Aruba - Part 1

We flew into Aruba on a Monday afternoon and headed directly for the bus stop to take us to our Marriott Surf Club Hotel.  Whilst waiting for the bus, we met a nice gentlemen that worked as an immigration officer at the airport.  He talked to him for a while, and he offered to give us a ride to our hotel from the bus station which was where our transfer point was.  We happily accepted and he took us there in half the time it would have taken on a bus.  He wouldn't accept tips either, he was just giving us a ride to be nice.  Brett often gives people rides from the airport in Cedar City to their hotels/St. George, so it was nice to get a similar favor in return.

We arrived to the Marriott Surf Club and as always were astounded with the humongous pools and intricate landscaping all over the property.  We took a walk on the beach, returned to our hotel to shower and get money for dinner, but promptly fell asleep due to the appx. 24 hour trip we had to get there.  We didn't have any alarms set and slept for about 15 straight hours! Can you believe that?

The next day we awoke and we were starving! We hadn't eaten anything except for small snacks for about a day and a half.  We went out to eat for breakfast and then got ready for a day of adventure.  We decided to go see the lighthouse on the north end of the island, then planned on snorkeling at multiple beaches on the way home. The plan was to catch a bus to the lighthouse, but we walked and walked and walked, and never saw a bus going our direction.  We ended up walking the whole 3 miles.

We got smoothies (mango for Me, pina colada for Brett) up by the lighthouse took some pics and headed to the sand dunes near by.  The northern coastline was smothered with large boulders and it was fun to watch and listen to the waves crash into the rocks.  The weirdest part of Aruba is the fact that it is actually very much a desert. There were cacti everywhere!

Why is there a humongous cactus in Aruba? I don't know...

Does that look like I'm on an island in the Caribbean? No way! I may as well be walking with my snorkel gear into the desert hills of Utah! LOL

The first beach we snorkeled at was Arashi Beach.  It was very mild waters and we saw a few neat fish, but nothing too spectacular.  The second beach we snorkeled at was just down the shoreline and we saw a turtle, octopus, multiple starfish, swarms of fish, etc... This was our very favorite beach! We came back to it later to spend more time there. That evening we took our razor scooters down to the market to buy food for breakfast the next few days, and to buy some snacks.  We ate dinner at a Thai restarant and the food was very good.

On Wednesday we relaxed on our beach in front of the hotel for the better part of the day and then took a tour out to see the Antilla Shipwreck.  We got to ride out on a pirate ship and they took us right to the shipwreck so we could snorkel all around the 400 foot carrier that was now submerged.  The ship was so big and really eery! They then took us to a snorkeling spot closer to shore where we saw lots more fish and starfish.  We sailed down to another spot close to the shore and got to swing off of the rope swing attached to the boat.  I did a backflip off the rope swing and had an old man on the tour with us tell me several times that I won the prize for best trick off the rope swing.

Thursday we knew we had to go back to our favorite beach, but this time we were prepared for no bus transportation to get there.  We took our scooters, snacks, and snorkel gear, and headed out.  Scooters make the trip at least twice as fast, compared to on foot, so we will probably always pack them with us on our vacations, we love them!  We always take a lock and lock all of our stuff up while we are both out snorkeling.

 Seahorses do exist!!!

We found so many starfish that we thought it would be fun to see how many we could collect and get a picture of them all together.  We collected 23!  We had to be fast because the starfish didn't like being next to each other and would be quite spread out every time we returned with more to add to our collection.

We also built a huge sandcastle.  The Aruban sun is very strong, so even if you have put sunscreen on multiple times, you'll probably still get burned if out in it too long.  We both got burned building the sand castle, but had a great time doing it.  The final product was inspired by the Mayan ruins in Mexico.

Thursday evening we moved hotels to the Renaissance Marriott located in the town Oranjestad.  We decided to switch hotels because the Renaissance owns a private island that only guests are allowed to go to and we just had to see it! Plus, it is always nice to move our base and see new things around a different hotel.  There were private boats that shuttle guests to the island every 15 minutes.  The hotel built a canal underneath the road, into the hotel where the boats come right in and pick the guests up. Crazy, it was so neat!

 This is the canal that comes into the hotel.  The lobby is right next to the boat down there.

The main square in Oranjestad

 We came across a restaurant called 7 West and ate an all-you-can-eat dinner of ribs that evening (ironically it was the cheapest dinner we could find at $15 a plate).  Food on the island was quite expensive at the restaurants ranging from $25 to $40 a plate.  We asked the same restaurant if they had any specials the following day, which they did. All-you-can-eat sushi for $15.  Needless to say, we returned so Brett could get his sushi, I opted for a different dish of beef garlic tortellini pasta. So delicious! 

We went to the island Friday morning.  The island has two beaches, flamingos, iguanas, a restaurant, a spa, and a gift shop.  There was a shipwreck right off the coast of the island that we were able to snorkel to and see as well.  We were still burnt from the adventures the previous day, so we didn't spend too much time in the sun as it hurt! We instead found chairs in the shade of the palm trees.  As said earlier, we returned to the 7 West for another delicious meal that evening.

Saturday came all too soon and we flew out that afternoon.  The Delta flights were full, but luckily SkyWest has an agreement with United Airlines that allows us to fly standby on their planes as well. That plane had a few seats left so we flew on United to Chicago.