Arrived Aruba late Saturday, May 2, 2009. Between Miami and Aruba we were given immigration and H1N1 Flu forms to fill out. The Flu form was collected as we walked down the ramp and then we went through immigration; another stamp in our passports! We did carry-on luggage so were good to go; went down to the luggage carousel with with my brother and sister-in-law to get their one check-in bag. Everything was good to go and we went through customs and out to the lobby. Had a guy from the car rental holding up a clipboard with our last name printed on it. Hooked up with him and off to the car rental to pick up our Toyota Yaris. Driving is the same side of the road as in the U.S., stop lights are the same; they have lots of round-abouts. For it being 'Island Time' they sure drive fast. Speed limit on the main roads is 60 KPH and we got passed a lot driving that speed.

We headed north on the main road out of Oranjestad looking for Eagle Beach and the MVC Eagle Beach Resort. We drove around in circles a bit trying to find them, even after stopping and getting ambiguous directions from somebody in a Taco Bell parking lot. Finally found it and realized why it was hard to find. There was a large sign for 'Tulips', a Dutch Restaurant in front of the resort, with a small sign for the resort beneath. My wife recognized the resort logo as we were going by, so it was another U-turn back to it and get checked in at the bar/restaurant.

We got bags to room, changed into beach clothes and went for a late night walk on the beach. It was beautiful out. The constant wind is actually pretty nice. It would probably be somewhat humid without. We walked north along the beach and found some rocks with a blow-hole in them, where the surf would blow up through as it crashed on the shore. Found some beach chairs nearby and sat for a while talking, looking at the moon and stars and listening to the surf. Rooms are decent, basic rooms. If you're doing Aruba on a budget, this might be the place for you.

Day One (Sunday)

We got up and went to 'Tulips' for breakfast, which was included with our room. Open air dining and buffet; open air including the birds! They would land on unoccupied, or recently vacated, tables looking for tidbits. We actually saw them landing on the buffet table. Most of the food was protected, but the rolls were in baskets and the birds had figured out how to get under the cloth cover, through the open, side handholds and into the bread basket. Be selective. Yikes! Sat and had a long, casual breakfast. Got to talking to a Dutch couple near us who had a little girl that was a doll with big blue eyes and blond curly hair. Got a great picture of her feeding the birds on her table. Gave my e-mail address to her parents so I can send them copies of their daughters picture.

We checked out, loaded the car and headed off to the Marriott Surf Club to check in, drop off our bags and see if our room was ready. No room, but we checked in (thank God, as there were horrible lines later in the day!), changed into swimsuits and headed off to explore. Went to Ling & Sons Grocery to get a few things and then headed north to the California Lighthouse.

We did some fun pictures at the lighthouse and met Luigi, an islander, who 'sold' us Divi Timeshares. We're going to go listen to the Divi Timeshare spleel Tuesday morning, get fed breakfast and get $100 'Divi Dollars' to spend at certain businesses on the island. He was full of information about the island and was fun to talk to. Told us where to go to snorkel, which was a little over a mile to the south of the lighthouse, a little beach where the catamaran tours stop with snorkelers. One of the things we bought at the grocery was Dog Bonz to feed the fish. We found lots of fish to feed in the reefs; Tang, Parrot Fish and we're not sure what else. A nice little bit of beach, a fun swim and we were back off to the Marriott.

Lobby was packed and there was luggage all over the place. Glad we're already checked in. It's off to the Lazy River to float around for a bit. After one lap we decided we needed drinks and went over to the pool and float up bar to get those. Tequila Sunsets for the girls, Banana Daiquiris for the guys. It started raining while we were at the swim-up bar. What was funny were the people IN THE POOL that were worried about getting wet! So much for never raining in Aruba! With the rain coming down it started getting cool, so we headed for the hot tub for a little warm up. Sat and visited with some people from Oklahoma and then went to get our room. It was ready and we headed on up with all of our luggage. From our beautiful, ninth floor, ocean view, corner room, we found a little restaurant just south of the Marriott called Hadicari where we had all you can eat fish for $30 a head. Right off the grill, with a buffet for sides, it was great. Then we went for a walk on the beach.

