Aruba 2022 - Day 6: JetBlue

We finished all of the leftovers in the fridge, cleaned up the condo, checked out, then headed to Aruba Bob's to return our snorkel gear. Nobody was there, so we left the gear on the table, as instructed, with some cash.

It was only about a 15 minute drive to the airport, where we returned the rental car and then began the strange journey through the Queen Beatrix International Airport.

Also, there was an iguana wandering around the airport grounds. I think it was the first and only iguana that we saw, the entire trip.

Once inside, we figured out why they recommended getting to the airport 3 hours early... we had to go through Aruba security, outbound immigration/passport control, then enter a separate area for US flights, and go through US security and immigration/customs.

It wasn't especially busy, though, so it was around an hour total, from getting out of the rental car to clearing all the security.

We had a few hours to wander around, eat lunch, and browse the shops. In case people didn't get enough of the food from the Netherlands during their trips, they can take a wheel of cheese home on the plane.

It was a rather hazy afternoon with an overcast area right over the airport as we left Aruba.

Everyone was incredibly friendly, everywhere we went. And it was genuine, not that they were being paid to be nice to tourists. They really seemed to embrace the "One Happy Island" theme.

I think if we were to visit again, I'd probably want to stay somewhere in the north, outside the resort area but with an ocean view. It might be worth a day trip to Eagle Beach, but I wouldn't want to stay in that area.

Practical notes, for our (hypothetical) next visit:

• The Aruba Florin (AWG) is pegged to the USD at a ratio of 1.79:1, and literally everywhere we spent money accepted credit cards and/or USD cash (exchanged at 1.75:1). We got USD bills and AWG coins as change, several times.
• Food:
• Almost all of the food is imported, for obvious reasons, but it wasn't outrageously expensive (unlike some other islands we've visited). The produce seemed to mostly be from Colombia.
• The local cuisine was a blend of Caribbean (BBQ chicken/pork, various seafood, curries, rice, fried plantains, etc.), South American, and Dutch. Bar snacks included options like "krokets", sausage, and fried mac-and-cheese balls, for example.
• At least in the southern area where we stayed, "johnny cakes" (sort of like fried pita pockets) were available everywhere, stuffed with ham and/or cheese. This seemed to be a common breakfast option, along with pastechi (similar to empanadas).
• The beaches in the Noord area (roughly Eagle beach to Malmok) were much calmer, due to the wind direction (which seems to be nearly constant, year-round?). Snorkeling at Boca Catalina was excellent, for this reason.
• We got some cred with the locals for staying outside of the tourist area. I can't find any reference to it online, but several people used the terms "east of the bridge" and "west of the bridge" (over the Spanish Lagoon) as a dividing line.
• Almost everyone spoke English, except at the random fruit stand we found somewhere in the Paradera area.
• The weather was nearly perfect, every day: high 80s, sunny, steady 20mph wind. The dry season is from January through August. It was hazy/partly-cloudy a few times, but never rained.
• Almost the entire island is a desert, with more cactus than I'd ever seen. Entire hillsides were covered with nothing but (several types of) cactus. Yet it was also humid; due to the tiny size of the island, you're never far from the ocean.
• There were wild donkeys and goats roaming around. Apparently they've adapted to eat the cactus. Other than those and the occasional dog, there weren't a lot of stray animals anywhere, and they were never in the road.

Aruba 2022 - Day 5: Easy Snorkeling, Boca Catalina, Fireworks

This morning, we ventured out for official Covid tests (all negative, btw) after breakfast, followed by a stop at The Colorado Shack for smoothies, second breakfast, and later-lunch food.

We felt that that effort deserved a reward, so we went back to the chalet and lazed around for a while, debating how to spend our last full day on the island.

There was some expressed interest in trying a new beach, but there are so many to choose from, it can be difficult to decide. We had seen the ones near the condo, and the east coast beaches aren't for swimming/snorkeling, so we decided to head up the coast.

The next beach past Mangel Halto is adjacent to the airport, and the next few after that are huge, but also in the resort hotel district, north of Oranjestad. (Eagle beach and Palm beach)

About 15 or 20 minutes past where we had dinner last night, there are a few smaller beaches (Malmok, Boca Catalina, and Arashi), two of which turned up on snorkeling websites. Boca Catalina had been recommended by the guys at Aruba Bob's and again by Coco when we saw him at Mangel Halto, so we decided to head there for the afternoon.

Rather than drive up the highway, through Oranjestad, again, we took an inland route that was only about 5 minutes slower. Along the way, we stopped at a random fruit store. We were definitely the only tourists there.

