Day 4 - Port Oranjestad Aruba
Today we did our own excursion. The ship made port at 8:30am, We disembarked at 10:00. We had rented a car for the day and needed to catch a taxi to pick it up as this company was not at the port.
Aruba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is known for its beaches. We rented a car of drove to the northern beaches. The rental car agency (Top Drive) had a beach package for an additional $15 a day. It included two chairs, 2 snorkel gear and one cooler. We opted in!
Sandy had found out about a small beach called Tres Trapi that has sea turtles. The beach is not shown on any maps provided by the car rental, but we knew is was near Malmok Beach. Apple Maps do show the beach once we were close.
We were able to park right in front of the beach.
It was less of a beach and more of a rocky lava flow. The surface was rough and shoes were needed. I had water shoes and sandy had her crocs. There was staircase cut into the rock that lead you into the water. Once there, it was a nice sandy bottom.
The snorkel package only included a mask and a snorkel, but it was good enough. We had brought our own anti-fog solution, which helped. The salt concentration was be pretty high here. Buoyancy was not an issue. I did not have to do anything and I stayed up easily. It did not take long to find the turtles. We had to snorkel out to the sea grass about 30 yards out, but when we got there, there were green turtles feeding on the sea grass. These turtles do not get very big. The ones we saw were about 18-24 inches across. There were also many other fish to see: parrot fish, puffer fish, trumpet fish, palmettos and schools of many others.
We drove further up the beach to Arashi Beach. There we found a nice little beach bar/cafe called Arashi Beach Shack. We drank some local beers (Chill and Balashi Beers) and ate some beach food (Tuna Sandwich and Ceviche). I was expecting a grilled Tuna and a bun, but was served a Tunafish Sandwich. It was still very good.
The sun was hot so we found a Palapa (A thatched roof structure much like a tiki hut). The beach was busy with families. Umbrellas and beach chairs were available for $30, but we had chairs and the Palapa is free. We did share it with another family which everyone was doing. The water was refreshing and it felt great to dip in to cool off.
We stopped at a supermarket on the way back to pick up a new toothbrush and more sun screen. The toothbrush cost $1.99, the Sun screen was $24. I held off on buying the sun screen.
We returned the car to the rental agency and took a taxi back to the port. There was a Dollar store there and I picked up sun screen there ($16) and a few souvenirs. Then back to the boat.
Tonight we ate dinner at Bottacelli again, then went to the Comedy Hypnotist show staring Nadeem Manuel. The show was fun to watch as she hypnotized a group of people from the audience.
