cool to see new fish, even after hundreds of snorkeling trips!

We decided to eat out tonight – give the cook a break, and all that. We went to the Chinese place called New Wei Tai and it was pretty good. Service was good, even though the place had a very large party going on. A nice way to end the evening.