Aruba May 14 to 28 2021

I am a scuba diver so most of my vacations, solo or with my wife and friends, are dive vacations.

Years past, I went to Curacao then to Bonaire, the other two of the A, B, C islands. Both islands had decent diving and conditions; good visibility and little current. Curacao was like swimming in an aquarium, there were many schools of small fish but the downside was there were only small fish, not any any large fish, at least that I saw.

We saw larger fish in Bonaire like tarpon and large barracuda but we didn’t like shore diving. At one point or another each of us completely lost our shit getting into or out of the water. That is because the beaches were rocky making it easy to trip with fifty pounds of equipment on our back.

I thought the diving in Aruba would be comparable to Bonaire and Curacao but with many more after diving options than the other two islands. Diving was a disappointment.

Getting to Aruba

I had to get a covid test three days before my flight so I wanted to wait to book my flight and room until I had a negative test result. I am sure I couldn’t have waited to book this late prepandemic but I wouldn’t have had to.

 I knew I wanted to stay near Eagle Beach or Palm Beach. I was having a hard time finding a place at either location where I could stay two full weeks. There were several Air B and B properties I was interested in but the owners weren’t responding. I eventually booked a week at Bublia Bliss near Eagle Beach. Toward the end of my stay at Bublia Bliss I booked an Air B and B near Palm Beach. Waiting to book gave me a chance to see where I wanted to stay in Palm Beach.

My Flight Out

My flight was at the inane hour of 5:15 am. I arranged an Uber for 3 am. The last two times I had a flight this early my driver was in an altered state. They weren’t drunk or at least I couldn’t smell alcohol but they were not sober. I was happy that this Uber driver was sober.

It was too early for me to have breakfast at home and restaurants in the MSP terminal weren’t open so I didn’t have anything to eat before boarding the plane. I was hoping to grab breakfast in Atlanta but from past experience I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen.

I was right, when I arrived at my gate I had barley enough time to get breakfast but all the restaurants near the gate had long lines. I wasn’t able to get anything to eat until after I checked into my hotel later that afternoon. I was upgraded to Comfort Plus on the flight from ATL to Aruba so I did get extra snacks.

Clearing the health check in Aruba was simple, I just showed them the health app on my phone and they gave me a tag which I had to hand to someone when I exited the airport. They gave me a card which looked official but no one ever collected it. No customs like the last time I was in Mexico. I would guess that is because of covid.

Wearing a mask on the plane and in the airports was a small price to pay to get to travel again. My worry was I was going to have an anti-masker on one of my flights and who knows where that craziness would end- canceled or delayed flight, having to help duct tape them to their seat.

When I went to Playa in May I discovered that my blue surgical masks are a little small and cut into my ears after an hour or two. I forgot this fact and wore the blue surgical masks again until they started bothering my ears. Luckily I had masks that fit better in my backpack.

Rental Car

 I booked a rental car with Avis. I got a good deal on a car, $350 for two weeks. It was supposed to be a sub-compact but they gave me a Nissan Versa which I believe is classified as a compact. I was confused why they upgraded me until I saw the car, it had more dents than a golf ball has dimples .  The reason they gave it to me, I would guess, is because I was a single male and they hoped I wouldn’t care. And I didn’t.

The good thing is, even though they marked all the dents on the contract and took a video of the condition of the car, when I dropped it off, they just took the keys and said you are good to go. They never looked at the video or the contract to see if there were new dents.

I usually don’t drive when I am traveling internationally. I try to stay where everything is walkable or a short cab ride away. It took three or four days to realize I was going to have to drive while I was in Aruba. Driving in Aruba is easy but it took a while to adapt to the roundabouts. Once I figured out the correct lane to be in when I entered the roundabout it was simple.

Bubali Bliss

I really liked Bubali Bliss and I appreciated it even more once I moved to the property by Palm Beach. Bubali Bliss was cleaner and the management was much more engaged than the Palm Beach property.

Check in at the hotel was contactless. The information I received via text gave me the gate code to enter the property and the code to enter my room, it was the last four digits of my phone number so I wouldn’t forget it. There was no room key that I could lose while swimming in the ocean. Nice!

They texted me the parking map while at the airport which I didn’t read. When I got to the property it was obvious where to park-I thought. There were eight or ten parking spots in front of the hotel. I assumed I could park in any of them since they weren’t numbered.

