We slept in late and had a leisurely look around the island. We drove up north, down south, east and west and saw lots of new stuff sprouting up everywhere. Lots of new Continue reading Monday musings
Monday musings
Tag Archives: sunset
Do you hate Mondays?
The waves were still high, so we decided to see a couple of things we’ve never seen on Aruba. We drove south to San Nicolas in search of the Lourdes Grotto. It’s a religious shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It’s in the hills above San Nicolas. It’s all decorated in lights this time of year for Christmas, so we’ll definitely have to take a drive back in the evening sometime.
Close by, there is what looks like a magnificent church. It turns out to be an artificial house constructed to be a “lighthouse” as one of the locals told us. She insisted we MUST come back at night in order to see it. She said it was most beautiful.
We took a drive over to the east coast to watch the kite surfers get pounded by the surf. We have a short movie showing one guy taking a face plant into the ocean.
Roger’s Beach is a small not very busy beach, just north of Baby Beach. The snorkeling is never very good there, but it’s a long sandy beach, just right for sun tanning.
In the evening, we took a drive up to the California Lighthouse to check out the sunset. Pam loves the palm trees silhouetted against the evening sky. 
The sunset was really golden this evening. Usually it’s got a red, red glow, but today it was golden!
Easy Sunday
We slept in, after a hard week of partying with Mike. haha We didn’t get mobile until nearly noon. It was another day with very calm winds, and lots of sunshine. We took to the water at Boca Catalina and just puttered around. The water was so calm again, and the fish were all relaxed.
I went to a spot where we normally can find a Queen Triggerfish, and instead we found a rather large green moray making himself at home! I had quite the surprise to dive down to take a picture of a highhat and have the menacing jaws and about two feet of a green moray pop out from under a ledge, weaving back and forth, as if to protect his space! He was certainly a big one, in the six to seven feet length in total.
Today though, was octopus and squid day – seemed every few feet we saw one or the other. We saw a group of squid that was easily the largest group we’ve ever seen. It went on as far as the eye could see! And visibility was great!
Spotting octopus is not easy. They can blend in so amazingly well, it’s easy to simply swim right over them. Sometimes they look so much like coral, you can’t tell the difference, unless they move. Check out the picture of him: you can hardly tell he’s there, unless you look very closely right near where his tentacles are attached to the rock.
I’ve got two movies to show today featuring the same octopus. He was really active, hopping from rock to rock, cycling through colors, and just amazing us.
This next video could have been a thing of beauty, but it’s certainly worth watching even though it’s not perfect. It shows him virtually hidden, then when I zoom in on him, he’s goes a deep black, with yellow “feet,” hops off a rock, hops onto another, walking a little, then compressing himself into a tiny hole!
This picture is especially for Mike… all these Sgt Majors kept coming around, and we’re certain they were upset you never said “See you next year!” Seemed like there were more than ever today.
Pam has been experimenting with different modes on her new camera, an Olympus Tough. We’ve had them in the past, and really liked them. We got her an expensive Nikon last year, but the pictures just never turned out very well. It’s funny, sometimes paying more doesn’t necessarily get you better results. Check out this picture of a gold moray eel, you can literally see the flecks of gold dappling his body. A prize winning shot!
The sunset picture is taken from the balcony of our unit at La Cabana. We’re on the fourth floor, the top floor, the penthouse as Pam calls it. We sat on the balcony having a drink, getting a little sun, watching it drop into the ocean. Some sailboats came by as it was going down… very nice. I’m adding a little movie of some sailboats drifting past the setting sun. You can hear the music in the background – a live band in the poolside bar of La Cabana.
Monday in Aruba
Today we did some things we’d done before, so Mike could see the island. We took a spin down to Baby Beach, near the oil refinery. The weather was sunny and windy. (Big surprise!) lol
The fish viewing was great! We saw a ton of things, and a few scary ones! There were at least 3 big, badass barracuda. One was definitely full grown, at least 4 feet. The other was a slightly smaller one at about 3 feet and a third one was about that size as well.
The BIG one got annoyed at a school of tangs around it, and he gave chase to them – let me tell you, that was about the time I decided I needed a break! haha
We had lunch at Charlie’s Bar again. It really is a crazy place – kinda nostalgic, kinda tacky, very friendly, and just lots of stuff to see. Every table has a RESERVED sign on it, so dang, you’re just so special the minute you walk in!
Pete and I got sunburned again. Apparently this sunscreen stuff is supposed to help with that, but being a tad thick, it’s taken me a while to warm up to the idea of it… Modern science! Who knew?
We had dinner in the High Rise Hotel area, which was probably a mistake. It’s a very Americanized section, and the food is bland and boring. We tried Iguana Joe’s, which bills itself as the place with the best ribs on the island.
Peter and Pam thought the ribs were pretty good, but Mike thought they were the best ribs on the island, because it’s the only rib joint on the island! hah I had the mahi-mahi, but it was overcooked, the potatoes were gross, but the coleslaw was fantastic! Overall, give Iguana Joe’s a pass. It’s just not very good.
We did have a pretty nice sunset tho! We’ve been trying to get some pictures of the sunsets, but we’ve done poorly. Finally Peter snagged a couple really nice ones.
Hope you enjoy!
