We headed back to one of our favorite islands in the Caribbean....Aruba! Checking into Sunset Beach Studios, is almost like going home! Our first night ritual always includes some finger licking ribs at Smoky Joe’s......delicious as always! Settling in we unpacked and hit Super Foods for groceries! Most of the other guest were from the North snd escaping the brutal cold weather! For the first time in all our trips, we had the pleasure of meeting Walt, the spry 86 year old mayor of the resort! He was a hoot!
Our friends Ken and Georgianne we’re stopping in Aruba for the day on a cruise, so we picked them up and enjoyed showing them around the island. We hit the hot spots, enjoyed lunch at a local place, Zeerover’s, and showed them around our little piece of heaven!
The following day we had booked a tour with EC Tours. Ernest picked us up and painted a great picture of the history of Aruba and his life growing up in San Nicholas. Dale enjoyed discussing the WWII history with him and the tour was very enjoyable!
During our stay two couples came from Michigan and we sure did enjoy meeting them! We shared our knowledge of Aruba with them and they shared a yummy fresh wahoo dinner with us on our porch! Late afternoons we spent sitting under the big palapa, enjoying cheese and crackers with a cocktail, discussing the problems of the world!
Off roading with a UTV was perhaps the highlight of our trip! We saw things we had never seen before on Aruba! With the Arubiana App we went cross country over boulders, lizards, catcus, rocks, and down dirt roads! We entered the Arikok National Park and finally made it to the Natural Pool! Spending all day we went from the California Lighthouse to Baby Beach! The UTV was awesome and we loved being out off roading on our own!
As always I got in several snorkels! Eef, the owner of our resort invited me to join her for a morning snorkel out to a reef I’ve never explored. The visibility wasn’t great, but we did find a beautiful octopus on a coral head. The reef did have some very healthy stag horn coral. Eef is quite the swimmer and I had to get in high gear to keep up with her!
Three of our new Michigan friends, Lisa, Gary, and Scott decided to join me on a Seabob Trip at Boca Catalina. We geared up and headed out with our guide, Leo! Dale and a Denise decided to watch from shore! We spotted a couple of nice turtles before heading out to the wreck of the Antilla! I love riding the Seabob, flying underwater! The guys from Michigan really enjoyed it and Lisa did amazing for being really worried in the beginning!
As always we enjoyed our time in Aruba! We saw some new things, met some great folks, shared sunsets on the beach, and had some great meals! Aruba is One Happy Island!