I quickly noticed that my car was usually the only one that was parked near the palm tree at the entrance. Shortly after I checked in I was sitting on my patio reading and enjoying a Belgian beer and I heard something bounce off the umbrella on the patio next to mine.

 I got up to see what it was. There are a lot of iguanas and lizards in Aruba so I assumed is was a clumsy lizard that fell out of a tree but a coconut had bounced off the umbrella next door and fell into the parking lot. It occurred to me that if my car was parked there it would have another dent.

The rest of the week I made sure that I didn’t park under any palm trees unlike the poor fellow that owned the white car in the photo above.

I booked a one bedroom and after staying at a very small efficiency in Playa del Carmen I was glad that I opted for the larger room. It had a large living room and kitchen. The bedroom and bathroom were the normal size. Everything was well kept up. I never used the pool but it looked nice.

I have mixed feelings about the location. It was nice because it was across the street from Super Food Plaza. This is the biggest grocery store on the north end of the island so it was handy to be across the street, but the street was busy, even at night.

Before my fist trip to the beach from Bubali Bliss I looked at Google Maps to find the quickest route. I saw I had to cross the Super Foods parking lot. As I was crossing I saw signs pointing toward the beach. The parking lot exited to a crosswalk on highway 1A. That brought me to a dirt road that bordered Eagle Aruba Resort and eventually led to the beach.

My main complaint about the location of Bubali Bliss is the lack of restaurants in walking distance of the hotel. Super Foods had Jack’s Café, it was a buffet style restaurant. I ate there once but when I am on vacation, I am hoping for something a little nicer. There was a seafood restaurant located in the Super Foods building. I stopped in and they appeared to be more of a fish monger than a restaurant.

All of the other restaurant within walking distance were at the beach. Several had closed, covid I assume, and several were too nice for me to enter in cargo shorts and a t-shirt.

I did a search and found an Italian restaurant called Terazza Italiana near the beach. I tried to eat there several times. The first time I tried, I plugged the restaurant into Google maps and walked over. I got to the intersection where Google said the restaurant was and all I saw was a food truck and it wasn’t serving Italian food. I walked a block or two in each direction but I couldn’t find the restaurant.

I eventually figured out that the restaurant was on the top level of the hotel on that corner. The signage wasn’t very good and it was dark so I never saw the sign for the restaurant. I stopped in during the day to check it out, it appeared that they might not be open because the tables and chairs had been blown over and it was in shambles.

Eagle Beach

Eagle Beach is one of the best beaches in the world. It is nothing like the rocky beaches on Bonaire. The sand is white and beautiful. The water is aqua and perfect for cooling off on a hot day. Some palapa are free to use, others you had to pay for. Sections of the beach were busy but most were not.

My first day at the beach I noticed that the beach lounges were taller than a normal.  The reason was because if you lay close to sand level the Aruban winds will sand blast your tan off. It could be really uncomfortable. 

Eagle Beach Restaurants

Passions on the Beach

This is my favorite Eagle Beach restaurant. It is located directly on the beach. They had live music most nights. The food was good and the staff was friendly but $8 US for a 8 oz Heineken! But that is the normal price in Aruba.

Jack’s Café in Super Foods

I ate here the day I arrived. I was starving. It was two in the afternoon and I only thing I had to eat was a couple of snacks during my flight. Jack’s was the closest restaurant to my hotel. It is located just inside the entrance to Super Foods. It is cafeteria style but you could also have a burger made to order. I had a fish sandwich that was pretty decent.

Senor Burrito

I pulled up my Trip Advisor app and did a search for restaurants near me one evening. I wanted something quick and easy. Senor Burritos came up. It was the opposite direction from the beach but not that far away. I noticed that there was a sushi restaurant next door, according to Google maps.

When I arrived at Senor Burritos I saw that it was located in a gas station and as I walked inside I discovered that Senor Burritos and The Sushi Factory were the same restaurant. I could order either Mexican food or sushi at the same counter. Never a good sign. My burrito was exactly what I expected, not spicy but good enough for a gas station burrito.

Coco Loco

Coco Loco is on the south end of Eagle Beach. I had lunch there one day. They have umbrellas and loungers that you can rent. There are trees that line the beach near Coco Loco that are perfect for relaxing under if you don’t want rent an umbrella.

My Air B and B at Palm Beach

The photos of my rental on Aiir B and B looked very nice. The room wasn’t that nice it was very photogenic.

