Day 11 - Aruba

Aruba is beautiful! What a perfect last stop for this trip. We arrived in port just before 8 am (where we were greeted by a rainbow) and were off to pick up our rental car. I’m happy to report that we found Aruba much easier to navigate than Curacao and, we were able to drive directly to all our destinations.

Our first stop was the Aruba Donkey Sanctuary. They are a non-profit organization that is run by volunteers and supported by donations. They have 59 donkeys living there currently and it looks like it’s a pretty easy life for them. Dad – maybe Dolly would like to relocate! Andrew was in heaven at the sanctuary feeding and petting all the donkeys. There was even one named Andrew!

After the donkeys we headed to the west end of the island to Palm Beach to pick up some rental fins for snorkeling. We then drove north to try out a couple of areas that were recommended for snorkeling. As you can see from the pictures, the water is beautiful and clear and the beaches are beautiful white sand. Despite that, however, there is not much to look at in terms of snorkeling. We tried three different locations and found them all to be much less interesting than some of the other places we’ve been. There are some wrecks that you can dive but, since we planned to dive in Grand Turk, we didn’t schedule a dive here so were unable to go. We did enjoy the water and the beach, however, and had a good time being knocked around by the waves.

Finally, our day was over so we took back the car and re-boarded the ship. We had a great dinner (me: short ribs; Andrew: seafood penne) and are now back in the cabin. We’re tired after such a tough day. We both agree that Aruba would be a spot we would come back to. We would like to dive the wrecks , and Andrew would like to spend more time with the donkeys!