Day Two (Monday)

Did the ABC Jeep tour. Picked up at the hotel in a bus, then into town to get lined up with our jeeps. We ended up with five jeeps loaded with up to 10 people each; two tour guides, Evo and Rocky, took the lead and tail jeeps and then tourists drove the other three. Pretty wild that they let folks with no experience take their jeeps on what ends up being 4-wheeling later in the tour. We went back to the California Lighthouse,and learned a lot about the area from Evo. It's named so because the California was a ship that sank off the coast when it ran into reefs, since there was no lighthouse, in the late 1800's. The new lighthouse was built in the early 1900's.

From there we drove past the chapel, which was the earliest church built on the island and then drove through Tiera del Sol Golf course residences and saw a 34,000 square foot home selling for $6.5 million. Pretty steep when non-Dutch can only live on the island three months out of any year. Can you say high priced rental?

From there we hit back roads (unpaved) on the way to the Hooiberg Bushiribana Gold Refinery ruins. Gold was discovered in the 1800's, mined and refined. The gold pretty much played out and is no longer commercially produced. From there we headed off to Natural Bridge. This is an area where the surf undercut a rocky ridge and through to the back side, creating a bridge. The 'original', or larger, bridge collapsed several years ago due to high surf from one of the hurricanes. Now, there is only the smaller one still in place next to it.

From there we went to the Ostrich Farm, where we saw Ostriches and Emus and got to feed the ostriches. Saw the ostrich and emu egg incubators (they have to have lower humidity than there is on the island) and baby Emus. Interesting, but I'm glad we didn't pay $12 a head for the 'tour'. We had what was described as a Caribbean Hot Lunch at their restaurant. Very good! Four short ribs, a drumstick, french fries and a salad. they serve Ostrich, but it's $40/pound.

Next stop was The Natural Pool and this is where the 4-wheeling got a little wild. We drove up into the hills near the reservoir and started going up and down hills, where some of it got pretty wild, considering we were in Jeeps loaded with 10 people each! No wonder the Jeep rental people on the island don't want people taking the rental jeeps back in here. We had a spot where Evo's Jeep got stuck as we were going up a hill and that backed everything up. Took us a a little bit to get everybody past that spot. Seems like he said only had a two-wheel drive jeep that day. Natural Pool was neat. It's a large 'tidal' pool, surrounded by rocks on three sides, that starts out shallow on the land side and gets about 20' deep on the seaward side. Lot's of fish to see and large rocks for people to jump, or dive, off of into the deep water. On the way out, some folks behind us in a rental SUV, came out to this area and got stuck trying to get out. One of our guides, Evo, had to hop in their vehicle and get them out of one spot.

From there, after the really rough stuff getting out, we headed on down the coast to the National Park and went into some caves in the old, above water coral, where we saw stalagmites and stalactites and 1000 year-old hieroglyphics on the ceiling. There are apparently bats in the caves, but a party ahead of us had already gone in deeper than we were and the guide told us the bats were probably pushed farther back into the caves. Apparently the caves are somewhat extensive. Leaving the caves we ran by some of the island natives; there are a LOT of goats on the island. Cute little buggers and I'll bet they're tasty.

Next, and last, stop was Baby Beach. This is an artificial lagoon, created by the American oil refinery folks years ago for employees. It's a shallow, gently sloping lagoon, with a neck you can swim through to a channel. Lots of fish in that area. If you go out past the reef that is just outside of this it gets pretty choppy. We saw lots of fish and had a good time feeding Dog Bonz to the fish. You feel like you're going to lose fingers to those hard little beaks, but even the few times I got 'nipped' it was just a pinch and they didn't bear down.

Back to the hotel to clean up, watch the sun set and run to the grocery store. We had peeled shrimp and shrimp cocktail, garlic bread, a small lasagna and made our own 'fruity' drinks with Bacardi, while we sat on the balcony enjoying the evening. Our wives went for a walk on the beach while we kicked back a bit.

Day Three (Tuesday)
Sunset and coffee on the balcony, which will become our regular routine. After that we went over to Divi Resorts for breakfast and a '60 minute' sales pitch. Sales pitch started before we ate breakfast, continued while we were eating and ran for another hour and a half, or so. Guess it was worth our while to get $100 'Divi Dollars' to use for the 'Havana Dance' show at the Renaissance Crystal Theatre.