I liked that the unit was large and the interior was white with walls of windows. The downside to having so many windows is the sun streamed in at 6:30 am.

My main complaint about the apartment was that it wasn’t clean. I am not a clean freak, just ask my wife, and there were several things that creeped me out. The shower curtain was disgusting. The bottom two feet of the curtain were stained brown from the water or mold. The toilet refused to flush completely multiple times. I am not sure the sheets were changed before I started my rental. I should have contacted the owner but I didn’t.

 There wasn’t any hot water, I found where the water heater was supposed to be. There were pieces of vent pipe and other miscellaneous junk but no water heater. Fortunately the Aruban water isn’t as cold as it is in Minnesota so my showers were tolerable.

The pictures on the website showed an outdoor area with white furniture. The furniture was dirty and sun bleached and weathered from being outside. There wasn’t any shade in the back yard so you would bake if you spent any time there lounging on the dirty white furniture.

 The living room area had nice leather furniture, or at least it looked nice in the pictures but it was worn and the seams were tearing. I could go on but I won’t. I really missed my room at Bubali Bliss after I checked into the Palm Beach apartment.

The location was the best feature of the apartment. To get to Palm Beach all I had to do was walk a block and a half to the Wendy’s parking lot, I could cross 1A at that point. It could be challenging because they was road construction and there weren’t any traffic lights. It was a couple of blocks to J.E. Irausquin Boulevard and the beach was a short distance from there. It was a shorter walk than the walk from Bubali Bliss to the beach.

Palm Beach

Some people like Eagle Beach better than Palm Beach but not me. Palm Beach is definitely busier and has more bars and restaurant. If the business of the beach bothers you you can take a short hike north and the beach is less crowded, parts are even deserted. If you go far enough north your run into the windsurfers.

The weird thing about Palm Beach is the water was about four degrees warmer than Eagle Beach. The beaches are located next to each other so I am not sure why there was a water temperature difference. When I was diving the water temperature was only 75F which is chilly. It was 81F or higher in Bonaire and Curacao.

The dive master told me a cold current had come in causing reduced visibility and colder water temperatures. Maybe the current was closer to Eagle Beach than Palm Beach? I am not sure.

The downtown area of Palm Beach was packed with shops, bars and restaurants and easily walkable. I couldn’t have tried all of them even if I was there for two weeks.

Palm Beach Restaurants

Pelican Nest

This is one of several restaurants on Pelican Pier. The food was good and the ambience was great because I was surrounded on three sides by the ocean.

Perla D’Iatlia

I ordered penne arrabiata and said I preferred it spicy. I am not sure if it was a mean trick but it was so spicy that I almost coudn’t eat it.

Lola Taqueria

I ate here because it was always busy. I wasn’t disappointed. The tacos were good and good prices too.

Casa Tua

I walked past the restaurant several times before I noticed a sign stating they have an aperitif option from 5 pm to 7 pm nightls. It includes a margherita pizza and a glass of wine. It was very reasonably priced and the pizza was good.

Orale Mexican

The restaurant is located near Perla D’Iatlia. The enchiladas were good and they the staff was friendly.

Salt and Pepper

I ate at Salt and Pepper twice. I had the best grouper sandwich I had ever eaten. It doesn’t look amazing but it tastes amazing.

Dushi Bagels and Burgers

According to Trip Advisor this is supposed to be one of the better cheap eats in Palm Beach. I had a great burger. I sat at the bar and talked to the bartender. It seemed he didn’t get along with his manager because the manager was glaring at the bartender whenever the bartender talked to me. They had live music every night too.

Coffee Shops

I live in the Twin Cities and my favorite coffee shop is Caribou. I prefer it to Starbucks and other local coffee shops. I try to support local coffee shops when I travel but usually get bad/overpriced coffee and/or really poor service.

When I got back from Aruba and had a Caribou latte I was disappointed. The coffee in Aruba was that much better than what I was use to at home.

The Coffee Shop at Super Foods

Who would think a no name (to me) coffee shop in a grocery store would be good, but it was and also reasonable. I liked that they gave me free cookies with my latte.

My last day at Bubali Bliss I walked over and bought a latte before I drove to Palm Beach. The woman working the counter recognized me and said she knew I had been coming all week and I earned a free coffee. Very nice customer service.

TeCaCho Coffee Shop

On my walk from Bubali Bliss to Eagle Beach I passed a little coffee shop and bakery called TeCaCho Coffee Shop. It was on a side road and if you didn’t know it was there you would never find it. It made perfect sense for me to buy a latte to support it, except for the fact I have terrible luck with local coffee shops.

