Blogs from Palm Beach, Aruba, Central America Caribbean

Today for breakfast….the buffet! Shocking I know! After breakfast we took a cab to the Aruba Aloe Factory and Museum. This is a really neat place! They have an aloe farm smack in the middle of town and there is a free guided tour. Our guide explained how aloe was brought here from Africa, so it’s not native to the island. However, they now have a thriving industry growing and turning it into everything from sunscreen to deodorant to shampoo. Of course they have aloe gel, but I was amazed at all the other products. The one interesting fact about aloe is there is a very concentrated yellow sap that is part of the plant which is actually a laxative. They make sure to remove that before processing the gel. Wouldn’t want to ingest that! After ... read more

I probably will say this every morning but the breakfast buffet is wonderful! And the mango juice is exceptional! Our excursion for the day was the Schooner cruise. It was to leave at 9:15 and get back at 11:15. I think we started walking to the boat at 9:30. Aruba time takes some getting used to… The boat was through the Jolly Pirate tour company and was a nice sail boat with a sunny front deck and covered rear. I thought the cruise was going to be more sightseeing and less snorkeling but it really ended up being mostly snorkeling. We stopped 3 different places for snorkeling. The first stop was over a ship wreck of a German boat from 1940 or 41. The water was pretty choppy here but I could see parts of the ... read more

Today was mostly a travel day. There are direct flights from Chicago to Aruba but apparently only on the weekend so we had to connect in Miami. Our day started out leaving home at 4:30 AM, chauffeured by our dad, for O’Hare. The temperature was a balmy 12 degrees with a windchill of 1. We arrived, checked our bags, went through security and were to our gate with time to grab a quick breakfast. WE boarded, took off and landed in Miami, all on time. And by some stroke of luck our arriving gate was right next to our departing gate. That never happens! Again we had time for a quick bite and then were on a plane once again. 3 hours later we landed in Oranjestad, Aruba, where it was not 12 degrees with no ... read more

This morning, the Crofts and Weavers set out on different excursions. The Weavers went on a snorkeling trip, where they ended up being the only customers so they had basically a private booking! They had a great time, including snorkeling around the largest accessible shipwreck in the Caribbean - the Antilla, a German freighter. Meanwhile, the Crofts toured the ocean bottom in a drier environment - a semi-submersible, where there were seats and windows about 10 feet below the deck. We saw reefs and the same shipwreck mentioned above. It wasn't the best situation for pictures, but I posted a few below that aren't too bad. Back to the beach in the afternoon, after Jeff & Allison were caught in 10 minutes of rain walking back from the boat tour. Although we were about .2 miles ... read more

Ok, so it's not that big of a country. But we did do some serious off-roading, as our newly re-shuffled internal organs can attest to. Our intrepid driver (Craig) got us to some pretty cool places as we spent the day exploring the island away from the beaches. There are a lot of places out there where you won't find any people for miles. Some highlights: a chapel built in 1750 and still in use today; a natural bridge created by the wave action eroding the rocks; an old, abandoned gold smelting plant; and lunch at an quirky little restaurant in San Nicholas - which is also the home of Aruba's legal red-light district (the Dutch are so enlightened...) We took a break from the fancy dinner fare - the Crofts had room service, and the ... read more