Day 5: Oranjestad, Aruba

Today we are in Aruba. Aruba’s first inhabitants were the Caquetios Indians from the Arawak tribe. Fragments of the earliest known Indian settlements date back to about 1000 A.D., as do ancient painted symbols still visible on limestone caves found at Fontein, Ayo, and elsewhere. Pottery remnants from this period can still be seen at the Museum of Archaeology. Some centuries later, the first European landed on Aruban shores. Spanish explorer Alonso De Ojeda is thought to have arrived about 1499. The Spanish promply exported the Indians to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where they were put to work in the copper mines. In 1636, near the culmination of teh Eighty Years’ War between Spain and Holland, the Dutch took possesion of Aruba and remained in control of it for nearly two centuries. In 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars, the English briefly took control of the island but it was returned t Dutch control in 1816. Although Aruba continues to exist within the kingdom of the Netherlands, it operates as an independent region under the crown. Aruba has a melange of people from the South American and European continents, and also from the far east and other islands in the Caribbean. These different settlers have added a unique flavor to the lives of the inhabitants of the island.

We got up early and showered. (Why are we always up early on vacation?) The ship was late getting into Aruba so we had some extra time to get ready and eat breakfast. The Lido was totally packed, so I decided to just come back to the room and rest for a few more minutes while we waited to disembark. We headed down to wait for our tour. We decided to take “The Colors of Aruba” tour. After we disembarked we boarded our bus. I did remember to turn on the GPS, so I hope that Geo-Tagging will work properly when I get home. We headed out on the bus and we drove by some of the fancy hotels on the island, and a brief stop at the original windmill on the island. After that we then drove out to the California lighthouse. This was named after the ship The SS California that sank here off the coast.

After stopping at the lighthouse, we road to the Casibari Rock formation. We waited in line to walk up. It was not a very high climb, but it was a one way path for those going up and coming down and some of these people should not have tried to go up.

After the visiting the Casibari Rock formation, we drive down to the beach. The swells were as tall as the rock shelf of the shore/cliff line. Watching the water break just below and then crest over the wall spraying foam and salt onto everyone was pretty amazing. Both Angie and I were covered in salt spray when we returned to the bus.

After visiting the beach, we then visited an ostrich and emu farm. We saw quite a number of them. Their expressions and mannerisms were quite amazing. I got some really great close ups using Bert’s 70-300mm lens. I really like this lens, but someone had an 18-250mm that I really liked and it was smaller and and lighter. I am now torn as to which one to get. We walked through the farm and got to watch some of the visitors feed them.

It was amazing to see these animals. They are quite large and looking at their feet, you can understand how they are able to kill a lion with a single kick. As we walked around the grounds we saw all sorts of different color Ostriches. The most spectacular ones are the the all black ones.

After the ostrich farm, we rode the bus back to the ship. We got off the bus at the gate to the terminal and wandered around the downtown area of Aruba and visited Wilhelmina park. On the pathways we saw a ton of iguanas. All different colors and levels of cautiousness. Some would walk away the minute they saw us while others would just site there as we passed inches away from them.

We walked through the shopping mall area and picked up an Christmas ornament and then we re-boarded the ship. We returned to the cabin and offloaded our excursion stuff. Mostly just the backpack and my camera. Then we headed up to the Lido for food. After we ate lunch we wandered up to the crows nest and hung out as they played team trivia. I only got 12 out of 20 questions right 🙁 Who knew that a pregnant goldfish was called a TWIT? I wonder if Leo Laport knows this?

We headed back to the cabin so I could pick up the kindle. I decided to do some reading up on deck. I started reading “Kitty goes to Washington“. Angie joined up with me after showering and getting dressed for dinner. After a little while, the noise level was pretty high in the crows nest so we decided to go to one of the other bars that was closer to nights entertainment.

The entertainment this evening was Joel Mason, a piano player who does an Elton John tribute. The performance was excellent. We really enjoyed the show and would recommend it to anyone. We headed to dinner and turned in early for the night.

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