I ordered a large latte. The woman behind the counter took my order, held a large cup up the machine behind the counter and pressed the latte button three times. My latte was really big but it tasted exactly like it came out of an automated coffee machine that dispensed powdered milk and instant coffee. I drank part of it and then had to toss the rest.

I would guess their bakery is better than their coffee otherwise I don’t know how they are in business.

Starbucks in Palm Beach

It is located on J.E. Iresquin Boulevard in Palm Beach. There is a parking ramp behind the strip mall where Starbucks is located. I parked in the ramp many times while I was staying in Palm Beach. Lucky for me, because of the pandemic, the parking ramp employees weren’t working so parking was free.

Starbucks has outdoor seating on the boulevard and plenty of air-conditioned indoor seating.

My Air B and B rental lost internet one day so I drove to Starbucks to get a latte and internet. Of course, their internet was down there too. That was the only day they didn’t have internet.

Santos Coffee with Soul

I found this great little coffee shop at the end of my trip. It is located in Manchebo beach which is south of Eagle Beach. I am not sure what the actual beach is like but the area near the casino was a cool little area with a market, shops and restaurants and of course, Santos Coffee with Soul. If I was going to go back I would consider staying in this area.

The lattes were great and the wait staff was friendly.

Oranjestad

I was really glad that I didn’t stay closer to Oranjestad. I drove into the city twice. I was glad I had a GPS. The streets in the downtown area are narrow and do not run parallel to each other. There were several cruise ships in while I was there but the area was mostly deserted. To me, everything looked old and dirty.

Cuba’s Cookin’

It was the worst meal I had in Aruba. I had a terrible chicken sandwich. I should have known better than eat a restaurant in the tourist area of a town.

Beaches

I like snorkeling so I tried several beaches on the island that were recommended for snorkeling. All of them were a disappointment.

Malmok Beach

Malmok had my favorite snorkeling. There were some fish near the cliffs and I saw a small turtle a little further out but that was about it.  

I discovered that Europeans are less self-conscious about nudity that us Americans. I got out of my car and as I was grabbing my beach towel I happened to notice that one of the three people in the palapa next to my car was naked. She was changing from her swimsuit into her clothes and there weren’t any changing rooms.

Baby Beach

It is a beautiful man-made beach. It was constructed in the 1950s for the families of the executives of the oil refinery that sits close to Baby Beach. The wind must always blow in the right direction because I didn’t have a hint of an odor from the refinery.

It is a very beautiful beach. It is almost completely encircled by a stone wall that keeps the water calm. I don’t know where I read it was a good snorkel beach; 90% is white sandy bottom and with a three foot depth. Almost no habitable structure for fish. As you approach the break wall the depth nears five feet. I saw one trunk fish and several little fish.

There is a restaurant on Baby Beach called Big Mama Grill. I didn’t eat there but it looked interesting.

It is a great place to hang out and enjoy the sand, sunshine and warm water but not a good place to snorkel.           

Arashi Beach

Arashi beach was beautiful. I arrived later in the day and there weren’t any palapas left. There were two guys renting lounges and umbrellas but they wanted $20. I wasn’t going to be there that long so I laid my towel on the beach. The snorkeling was less than spectacular.

Scuba Diving

I only dove two days in my two weeks I was on the island. Before I booked my Aruba trip I looked at dive videos posted on You Tube and noticed that the visibility wasn’t what I was used to in the Caribbean. I posted a question on the Trip Advisor forum about visibility and the replies I received stated that it can be good but it isn’t as good as diving in the rest of the Caribbean. I decided I would take a chance. The visibility on both of my dives was less than 50 feet which is poor from my experience.

My first day of diving was with Dive Aruba which appeared to be a one-man dive shop. I had to meet him at his house on the outskirts of Oranjestadt and then I followed him to his boat in the Renaissance marina.

The first dive was the Pepermales wreck. It had been broken into many pieces so it resembled metal randomly scattered across the ocean floor more than it resembled a boat. If this was Mexico I would say that visibility was terrible but apparently this is normal.

I did see some cool sea creatures. I saw two southern rays, several very large puffer fish, a spotted eagle ray and a octopus that was just hanging out. He was on top of a metal encrusted pipe, not even trying too hard to blend in. I stopped to film him and I tried to touch him a couple of times but he would move his tentacle just enough to avoid my finger. When I finished playing with the octopus I looked up and I couldn’t see Clive or Oscar. I finally saw their air bubbles in the distance.

