Graduation Caribbean Cruise Friday, May 30 - June 7, 2014

---

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Today is an exciting; we are visiting another island we have never seen before, Aruba. Todd was up earlier (5:00 am) working on school work, grading papers. Yes, I am on holiday, however he is still teaching an online class.

Cindy and others were up by 7:00 am and ready to go eat breakfast. Cindy and I ate in the dining room, we love being waited on, ha. We were meeting our tour this morning at 8:15 am on the dock.

Today were doing a tour called Aruba sightseeing and swimming. We are touring the Guo family and Michael. We had so much fun with the Guo family in St. Thomas. Looking forward to this tour today. Jenny and Marcus went to Renaissance Island where it is full of outdoor activities and water sports. We all have something fun planned.

Our tour started outside the pier area and then we walked through a terminal building and then to our air conditioned bus. Once we boarded, we immediately left the pier area heading to our first stop, Ayo Rock Formations. Prior to arriving at the Ayo Rock Formations, the tour guide explained a version of this (source: internet searches) about Aruba. Aruba (/əˈruːbə/ ə-roo-bə; Dutch pronunciation: ) is an island 33 kilometres long (20 mi); it is located about 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) west of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea and 27 kilometres (17 mi) north of the coast of Venezuela. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands. Collectively, Aruba and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Netherlands Antilles or the Dutch Caribbean.

Aruba is one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands, Curaçao and Saint Maarten. The citizens of these countries all share a single nationality: Dutch. Aruba has no administrative subdivisions, but, for census purposes, is divided into eight regions. Its capital is Oranjestad.

Unlike much of the Caribbean region, Aruba has a dry climate and an arid, cactus-strewn landscape. This climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. It has a land area of 179 km² (69.1 sq mi) and is densely populated, with a total of 102,484 inhabitants at the 2010 Census. It lies outside the hurricane belt.

Aruba is a generally flat, riverless island in the Leeward Antilles island arc of the Lesser Antilles in the southern part of the Caribbean. It has white sandy beaches on the western and southern coasts of the island, relatively sheltered from fierce ocean currents. This is where most tourist development has occurred. The northern and eastern coasts, lacking this protection, are considerably more battered by the sea and have been left largely untouched by humans.

During our drive, we noticed how dry and a desert like it is. There were several beautiful homes along the way; however it was amazing that this island in the Caribbean can be so dry. They get a lot of their water supply through a distillery.

As explained above, Aruba is general flat, so seeing a hilly area was interesting. We stopped to do a self-paced walking tour of the Ayo Rock Formations. This formation is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It was quite interesting and beautiful. Here is some information on the Ayo Rock Formation area according to web searches. Ayo Rock Formations are monolithic rock boulders located on the island of Aruba in the Caribbean. They are located near Ayo village, about 3.2 km from the natural bridge towards Casibari. Casibari Boulders are about 3.2 km inland between Natural Bridge (now defunct) and Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba, west of Boac Andicuri.

The Arawak people were the earliest settlers on the island. They used to visit Ayo Rock Formations so that they could hear incoming thunderstorms closing in on the island of Aruba. They also carved paintings in rocks called petroglyphs while performing religious rites.

One of the unusual and notable rock formations is the Casibari Boulders, which are tonalite rocks seen to the north of Hooiberg. They are reddish brown in colour and rise above the desert landscape giving a panoramic view of the island. They are located amidst cacti, and lizards are commonly encountered here. The boulders have unusual shapes resembling birds and dragons. There is no plausible explanation yet for the presence of these unusual wind-carved boulder formations on a flat sandy island. However, the geological formations seen on the island are of volcanic origin in its eastern sector, and some areas which are of coral formation are ascribed to the sea which was at higher level. However, in the diorite rock formation region, the Ayo Rock Formations are seen in a heap of monolithic boulders.

After taking photos and spending 20 minutes here, we boarded the bus and headed to our next stop, the natural bridge on the north side of the island. This part of the island is covered with remains of volcanic rock and sand. There is absolutely no vegetation on this part of the island. The first thing we observed before exiting the bus was the extremely rough water. The tour guide said today was a mild day, normally the surf is 15 – 20 ft. It was about 10 foot today. Up until 2005, there was a very large natural bridge, however in 2005, this large natural bridge collapsed. On the positive side, there is a baby or small natural bridge that has formed. We spent about 30 minutes at this location taking photos and videos. It was absolutely fascinating to observe such a beautiful natural wonder. It is one of those places where you can stare at all day to just observe everything that is going on around you. I posted several photos of this location in our blog.