 

Communication was tricky, but we were able to have a conversation about many of the unlabeled and unknown (to us) fruits in a mix of English and (mostly) Spanish. They were happy to show us everything (predominantly from Colombia), and this guy excitedly insisted that we try a few of the stranger ones. He also suggested that about half of them were good with milk and/or honey.

Some of them we'd never heard of, even when translated to English. (Even now, with google and Wikipedia, I've still never heard of it.)

As with everywhere else we've been, they were happy to take US dollars (at a rate of about 1.75 AWG to USD). I don't think I mentioned yet that their local currency is the Aruban Florin, which we've only received as change (coins). Some of them are square (well, rounded squares anyway).

Anyway, we eventually made it to Boca Catalina, some time around 2 PM.

There was a lovely, roped-off swimming/snorkeling area, and a few boats moored farther out. There were absolutely no waves, and minimal current. In short, they were ideal snorkeling conditions: no danger of being dashed against a reef, good visibility, and just a few gentle swells.

After getting situated, we immediately checked out the underwater situation. A fellow enthusiast on the beach had given us a brief overview of what was where, which was very helpful.

(I retouched most of these photos to correct the whitepoint, where possible-and-easy. It is obvious which ones I left original.)

According to the handy fish identification guide, I think this is a French angelfish.

Over the last few days, we've seen old anchors, pipes, the occasional beer bottle, car tires (and a rim), but the back end of a forklift is by far the strangest for this trip.

We think this is a Triggerfish, which (fun fact) allegedly have been known to bite divers.

This looks like a Hawksbill sea turtle, snacking on sea grass.

We took turns going in for a closer look; the turtle was mostly unconcerned.

It's difficult to estimate, but my guess would be that this turtle was about three feet long. Later, we saw a smaller one, coming up for air and then returning to its seafloor meal.

While I was out on my own, I spotted a few strange fish that I hadn't seen anywhere else, slowing roaming along the bottom. I watched them for a while, and noticed that if I dove down for a closer look, one of them performed a show. The internet leads me to believe that these are Flying Gurnards.

On the other side of the roped area, there were some rocks and bits of reef hosting thousands of small fish. The Sergeant Majors are rather distinctive, and also plentiful.

Once I saw snorkelers feeding them, it made sense why they were not afraid of me, and even occasionally approached me.

A few times, I found myself in the middle of a large school of tiny fish. They just sort of... parted, like a curtain, as I swam through them.

Here's an example of one that came right up to me. It was only about the size of my hand.

This might be an Atlantic Blue Tang? I'm not sure.

Indisputably a Smooth trunkfish.

Swarms of little fish, everywhere.

Bluehead, for obvious reasons.

No idea, on this one. It was distinctly blue, though.

This was a huge school, mostly of Blue Tang I think?

After a solid hour or two in the water, I retreated to the beach for a snack and a book. Matt was going back out again as I was coming in; we crossed paths in the water. Sabrina and Diet had had enough of our shenanigans, and spent most of the time relaxing.

We saw a few groups departing and returning from a snorkel trip out to the Antilla Wreck, over the course of several hours. 

It was after 5 PM by the time we left, heading south along the coast, through the busy resort area. Along the way, we got a glimpse of Palm beach and Eagle beach, as well as the Butterfly farm.

Leftovers from lunch (from The Colorado Shack) became dinner, but I hadn't gotten a bowl there, so we stopped at La Granja (drivethru) by the condo for some chicken.

As we returned to the chalet, we noticed there was a party (wedding?) at one of the fancy houses, over by Floyd's house. After dinner, as we were dealing with travel administrivia, we heard fireworks outside, so we all rushed out to the seawall to enjoy the show.

Tomorrow, we have to check out, return the snorkel gear, get gas, return the rental car, deal with airport nonsense, deal with US customs, and then we can fly home in the afternoon.

Aruba 2022 - Day 4: Difficult Snorkeling at Mangel Halto, Evening in Oranjestad

It was another relaxing morning at the Aruba Beach Chalets. (True story: I joked about not telling anyone where we stayed, because it's such a perfect spot and I sort of want to help keep it secret...)

After breakfast, we had some administrative tasks to handle. We made some Covid test appointments for tomorrow, decided on dinner plans for tonight, made a quick trip to the nearby S-Chow Supermarket, and packed a picnic lunch for the beach.

On Tuesday night, I did some light searching for info on Aruba snorkeling spots, and turned up this interesting suggestion/map about Mangel Halto. Today, we decided to return to this beach and try the one-way float/swim from Puerto Chiquito (AKA Hole in the Wall).