My second day of diving was with Palm Beach Divers. It is a really good dive shop. I had my usual dive breakfast or Aruba breakfast at this point; yogurt and a banana. If I was diving more this trip I would plan something else for breakfast. The water is cold and I am hungry by the time I get back to shore.

We dove Antilla wreck again. We spent less time swimming doing swim thoughts this time but it was still good.

I dove with a British geologist and a Polish couple in my group. The British geologist worked for BP. I pointed out the two oil rigs off shore and asked it they were BP. He told me the platforms were being transported and weren’t set up to drill. He seemed to be apologetic about working for an oil company.

The second dive was Arashi reef. We saw three turtles and an octopus.

Tourist Stuff on Aruba

I used to think anything touristy was to be avoided but we have done some really cool and helpful tourist activities. We did Runnerbean walking tour in Barcelona, we did a double decker bus tour in Sorrento Italy and we did Cardinal van tour in Turks and Caicos. All the tours taught us history, local lore and information that came in handy later in our vacation.

Aruba Ostrich Farm

Our tour guide was funny and engaging. We fed the ostriches several times. The guide was nice enough to take a picture and video of me feeding an ostrich.

Ostriches are interesting. After they eat they bite at the air looking like they are trying to bite something (me) but they are trying to swallow. You can watch the clump of food slide down their neck as they bite the air. Also, the females lay the eggs but the males sit on and guard the eggs. The eggs are huge. There were two eggs near a fence line we walked past, several of us stooped down to take photos. The male stuck out it’s wings and quickly walked toward us. We backed away and he walked the fence line until we left.

We also saw baby ostriches that were about six months old and about two feet high. They had leopard spots on their necks to confuse predators. Very cute little animals.

They also had emus. The emus are apparently more aggressive than the ostriches so we didn’t feed them. I learned that some emus are raised for their oil.

Donkey Sanctuary

I read on the website that the donkeys like apples so I took a small detour on the drive up and bought a pack of apples. I assumed there would be a tour like the ostrich reserve but there wasn’t a tour, the donkeys roamed the enclosure and you could feed them from the fenced in veranda of the office.

The people working at the donkey sanctuary gave me a knife and cutting board to slice the apples up. I fed the slices to the donkeys. As I fed them I found out that the donkeys are bullies. A couple of them were the alphas and they would hee-haw and bite to keep the others away from the apples.

I noticed several small donkeys on the back side of the office. I fed the remainder of my apples to them. Initially they were a little skittish but they eventually ate the apple slices.

California Lighthouse

The California lighthouse is located on the northern tip of the island. It is a short drive north from Palm Beach. The view is amazing from the top of the lighthouse.

There is a thick rope that acts as a hand rail when you are climbing the 74 steps to the top. It is disgusting. It has absorbed oil, sunscreen and who knows what else from people’s hands. It left black marks on my shorts every time I bumped into it. I am sure there are bacteria and viruses on the roap tha have yet to be discovered by science.

Once you have ascended and descended the light house there is a converted school bus that sells soda, food and souvenirs at the base of the lighthouse. There is also a restaurant a short distance from the lighthouse.

Local Businesses

Super Foods

This grocery store had everything including a large selection of groceries and a great coffee shop. Jax Cafe was located in Super Foods. I bought my Digicel SIM card for my phone there. They had a pretty decent selection of Belgian beers and other beers.

I assumed when I moved to Palm Beach that there would be a similar grocery store there but there wasn’t. There were small mom and pop grocery stores but nothing with any selection. I had to drive back to Super Foods to buy Belgian beer or get a decent selection of groceries.

Quickie Lickie Laundry

I dropped off my laundry here half way through my stay on the island. They were reasonable and quick. I decided not to ask about the name.

The Market

This is a medium sized grocery store, liquor store, souvenir shop. The location is great, as I stated before I would probably stay at Manchebo Beach if I were to return.

 

Odd things that happened in Aruba

Once I moved to Palm Beach it seemed that something odd happened every day I went to the beach, or at least every other day on average.

The flying innertube and the almost topless lady

One of my first days in Palm Beach I was walking down the beach and looked up to see a large blowup innertube flying  towards me. Chasing it was a short heavy-set woman. It appeared she had untied her top to suntan, then the donut shaped floatie blew away. She was holding her top in place with one arm while she tried to grab the innertube with the other. I ran a couple of step toward the inner tube, she beat me to it but thanked me for trying to help. No pictures of this one.