Once leaving the natural bridge area, we drove to the only lighthouse in Aruba, the California Lighthouse. For me, this was awesome. I love lighthouses, so is really interesting to get out and take photos. The California Lighthouse is a lighthouse located near Arashi Beach on the northwest tip of Aruba. This lighthouse was named for the steamship California, which wrecked nearby on September 23, 1891. It was formerly open to the public until a suicide occurred, which prompted authorities to restrict public access to the lighthouse.

Following our 10 minute stop at the lighthouse, we headed to the beach area which was part of our tour. Before arriving, we passed by the golf course, beautiful homes, and the high and low rise hotels. The tour guide said the hotels are separated out to high and low rises. I don’t recall the height size to categorize what hotel is a high and low rise. Our bus ended up stopping at the Palm Beach area of Aruba, not too far from our ship. We had exactly one hour to enjoy the beach. For this trip, Cindy and I did not dress in our swim clothing, so he had to go across the street to a low rise hotel and change in the changing area into our swim clothing.

When at the beach, and after posing for photos, we went into the ocean. Charles Guo made a really good observation; the beach water seemed colder than the water in St. Thomas. I have to agree. Who would figure the water would be cold in the Caribbean. I believe part of the reason why the water is cooler is because of the constant wind. We really enjoyed our short visit here at the beach. It was relaxing, even though not much time.

On our way back to the ship, we had the option to get dropped off in town or go back to the ship. We decided to go back to the ship to eat lunch; however we would come back in town at night since we were at port until 10:30 pm this evening to use the free Wi-Fi.

We arrived back at the ship and ate lunch again in the Windjammer, good as usual. When done with lunch, Cindy and I went to the pool area again and just hung out, had a drinkage, and took a nappage, lol.

I included some photos that Jenny and Marcus took on their tour today.

After getting dressed for dinner, Cindy and had our drink of the day. The drink of the day is Tradewinds Cooler. The drink was a “delightful sweet combination of Bacardi superior rum, island oasis and pineapple and orange juices served on ice, topped with sprite. Another glass for our home collection.

Dinner is at 6:00 pm and this evening the food was really good. Michael and Brian went into town for dinner this evening instead of joining us. The theme this evening is Shiitake. According the ship description “the earthy, smoky flavor of the shiitake mushroom adds depth to stir-fry, soup, pasta and our own spectacular shrimp gyoza entrée plate. Packed with protein, iron, vitamins, and minerals, shiitake had long been a treasured delicacy in Asia and the South Pacific.” For starters this evening, they include spinach dip, seafood ceviche, seared beef carpaccio, new England clam chowder, hot harira soup, chilled mango and pineapple soup, and salads. For the main course, the following was offered; conchiglioni pasta, shrimp gyoza, pork scaloppini Oscar, pan-seared fillet of sole, roasted rack of lamb, and chicken Caesar salad. For dessert, enough said, it is always good. In the middle of dinner, our friend from Maryland (one of the ladies we met on the St. Thomas tour to check up on us and Michael and Brian.

Following dinner, Cindy and I change and disembarked the ship to seeking out free Internet. Most of the free Internet was in the Renaissance shopping area. Jenny and Marcus told us that there was a Dunkin Donuts in this shopping center, so I was on a mission to find the store. We did find Dunkin Donuts, however I just posed for a picture. We did find Internet access, however I had to purchase frozen yogurt to get an Internet code. We were able to get online and check email, participate in my online class. The port area is pretty in the evening hours walking around.

We were back on the ship in time for the Love and Marriage show in the Coral Theatre. We say this same type of show when on our Fiji cruise Feb/March 2014. This is seriously funny; however Cindy and I would never participate because of the embarrassing factor.

The show was done around 11:00 pm and we head back to our rooms, we have an early morning again, tour in Curacao.



Stayed tuned for our Curacao blog.

---