Aruba is smaller than the other Netherlands Antilles islands with 120 square miles. The island is 19 ½ miles long, and 6 miles wide. The official language is Dutch, but most everyone speaks English. The population is about 72,000. The highest point on the island is 617 feet , and there is a $280 fine for littering. For that reason, we noticed the downtown area was spotless.
Fierce winds can blow here with the evidence shown in the divi-divi trees that lean permanently in the southwest direction. The houses are also painted pastel colors, and this island is considered the party hot spot. Especially at Carnival time. Hurricanes are rare, and there are many things to see and do. Ship tours included a trip to the ostrich and emu farm, owned by the same company that is on Curacao. You can see a butterfly farm, or limestone caves complete with bats. Several water excursions included beach stops, Atlantis submarine ride, catamaran sailing and snorkeling, or a ride to relax and swim on a beach. Since I did not click on this yesterday, these tour prices were already gone this morning.
Anyway, we were greeted with "bon bini" which means welcome. The ship docked in Oranjestad, the capital, early this morning. And since Aruba is only 45 miles from Curacao, we must have sailed in circles all night. There were three other ship docked here…..The Jewel of the Seas, and the Grandeur of the Seas, both RCI. The third ship was the Freewind, a sea organization motor vessel.
Soon after the ship was docked, we were treated to a rare sighting of a peregrine falcon soaring overhead. Since there was only one bird, we toyed with the idea it may belong to someone on the island. So we did some research to learn that these birds of prey migrate here, and can come from as far as Greenland. They are the world's fastest bird, gaining speeds up to 186 miles per hour. Taking over 100 photos with the good camera, resulted in some clear shots of this sky-diver. Assuming they dined on pigeons, we found out their diet here consists of iguanas and small lizards. Other birds we spotted today were pelicans, seagulls, pigeons, small doves, and cormorants.
We stayed onboard until 11am, watching the dock area where folks from the Jewel were walking to town. Most everyone we saw was not wearing a mask. Nor was this announced after leaving the ship. It is common sense to wear these masks everywhere, since the rate of spread here is supposedly high right now. The same type of souvenirs like we saw yesterday were for sale in the terminal building. Once outside, we turned right and followed the main highway. This took us to a nice marina, and some of their local fishing boats. Some of the large fish were being filleted, with the scraps being fed to two pelicans. They begged like dogs. We went as far as we had back in 2010, our last visit here. At that time, we had located a nice Italian café that had pizza. It was in the Seaport Mall, which belongs to Renaissance Hotel. Once again, we did not go out to lunch, only because the rate of Covid spread (Omicron) is getting high in these islands. And so many of the other cruise guests were going unmasked. No sense taking a chance.
We still had a nice walk to Wilhelmina Park where we saw a number of iguanas, lizards, geckos, and some birds. The Renaissance Hotel here had a tidal swimming pool as well as a fresh water pool on their grounds. Walking the seawall, we saw many small crabs on the rocks as well as seagulls. In the surf, we could see many tropical fish chewing on the coral.
On the way back, we passed by the numerous stalls which were all selling the same souvenirs we have seen on all of the islands. Only the name of the island was changed. The colorful stalls were worthy of a photo or two. Back at the ship after our 2 ½ hour hike, we headed for a lido salad and sandwich. It has taken over two weeks to discover they had sugar cones in the ice cream section of the Lido. Had to have one of those with mint chip ice cream.
Back to the room, we watched the port pedestrian traffic, and worked on future reports and today's photos. The beer in the Dutch Café was so good yesterday, we went back at 5pm today for two more with a shared ham and cheese sandwich as well as four crispy spring rolls. These come with three types of dips.
Dinner was in the dining room where we met with Barb. She had kept busy on the ship, and shared her day with us. She has been here many more times than we have, so what we shared about our walk all came back to her. The potato soup was especially tasty this evening, as were the baby back ribs we had. Barb ordered the shrimp meal, and said it was really good. Desserts were two hot fudge sundaes and one fruit plate.
Sail away was right after 10:30pm, and we are now headed for Bonaire, the last of the ABC islands to visit.
There was a movie in the World Stage at 8pm…..No Time To Die, a Bond film. But that was our dinnertime, so we missed it.
Bill & Mary Ann
Friday, January 7, 2022
Report # 20 Oranjestad, Aruba Thursday - January 6, 2022 Partly cloudy & 78 degrees