Before committing, we stopped at Puerto Chiquito to make sure this wasn't an insane idea. It seemed much like the area in front of our condo (I mean... "chalet"), which makes sense as we were only about 1.5 miles up the coast.

Satisfied that this plan was feasible, we continued to Mangel Halto, set up in the shade of the mangroves near the water, then had a brief swim and a picnic lunch.

While we were sitting around, Coco from Aruba Bob's walked by with some snorkel customers; he was excited to see us. I chased after him and asked if he thought it was too rough to do the one-way float trip. His assessment was that it would be okay.

Confirmation bias achieved, we walked the 1/4 of a mile (ish) back to the other beach that we had scoped out earlier, with nothing but snorkel gear.

It took us a few minutes to figure out where to enter the water, but we were able to get to the ocean side of the reef without too much trouble.

The surf was a bit rough, which made the visibility rather lacking for the first part of the trip. On the other hand, this also made the current faster, so it quickly carried us past this part (which was good, because being carried among huge coral structures by a current, in low visibility, was slightly adrenaline-inducing).

One of the first things we saw through the murky water, up closer than I would have preferred, was a bright green moray eel. I was not ready with the camera, though.

Here, you can see that Sabrina wasn't exactly thrilled to be tossed around by the waves.

There were several large schools of multiple kinds of fish. I'm not sure what any of them were, exactly, but there's a fish identification guide available if you're interested.

I think this is staghorn coral, which must've once been plentiful in this reef, because the protected bay area is littered with bleached-white/dead pieces of it.

This stuff might be fire coral? Or fire blade coral? I'm not sure.

We had a few exciting moments where we got into shallower areas, and had waves crash over us, sending us hurtling toward the reef. We had to divert back out into deeper areas, a few times, to steer around large, impassable coral colonies.

I think these are elkhorn coral, some of which must've been 6 to 8 feet tall.

As you can see in the route map, above, we had to take a wide path around the reef to get back into the protected bay area. It's a bit disorienting, out on the water, to try to find the reef cut where it's easy/safe to pass through. Thankfully, there's a channel marker buoy, and Matt and I had been out there a few days ago.

It was still a decent workout to fight the current in the bay, to get over to the gap in the mangroves that led back to our beach accoutrements.

All week, we've been watching pelicans fishing in the bay in front of the condo. This one was floating around in the bay, seemingly not concerned about nearby swimmers.

After our workout, we relaxed on the beach for awhile. Other than a handful of other tourists and one or two tour groups walking through while taking photos, the place was empty.

Having rejuvenated and rehydrated, Matt and I convinced our better halves to take one last snorkel expedition out to the channel cut, but on the protected side of the reef this time.

In the shallow water, the large fish don't seem as skittish for some reason. Or maybe they're just used to snorkelers.

Some of the lighter-colored fish are difficult to spot, until a small wave rolls through and they all drift a few feet with you.

The broken bits of dead coral are mostly the staghorn corals, I believe. There are acres and acres of the stuff, covering much of the bay floor.

We had just enough time to relax and dry off again, back on shore, before heading back to the chalet to unload and clean up for dinner.

Other than flying into the airport, we really hadn't spent any time in Oranjestad; it was an intentional decision, when we booked accommodations in the Savaneta area, to be outside the tourist-heavy area.

Tonight, though, we headed into the capital to have a fancy dinner at a Peruvian restaurant that Diet found (Lima Bistro). It was adjacent to the cruise terminal, and the main street was lined with expensive clothing and jewelry stores, casinos, and resort hotels.

Locals in the Savaneta and San Nicolas areas seemed equal parts surprised and impressed that we were staying on their side of the island. One woman talked about "east of the bridge" vs "west of the bridge" (referring to the Spanish Lagoon Bridge, I believe) being completely different places/cultures/food/people. The context was something about doubting that we'd had "real" moby, if it was west of the bridge, if I recall correctly.

After driving through a bit of downtown Oranjestad, it makes more sense; the retail frenzy of downtown doesn't resemble anything else we'd experienced in the last 4 or 5 days.

The restaurant was located on more of a waterfront/boardwalk area, rather than a road, so Google had a bit of trouble directing us to it.

We eventually located the correct entrance, though, and were treated to a view of the marina just before sunset.

Dinner was excellent. If you're ever, uh... in Oranjestad and in the mood for some Peruvian, I'd definitely recommend it.

After dinner, we strolled along the boardwalk for a bit to convince ourselves that we hadn't eaten too much.

Our walk ended somewhere around the parliament building, situated between a hotel and a park, across the street from a Starbucks.

Tomorrow morning, we're getting Covid tests to make sure we can fly home on Saturday. After that, who knows?