Monday Jan 8, 2024
Hi Gang! We made it to beautiful Aruba! It’s the “A” in the ABC Islands (we’ll visit Bonaire and Curacao in a few days). We had a really fun day exploring this island. Since the island is not that big (and they drive on the right side of the road!) we rented a car and explored from top to bottom and side to side. This island has it all!
We went to several beautiful beaches like Eagle Beach, Arashi Beach and Baby Beach (named for its calm waves good for babies!). We stopped at the Butterfly Farm and saw lots of butterflies and cool birds.
After that we went to the northern most point of the island where the California Lighthouse was. Then ventured south to Alto Vista Chapel which was the first church on the island. It was so quaint!
We then drove further south to
Arikok National Park That part of the island is like a desert with lots of cactus. It’s crazy how much the terrain differs from one side of the island to another.
We then drove to the southernmost point of the island to Colorado Point Lookout. The waves were so much stronger there and were crashing against the island. The beaches there are very rocky, not the soft sand like the other beaches.
Nearby was the small town called
San Nicolas. It is well known for all the huge murals artist have painted on the side of buildings. They are all sort of “3-D” with the subject in the mural appearing to jump off the walls. Very cool!
We finished our adventure by stopping at the Donkey Sanctuary. Who knew! Yes, Aruba has a donkey sanctuary! There are over 130 donkeys there and they care for them since they are no longer needed for carrying people and goods like in the old days. They were soooo cute!
We then got back on the ship and played trivia. Our smart teammates didn’t show up so we did not do so well (we know who’s carrying this team!). Then got cleaned up and went to dinner.
We tried a new restaurant tonight called the Med Yacht Club. The food once again was excellent with the veal Osso buco just falling off the bone tender!
After dinner we went to this interesting event Explora does called the Bal Mythos Masked Dance Party. They hand out masks like they have in Venice and we can dance and listen to good music. It was a lot of fun!
After that we did our routine of pulling slots and listening to our piano player. Tomorrow it’s on to Santa Marta, Columbia! Hope everyone had a good Monday!
The Wandering Italian 