arriving at Aruba and heading to the customs dockwe made it to the dock, fortunately there was no wind so the approach was easyin heavy winds it’s a challenge to dock here even though it looks super easy, there were reefs very close by and it was very shallow enjoying a nice cool beer at the anchorage at Surfside beach at the Southend of Oranjestadfirst time we have ever seen our fuel tank that empty; the next morning we went to the gas station to refill and check how much was left as it did look very empty😳; we still had about 20 litres leftfirst steps ashore at the marina where the gas station wasthe marina and Altimate docked at the gas stationback at the anchoragewe went ashore to get some first impressions of Aruba, a walk to Oranjestadit was quite a pretty walk along the beach sidethe anchorage the view direction Renaissance Hotelthe park from the Renaissance hotel; all looked so tidy and prettythey were many bars , restaurants and malls for all the cruise ship tourists engaging them to spend moneyfancy, expensive shopsvery empty when no cruising ships were aroundand another beautiful sun set
Driving around and fixing the furler
The bus system was not as good as we were hoping for. Shops and laundry quite far away, a good reason to rent a car. What a treat to have a car! It made our life suddenly so much faster and less intense. Loads of laundry? No problem at all. Thrown into the car and in no time brought to a laundrette. All that without dropping a sweat. No need to mention, it also gave us the opportunity of exploring the island in a nice and comfortable way. Pure luxury😁. Though first we had to walk to the airport to get a car.
our anchorage was pretty close to the airstrip but it was still quite a walk to the entrancesuch a beautiful walk next to the airstrip, passing planes which were just about to startwe had to take out everything to get to our old genua sail, ain’t it cosy?the grey bag is the one we were looking for, looks so small at the picthat was the bagthe old Genoa needed to come down that was the old one we had to go shore to fold it nicely that would fit back in the bagour first trip with the car was up north to the lighthouse, looking south to the beach where most of the hotels were placed “California Lighthouse”, named after the steamship California, which was wrecked nearby in 1891a quick stop a bit further south stouth still at the west side of Aruba , El Capitano trying to catch me😁a nice capture of Mr. Pelicanjust a house I liked on our way to a chapel, east of “Noord” townvegetation got dry and prickly“Alto Vista Chapel” was built in 1952 on the site of the original, and first, Catholic church built in Aruba in 1750 by a Spanish missionary, Domingo Antonio Silvestre.the chapel was close to the east and rough side of Arubawe stopped at a supermarket, boy was it nice after month being in a huge, well equipped grocery storethe best part was that they had a DJ entertaining the customers while queuing at the cashiers; that was awesome! People didn’t mind waiting and were even enjoying it – well at least we dida quick stop at the very south end of the islandalso in the very south “Baby Beach”, one of the beaches to go in Arubaat our anchorage there was a nice beach bar with a recommended pizza from Italian friends!!! we had to try it of course, it was very good!! the youngsters at the beach bar taking pics from the arriving planesa more fancy beach restaurant only a few steps further somewhere at Oranjestadcatching the sunset at the corner of the small marina in OranjestadSeaport Village Marina
Arikok National Park
Arikok National Park sits slightly southeast of the center of Aruba and runs all the way to the rocky eastern shore. The entire park covers an area of just over 13 square miles. This is roughly 20% of the island’s land mass, as Aruba’s total footprint spans only 20 miles long and 6 miles wide. The guides said: “This cactus-studded desert preserve contains rocky outcrops, crystalline seas, secret pools, and sweeping views. The Park has everything from hiking trails, indigenous art, lave beds and mysterious caves. It is a must-see when in Aruba.” Highly presented like that we gave it of course a try especially with the advantage of our temporary mobility!!
this cute fellow wasn’t afraid of us at all, I could almost touch him before he very bored jumped into the water, oh that was next to where we left our dinghy to head to the Parccacti at the Arikok Parc, a very dry areaEl Capitano and the prickly flora, it did look green when we were there thanks to more rain than usual a steep road to reach the shore an beaches, it would have been better to have a 4×4 wheel drive, 🤷♀️the rocky shoreour air-conditioned transportationvery cool El CapitanoFontein Caveit was very dark, hard to take any picsthe ruins of “Plantation Fontein” the Arikok guide said:”Fontein is an area of high natural and cultural value for Aruba. Plantation Fontein is named after the natural water source in the area, where the water seeps from the higher limestone plateau. In the 18th century, the West India Company allowed its cattle to graze nearby. A cowman supervised cattle and lived here in a stone house. At the water source, a courtyard or bakoval was laid out with banana trees, coconut trees and other crops. Fontein was first transferred as private property to the widow of Commander I.F.W. Gravenhorst and his family in 1839, after which the property was passed on to several diferent owners. The permanent water source made it possible in the 20th century to farm commercial crops, and today the water spring can be seen flowing into the pond located in the back of this estate. The entire property is now protected and in August 2022 officially became part of the Parke Nacional Arikok.”the water springwe passed many, many goatsQuarikidiri CaveThe cave was a limestone formation with two caverns and natural skylights in the ceiling.the best part for me was the natural sculpture of a woman’s head – crazy!!!this looked to me like a girls head with side pig tailsa stone heart on top of us🙈, a guide said it was a must do picsame here, a must do pic, a natural framed picture…the end of the Parc, with our little car we weren’t able to reach more of the Parc sights
Some pics of our last week
we found a real dutch kibbling and other goody chippy – nice!!!early November and the x-mas sweets were already on the stage- what a huge marzipan big!!!one of the smaller cruising shipsthe shops getting ready for all the touriststhe plane arriving and the ship leaving and all that that just behind uswe were trying to cross the highway to get to a bus stop after we had brought back the car at the airportwe waited for an hour and then someone told us the bus driver were on strike that day- so we had to walk backwe moved to another anchorage for a few days, just in front of the busy and touristic Palm Beachmore Palm beach and the south view of Palm Beachhotels beach barssunset El Capitano with woman in redselfie timeit was great the we could dock our dinghy herejumping Jackhotel skylinea charter sunset boat passing by, people were watching usa painter in Oranjestad pimping up some wallslove birds🙈ready, steady buyback at our previous anchorage, we were invited on the cat “Knot so bad”, Sandra John, Sandra and El Capitanoso much space
SY Altimate 