After that we drove downtown and wandered around the shops, saw the Caribbean Princess in port, ate at La Petite Cafe and wandered around town some more. La Petite's claim to fame is cooking on 'stones'; roughly 1x10x10" slabs of stone that are heated VERY hot and food served on them. Kind of like a sizzling fajita. Jody had Grilled Shrimp, Jerry had Surf & Turf with Argentinian Steak and shrimp, Cheryl had Coconut Shrimp and I had a Cuban Sandwich. All of it was VERY good.
Spent the rest of the day shopping downtown. Ended up eating simple and had Taco Bell for dinner. I know, I know, it was easy.

Driving back to the hotel, we decided to stop and go into the 'RIU', the fantastic hotel that looks a little bit like the Taj Majal. Very opulent with a huge open court in the center and very open pool. Very different from the Marriott Surf with its winding paths and large plantings. We stopped outside the bar where a live show was in progress. A limbo dancer who must have performed right before we walked up, then got audience members on stage to participate, the finished up with some more limbo and 'playing' with fire.

Back to the hotel and to bed.

Day Four (Wednesday)
A quick breakfast and then time to listen to the Marriott Time Share sales speech. Scary thing, as we were ready to buy after St. Thomas and the Marriott presentation there. Done late morning and VERY tempted, especially with the incentives . . . On the table is a 15% discount, which we are assured is a first. Rachelle de Cuba was our sales-person.

Left the Marriott to go spend the day at Baby Beach, down on the southeast part of the island. We enjoyed snorkeling there the other day and have decided to try it again. We took Dog Bonz with us, in zip-lock bags and had a good time snorkeling and feeding the fish. There were Yellow Tail Snapper, Sargent-Majors, some violet colored fish and a larger silvery-gray fish with a fish-net/octagonal pattern on the upper half of the body.

Dinner was on the beach at Simply Fish and was AWESOME! There was a first row of tables set up for couples just off the beach and the waves lapping at the sand; we were in the next row back. Took our foot wear off and sat and ran our toes through the sand, talked, watched the sun set and had a great dinner. Jody ordered the Aruban Triangle, which was Swordfish, Lobster and Mahi-Mahi. Cheryl had Sea Bass and really enjoyed it. Jerry had Grilled Salmon and said it was good, but not the best he had ever had. I had the Sea Bass with Coos-Coos, Caribbean Rice and mixed vegetables. It was quite good. As the sun was setting the moon was rising in the east and it would be hard to ask for better scenery. For the all-around experience, this has been one of my all-time favorite meals.

Of course, after dinner, we had to take a little walk on the beach to walk dinner off.

Day Four - Thursday
We got a quick breakfast, then over to the Radisson, where we would get started with Red Sail Sports for our SCUBA refresher.

Refresher was in the Radisson Hotel pool. Our instructor was a gal from South America named Anim. Class was Jerry, Cheryl, me and a good friend of Anim who was getting a resort SCUBA course. She was a little unsure about the whole SCUBA-diving idea, but did pretty good with the equipment. A resort course is a very quick and dirty exposure to the whole idea of things. Jody sat at pool side reading and taking some pictures of our refresher class.

After the pool refresher we carried gear down to the Red Sail shack to get a 'Shorty' (light weight wet-suit with short legs) and then off to load gear onto the boat at the Red Sail dock. Jody walked back to the Marriott to sit around the pool while we got our dive in. We had a short ride out to the wreck of the Pedernales,a tanker sunk in about 25' of water by a German U-Boat during WWII. Just the three of us with dive-master Anim. The first part of the dive started in an area of very little wreck and progressed to the mid-section of the ship, which still had some good structure left. Saw a nice variety of fish, a Moray Eel and a school of squid that passed by overhead. I always forget about looking up to see what might be passing by and Anim pointed them out. Cheryl had some trouble with her ears and had to assend, with Anim, to clear her ears. Water was somewhat murky, with about 40' visibility. I was not overly impressed with the dive; really hoped for better visibility and to see more fish. There had been storms in the area of Venezuela, and they may have affected the water clarity. In general, the corals tend to look pretty poor; much like we saw in St. Thomas. Appears to be lots of dead coral.

