Day 24 - 12/13 - Oranjestad, Aruba

One Meets the Nicest People on Cruise Ships

Our ship arrived on time and was ready for passengers to disembark just before 8am. Interestingly, there was no mention of being unable to go ashore without showing evidence of yellow fever vaccination. We disembarked the ship just before 9am and made our way to the nearby bus terminal where we were to meet our friends, Ronnie and Catherine.

Just after 9am, I spotted them across the parking lot and we went to their car to begin our morning together. We went up the west side of the island past all of the resorts and made a brief stop at one of their favorite beaches and walking paths. Further north we visited the California Lighthouse (named after a ship that wrecked near there). We noticed lots of small lizards scurrying their way around in and out of the bushes. We'd continue to see them throughout the day.  

Next we visited the Casabari rock formation. It's an interesting rock formation in the middle of terrain that looks very much like Arizona with lots of cacti, rocks, and very arid. One climbs up stairs hewn out of the rock with more lizards scurrying around. On top of this granite rock, we could see the light house to the north and the "mountains" to the south as well as lots of rock formations. It was quite scenic.  

Our hosts invited us to their home where we enjoyed some tea and just relaxed.

A visit to the Natural Bridge was next on their agenda. It's located on the windy east coast of the island. The Natural Bridge actually collapsed in 2005 and there is a smaller bridge still remaining. After I posted a picture on Facebook, a friend posted a picture of the bridge he took in 1993. We then took a drive farther south through the little town of Santa Cruz which had a fair collection of American fast food restaurants like McD's, Burger King, Pizza Hut and the like. Our driving loop took us past the airport and they dropped us off just south of the Queen Wilhelmina Park where we enjoyed a nice but expensive ($60 for two) beachfront restaurant called the West Deck. When our friends learned we were returning on New Years Eve, they enthusiastically extended an invitation to spend the day with them.

It was interesting to watch the pelicans fly by and upon spotting a fish in the water, they went into a controlled crash dive. At one point a school of larger silver fish jumped out of the water a couple times likely evading some type of predator.

After lunch we wandered up to Queen Wilhelmina Park where we observed and photographed dozens of iguanas and walked the boardwalk surrounding the Renaissance Hotel which took us back to town and through a shopping mall with a 5 O'Clock Somewhere Bar. A shopkeeper recommended that we visit the museum at the Fort Zoutman which included a nice tower that we climbed and enjoyed city views.

We made it back to the ship noting that the Celebrity Reflection had recently arrived. We ate some dinner and cool off with a shower before heading back out to attend the Friday Night service at the local synagogue, Beth Israel that our local friends attend. Two other friends from the ship ended up walking over to the service with us. At the synagogue there were a number of other cruisers from the Reflection present.

The service was not unlike a Christian worship service except for the understandable lack of mention of Jesus. In the hour and a quarter service, the Rabbi gave a 15 minute sermon and most of the rest of the time was spent singing (mainly from the Psalms). After the service we walked back to the ship with one of the couples from the Reflection. Our friends walked with us as far as the Queen Wilhelmina Park. We got back to the ship just before 10pm and the onboard time was 10:30pm. After we boarded, there were around 90 passengers still off the ship.

It was a good day seeing a location from the eyes of a local. Tomorrow is Curaçao. Stay tuned.

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