Today (Tuesday) the three of us went over to Boca Catalina, and swam south, towards Oranjestad, and the area we call the Wall, rather than north towards the Lighthouse, and Malmok Beach like we usually do. It’s a rather long swim to the Wall, but it was a different swim. We saw a turtle within five minutes of hitting the water, so it seemed a good sign.

There was lots to see, of course, the most unusual being the flying gurnard. It looks like a sand diver, but it has “wings” which it spreads when it wants to take off in a hurry. There were quite a lot of them in this one particular area. It was fun diving down trying to get them to spread their wings so we could get a shot.

We saw an eel, a type we hadn’t seen before. He was rather small, only about a foot, but he had perfectly shaped yellow polka dots on him. We were not able to identify it with our fish bible! I’ve talked of the Wall before, so I won’t bore you with talking of the bait ball, and it’s amazing contortions. There seemed to be a lot more birds today. I guess word is getting out that lunch is plentiful!

There were a number of porcupine fish. We never get tired of checking this guy out. He’s like a balloon under the water, with a big smile. I watched him by these rocks, and he kept his eye on me. The waves kind of push you around a little, and because he’s so buoyant  he gets sloshed about too. As he was watching me, a wave washed in, and it made him crack his head on the rock! First time I’ve ever seen a fish get bonked!

Another interesting fish we got a shot of was the black margate. He’s a pretty shy fish, and we rarely get a decent shot of him, but today he seemed to be more interested in checking us out. Not a bad shot of him…

Monday we got started late, since some guy from Vancouver slept late… real late. Pam decided to have a suntan day laying by the pool, so Mike and I headed to Mangel Halto. It’s a pretty tricky snorkel, since it’s basically in the open ocean. You want to do it when the current is nice and calm. Well today was not that day! We arrived to the beach to find it very rough so we decided to give Baby Beach a go.

We jumped in but the current was really bad here too! We spent maybe twenty minutes in the water and decided to head north again. Mike has never snorkeled “the wall” before, and it’s a spot Pam doesn’t really like to go, so we jumped in. It was really terrific.

I’ve already talked about the amazing bait ball and the enormous number of fish that make it up, so I won’t belabor that point. Suffice to say, it’s a remarkable thing! We got a couple decent shots of some big barjacks and ceros that kind of patrol up and down the edges. There  were lots of coronet fish too. And a good sized barracuda. I messed with the image of the barracuda a bit, kind of making a “painterly” effect – not sure that’s effective, but it’s different anyway.

We stayed in water quite a long time. There was lots to see, and it never gets old watching the movement of the big bait ball. There are three large ceros that lead a big group of big barjacks up and down the outside of the fish which is really quite neat to see. I’ve never seen a cero that large before. Now we’ve seen big barjacks, bigger than here, but I don’t think I’ve seen such a large grouping of barjacks this size before!

For dinner we continued the hunt for good ribs. We headed over to Iguana Joe’s. It’s in the highrise hotel area, so a little more touristy. The service is quick…. it’s a high traffic area so they try to get you in and out in a hurry. We all had ribs. Mike and Pam had the “original ribs”  and I had the dry rub ribs. The ribs were very meaty, and tender. They liked the sauce a lot. You had your choice of sides – all nice, but nothing spectacular. It was a decent meal. But I just had the impression you could have the same experience just about anywhere, not just on Aruba. But, it was nice to sit outside in the warm weather and watch all the people go by.