Aruba

We have been to Aruba several times and we always seem to dock in a different location. This one was a little further from the tourist shopping, but people who wanted to save some steps could take a shuttle to the port shops.

Aw we exited our ship, we saw this sign and took the bait….$25 per person seemed pretty cheap to see the main tourist attractions.

When we asked the local if we would have to wait long, she said, “Oh, no. We can leave once we get 24 guests. That sounded ideal to me as this converted school bus could hold many more than that.

Well, she did not leave at 24. A large family group kept trying to barter and decide whether they were joining us or not. They did eventually join us and off we went. It was not long before we stopped to change drivers. Our driver switched with another driver who did not have the proper credentials to enter the port area. (Our second indication that you get what you pay for.) Our new driver was interesting, though, and gave us lots of stories along the way.

Aruba has an arid climate, and there are cactus and aloe everywhere.

One thing we learned is that once residents turn 70 years old, they can move into a government retirement home (sounds similar to our self-pay assisted living facilities in the states.) They can keep their own house to rent it out or sell it. There is no cost to live at a retirement center.

Our first stop was at Casibari. This is a really neat area with lots of boulders to climb.

Many people rent 4×4’s for a tour. We saw some of these parked at our next stop which was the Chapel of Our Lady of Alto Vista.

Next stop was the California Lighthouse. It gets its name from the Container ship named California that crashed on the coast.

There was another bus that pulled up while we were there. This bus was the KuKuKunuku. This is a party bus on the island. (And you could tell they had been partying.)

Our bus driver offered to take people back to the ship or to let people off for some time at the beach and he would come back to pick them up later.