We returned to the dock after the dive and walked back down to the Marriott to find Jody and have some lunch. Ended up eating at the poolside bar and grill and enjoyed the food. A bit on the pricey side, but everything at any of the hotel restaurants is. Cheryl wasn't feeling good and didn't feel up to doing a second dive. She stayed with Jody at the pool, while Jerry and I walked back to the Red Sail dock for our second dive.

This was to be our 'big' dive. We're going to the wreck of the Antilla, which was a German freighter. It got caught at the island at the beginning of WWII and was scuttled by her captain to prevent capture by the Allies. It is a very large wreck, with a lot of intact structure; over 450' in length and in 45-60' of water. We go out on a larger boat, with one other couple who are diving. This boat has windows all around, and a center walkway/door to the bow. Gets stuffy in there. The afternoon dive was with a crusty old dive master who pretty much told us 'if you can't keep up with the group, surface and quit the dive'. No hand-holding with her! We descended near the mid-section of the wreck with plans to swim a figure-eight around the forward part of the wreck and then the stern, with a couple of stops at the end for the dive-master to decompress, as she had already done a couple of deep dives that day. Felt a little short-changed at getting a dive-master who had already done deep dives and this was going to shorten our dive. Visibility, with depth, was worse than on the first dive. Didn't take much to get separated from part of the group and totally lose sight of them in the water. Saw some fish, but not nearly what one would have expected. This would be a really nice with better visibility. Finished the dive and headed back to the dock. As we were walking across the sand to the dive shack, Jerry told me he'd gotten a little sick to his stomach. Next thing I now he's very quietly tossing his lunch into the sand. I don't think anyone nearby even noticed . . . until the smell drifted on the wind. By that time Jerry was quietly covering everything up with sand. Turns out, in addition to the stuffy, bobbing boat, Jerry had gotten a good swallow of saltwater. That doesn't sit in the stomach very well. (He'll kill me if he ever reads this!)

Went back to the room for showers and going out clothes. Drove into town to Fort Zoutman, a small museum in Oranjestad, for the Bon Bini Festival. Some of the locals, with an interest in maintaining and sharing their islands heritage, present canned music with live dancing of local dances in local costumes. Fair dancing, lots of costume changes. There was also a live 5-man band who were very fun to listen to, a local singer with a great voice and probably the most fun. Bon Bini means welcome in the local language; a mix of Portuguese and Spanish. The dancers are all locals, volunteering their time, so its not professional . . . but it was fun. There was a cash bar set up in the back and a local caterer was set up providing plate lunches. Had some kind of mixed drink from the bar; neither Jerry or Cheryl cared much for it, buy Jody and I kind of liked it. After our late lunch nobody else was really hungry. There was also food from "Belky's, a local caterer, that would probably be a great kind of place to eat the way the lcoals eat. Fried fish in creole sauce with rice, funchi, salad and banana. Funchi looks a bit like Tofu and is a corn meal dish like Italian Polenta. Quite tasty! On the way out the door a local group was set up playing the steel drum. They were great. Very enthusiastic and worked hard playing. I wish they had a CD for sale.

Friday, Day Five
We sin today! Breakfast was at 'The Vista', located at the Marriott Stelaris, the third Marriott in this row, and has the casino. We had seen 'The Vista' when we walked through here the other night. One item on the menu that caught Jody's, and my eye, was 'Caramelized Blueberry Pancakes'! This sounded like something we HAD to try. From listening to our Marriott Time-share presentation, we each had $100 in certificates; 3-$25 certificates good at local restaurants and $25 that was good for 'The Vista'. We had already decided we wanted to eat here. Once we got here for breakfast, we made the mistake of walking through the buffet line to check out the food. Oh, My God! Anything you want for breakfast is available. A variety of fresh fruit that can also be made into smoothies by a sous-chef at that bar; a full omelet bar with another sous-chef taking orders; a waffle-bar with yet another sous-chef; an island with eggs and breakfast meats of all types; another area with milks, fruit juices, coffees and tea; it just went on and on. The only thing they didn't have was caramelized blueberry pancakes; we never did get those. While we were eating breakfast we saw a brightly colored, yellow and black bird, called a Tapea, land on another table. This bird flipped the lid off a bowl of sugar packets, lifted out a packet of sugar and took off. What a hoot.

