Wednesday in Water Wonderland

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Every other day we try to do a morning swim with the turtles. Having heard a tip about getting in slightly not as far as Boca Catalina at “Three Steps,” we got into the water by 8:15 again, finding the turtle grass closer in than our usual entrance. Saw 8 turtles, mostly big ones. But even more fun was (sorry, Robin) TWO band-tailed searobins digging into the sand in search of breakfast. We saw our first squadron of squid, and they were no more than 1” long – like tiny bandaids swimming through the vast ocean.

After 1-3/4 hours we treated ourselves to another Dutch pancake – this time with gouda, apple slices and walnuts, split. Our friendly waitresses greeted us warmly.

No time to stop home, we wanted to find the elusive Barcadero Beach, where seahorses have been reported. After an hour, even asking 4 different people for help, we gave up, and headed to Zee Rovers for lunch. Michel was there, working hard as usual, but his mom Linda, now retired, has a terrible head cold and could hardly talk on the phone. We hope she’ll recover in time for us to visit with her. Red snapper and plantains in this lovely setting, with the ocean breezes and the surf occasionally slapping hard enough against the deck boarding that our feet got a bit wet.

In the water again at Mangel Halto, where the FIND OF THE DAY was a new fish – something we haven’t hoped to see in Aruba: a Butter Hamlet.

We love Mangel Halto, and with the high tide at the moment, the distance between the surface and the dangerous fire corals is larger. It was rougher outside the breakwall than the other day – bigger waves – but less current. We were able to swim against the current into the “channels” and into the amazing and wide areas of hard and soft corals.

We drove straight thru the capital, Orangestad, at 4:15 to come back to La Cabana and the traffic wasn’t bad, even tho there was a cruise ship in – maybe it’s disembarking soon.

Some miscellaneous comments about Aruba:

1. People really are friendly. The fisherman we asked first about the beach was wearing a tee shirt marked The Holy Land Experience, Orlando, which we’ve visited so we had a conversation about that and he blessed us on our way.

2. The water is not just ok, but scrumptious, and it breaks my heart to see people carrying cases of bottled water out of the grocery. We are rotating 6 empty bottles we brought from home to be half-filled and frozen each nice, and then with added water as we leave.

3. The weather in September can sometimes be very hot if there are tropical storms elsewhere “sucking” the breeze away, but it’s been lovely here.

4. There are no water snakes, only eels.

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