greenroads: To Aruba Dec.12 and 13 (Day 3 and 4)

Our first "sea day" was balmy and calm and I was amazed at how long it took us to pass by Haiti! There were many tiny fishing boats in sight that actually didn't look particularly sea worthy. With the binoculars you could see that they were net fishing. On board there were two pools, this one at the back of the boat and one more midship that could be closed in during bad or windy weather.

Wally found a friend!

We took an early seating at the same table each night, getting to know the servers and enjoying fine dining. The Zuiderdam had come out of dry dock and there seemed to be a few glitches but I will not dwell on them here. We enjoyed onboard food and entertainment and of course the company of our Inverlyn friends!

Now to Aruba! I was excited about this cruise since I had never been this far south and all stops were new to me. Aruba is one of the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) and John and I disembarked at the port of Oranjestad, the largest town and capital, and took a local tour bus with Pedro as our guide. His English was a bit hard to understand and he did not have a flair for highlighting the historic points of interest but the price was right and we had a much cheaper tour than from the ship. Our bus was painted bright orange, brighter than an Ontario school bus, but there was no glass in the windows. This was wonderful since it was very hot and I loved the tropical breeze and clear view. I was surprised at the cactus! Aruba is a very arid Island with desert like vegetation. It was interesting to see the rock formations, California Light House, the beaches, the colourful shops and homes of Aruba.

Aruba is a 33-kilometer-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and approximately 130 km east of the Guajira Peninsula, Colombia. The first settlers were thought to be the Arawak tribe escaping persecution from Venezuela. European explorers arrived in 1499, first Spanish then Dutch and Aruba remained under Dutch rule since the 1600's. During World War 2 the Island was one of the main suppliers of refined petroleum products to the allies and became a British protectorate. Aruba's path to independence began in the 1940's and after a long and complicated process it has been achieved.

The approach to Aruba was beautiful! The colour of the water is hard to believe.

The major city is Oranjestad and it is also an important port as you can see from all the containers. We saw many of these on this cruise.

Oranjestad has some colourful and interesting buildings. Tourism is the main livelihood here now and most natives speak English. But along with the other ABC Island most natives speak Papiamento, which is a creole language - a mixture of Portuguese, West African, Dutch and Spanish.