The man peeing in the water

The second weird thing that happened was a man dressed in long pants, t-shirt and a hat with a flap in back to protect his neck from the sun, walked directly in front of me until he was knee deep in the water and then squatted down. In my mind there is only one thing he could have been doing- peeing obviously. I think he may have been challenged. There was a teenage girl in the water near him who knew him. He was at least ten years older than she was but she talked to him as if he was a child.

The sea turtle

I was walking down the beach and I saw a large group of people, about thirty or forty at the water’s edge. I walked up just in time to see a small leatherback sea turtle swim away. They must have been helping it go back into the ocean. Everyone cheered when it swam away.

My new fury friend

A couple of days later I was walking down the beach and I passed three women petting a beautiful cinnamon lab. As I walked past, the dog looked up at me and looked at him. I kept walking and I heard the women say, “I guess he is yours now”. I looked down and he was walking at my side.

As I walked down the beach, I got a lot of comments about what a beautiful dog he was. I was compelled to say he isn’t mine even though I would have liked to claim him.

 I approached a clump of trees where people had laid their towels out underneath to escape the sun. I noticed they had two small dogs tie up to the trees. The little dogs started barking at my beach pooch still walking next to me.

I was  panicked, I was afraid that my furry friend might attack the smaller dogs. As he darted from my side toward the little barking dogs I yelled, “he’s not mine”. I shouldn’t have worried, my buddy was a beach dog, he must be used to other dogs.  He ran up to them, they sniffed each other and he trotted back to my side.

 The dog and I stopped to talk to a mom and her two daughters a little further down the beach. It was very odd because they were very friendly but the dog seemed insecure around them and they pointed out that he was leaning hard against my leg.

I’ve had people tell me that female dogs prefer the company of female humans and male doge prefer the company of male humans. That seemed to be the case with this dog.

As I approached the end of the beach I panicked a little, what happens if the dog follows me back to my Air B and B? We would have to cross a highway to go to my rental, would the dog get run over?

Luckily when we reached the end of the beachwhere all of the windsurfers are, I turned around and he kept going and crossed the road. I assumed he was going home. He didn’t have a collar so he might have been a stray but he seemed to be too healthy and friendly to be a stray.

You hear about people traveling in third world countries that find a dog and adopt it. I have to admit that as my furry buddy and I were walking down the beach, for an instant, I thought, can I bring him home?  Aruba is not a third world country so I shouldn’t have to worry about leaving him there. I am sure if I brought him back to Minnesota the first time he went out in -20 F weather he would have come back in and pee in the floor to let me know how irritated he was that I took him away from his beautiful beach.

The Rental Car Lizard

The day before I returned to the US I was backing my rental car out of the driveway. As I began to back out I put my right arm around the headrest of the passenger seat. When I did, I swear I felt a tail. I stopped and quickly looked but nothing was there.

I 2was headed back to the airport. I as I started to back out of the driveway, I looked back and saw a medium sized lizard on the back seat. He ran on to the rear window sill. I grabbed my phone to take a picture and when I turned around, he was gone. I stopped the car and opened the back door to look for the lizard and shoo it out but is was nowhere to be seen.

When I dropped the rental car off I let the rental car representative know a lizard was in the car. He didn’t seem surprised.

Funny things I saw in Aruba

A couple pictures of funny things in Aruba

This translates to You Go Blondie

This was in a jewelry store window in Palm Beach

There were more than a couple Captain Morgans scattered across Aruba

They may want to retink their name of they expand to America.

Recap

Did I like diving in Aruba, the main reason I came here? No. The visibility was the worst I have ever dived in. I would not return to Aruba to dive. The snorkeling was terrible too.

Did I like the island of Aruba? I did. The donkey and ostrich reserves were worth visiting. The California light house is worth the trip to get there.

Did I like the beaches? The beaches in Aruba are beautiful. They are easy to get to and have ample parking.

Did I like Eagle Beach? The beach is beautiful but I thought, for me, there weren’t enough restaurants for a weeklong stay.

Did I like Palm Beach? From a bar/restaurant point of view it was great. Many good restaurants, bars and coffee shops. The beach was beautiful, a little crowded but that si the price you have to pay to get a good selection of bars and restaurants.