After breakfast plan was a little hike. We drove out to Mt. Hooieberg (Haystack Mountain), the tallest point on the island, to walk up the 561 steps. It took a little driving and exploring to find our way to the bottom of the mountain and out starting point. We passed a Dutch couple who had just come off the 'mountain' and said it wasn't a bad climb, took about 20 minutes. We hit the steps and started counting, until we realized that someone had marked off every 50 steps with a total painted on the riser. Part of the climb is with railings and a good part is just climbing up switch-back steps. The tall steps took their toll on the girls and they had a definite 'glisten' going by the time we got to the top. The top of the mountain is used primarily as a transmitting station for the island and there are a number of towers up there. I'm surprised they let people up around the equipment. Other than that, there is a great view at the top and you can get a near, panoramic view of the island. Oh, and it's REALLY windy up there. The climb down requires a little more attention; you see all the gravel, sand and grit on the steps you didn't pay attention to on the way up.

After we left Haystack, we drove to the southeast end of the island with the aim of finding Charlie's Bar, which is a landmark on Aruba. The drive through town trying to find the bar was interesting and we found some very interesting people. Finally found the bar and sat down for a Balashi and a look around. The bar is wild, with an accumulation of this, that and the other thing, from all around the world, hanging on the wall and ceiling. Their motto is, "Warning! We cheat drunks and tourists." Charlies Honeymoon Sauce advertises that it may lead to 'violent intercourse'. From there we drove back to the Marriott to soak in the 'Lazy River' for a bit, clean up, eat off leftovers and then go to Havana Dance at the Crystal Theater.

Saturday, Day Six
Woke up and had coffee on the balcony again. Watched the sand 'Zamboni' groom the beach between us and the ocean and chairs start going out for the day. Plan was to go to 'Super Food' for pastries from the bakery for breakfast. Ended up with Breakfast AND lunch pastries, because they all looked so good. Drove to the flea market, "Tourists Go Flea Market" and ate breakfast in the parking lot. Wandered around the flea market for a couple of hours and we all picked up some bargains. One place we passed coming in was cooking chicken and pork BBQ. Smelled so good, Jerry and I had to pick up some of their ribs for lunch . . . to go with our pastries. Went by the 'Hospitaal' to find the pharmacy. Turns out the ONLY place you can buy ANY kind of medicine on the island, is at the pharmacy. Very non-descript building with bars on the windows. Lovely. Back to our rooms for lunch on the balcony. Jerry and I took the car to the north end of the island and got some pictures of our traveling critters around the lighthouse. After that we stopped at the beach we had found just south of there. Took our dog biscuits and fed fish while we snorkeled for about an hour. Long enough to get a little chilled. One of the big catamarans filled with drinking, snorkeling tourists pulled up and left while we were there. Looks like it would be fun if you wanted the tour by sailboat. If you just want beaches, the car rental worked great. Jody and Cheryl stayed at the Marriott and camped out on the beach. They snorkeled right behind the Marriott and saw a giant starfish, some kind of snake and lots of fish. On the way back, we drove back down to Eagle Beach to get some daylight pictures of the hotel we stayed the first night at. We got back and all went to the pool. Jody and Cheryl informed us that the drink special was Strawberry Margaritas, so Jerry and I went off the to the swim-up bar to pick up a round. Found out when we got back that the girls knew what the special was as they had already imbibed! Relaxed in one of the hot tubs for a while. Spent the evening on the beach drinking the last of our Balashi and watching the sun go down. Our last night! Then it was back to the room to finish off leftover food and pack up to leave tomorrow.

Sunday, Last Day
Last morning for coffee on the balcony. Finished off some of our breakfast foods and headed to the airport to return out car. That went very smoothly and they got us right over to the airport to get our flight. Lots of line standing and hurrying up and wait. Most of it outside. Ad to board the plane, taxi out and watch the island slide away as we took off.

When in danger, or in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout!

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