Friday, July 31, 2015

Aruba Rocks

Shopping District
Oranjestad, Aruba
The final port of call for my cruise occurred yesterday with a few, too short, hours in Aruba.

I can say that Aruba has stolen my heart and of the three places that Chris and I visited during the cruise, it is the one that we want to return to the most. Maybe next April!

Aruba
Cuttlefish
Aruba
We started the day by taking a taxi to a beach for a couple hours of snorkeling before the crowds appeared. The highlights of our time in the water off Aruba were a sharptail eel and many starfish. There were also a lot of cuttlefish!

Chris has a special place in her heart for cuttlefish.

Aruba
Starfish
Aruba
We have enjoyed the snorkeling everywhere we have stopped, but I have state that it has not been "reef" spectacular. By that I mean, we did some fantastic reef snorkeling a few years ago while staying in St Lucia, and none of the areas we have snorkeled on this trip have come close to the reefs there.

Even so, the snorkeling was rewarding because there was something different or special at every stop. 

Yesterday was nice because we were able to return to the ship and change before going out shopping in Oranjestad. That was nice because the dive bag gets heavy after a short while of dragging it around into and out of shops.

Aruba
Sharptail Eel
Aruba
I prefer snorkeling and reclining on a beach to shopping, but it was fun to shop as well. 

We had a nice lunch and made it back comfortably to the ship before our 4PM departure. I was later told, by an eyewitness, that the announcement we heard calling out a number of our shipmates names at about departure time was because they were not yet onboard and the captain was preparing to cast off just as a taxi came screaming up to the quay, just in the nick of time. I suppose worse things could have happened than being stranded in Aruba.

Aruba
Cuttlefish keeping a close eye on me
It was sad that all of our port calls have been completed, but we still have two sea days remaining.

I will be catching up on my pictures and editing the movies. Oh yea, and sitting in the sun by the pool.

-- Bob Doan, writing from the Carnival Conquest currently somewhere in the Caribbean Sea

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