Wanderung 28

Our first snorkeling session was along the reef south of the California lighthouse, which is located on the westernmost point of Aruba. I saw nice examples of brain corals, fan corals, sponges and spiny sea urchins, but the real attraction was the fish.

Huge schools of fish swirled around, sometimes below us near the coral formations on the sea bed, but sometimes up near the surface where we snorkeled along. The sergeant major fish came right up to us, in fact, and seemed to be expecting food. Since I later saw a guy feeding them soggy bread crumbs, that impression was probably accurate. But we saw many other species with blue, yellow and other fanciful colors, and patterns with stripes, mottling, or even fake eyes on the tail fins. Such fun!

But the strangest thing was what I think was a cuttlefish that kind of glided by underneath me by rippling the long continuous fin (?) along each side of its pointed, cone shaped body. What looked like the eyes, mouth, and some tentacles were all in back of that cone, so it swam with its head and eyes backwards, which is just plain weird. I swam like mad to try to keep up with the thing and get some pictures so I could prove it, and although it bobbed, weaved, and ducked to get away from me, I did get two decent shots of it.

After 40-45 minutes, they blew the horn for us to reboard the Mi Dushi, and we sailed a short distance out to sea where the wreck of the Antilla, a German freighter scuttled just off shore at the beginning of the World War II. Fortunately, the freighter's German Captain carefully arranged the event so that he and all his crew made it safely to shore and were interned on the beach in Bonaire for the duration of WWII. Some of the crew liked it so much that they bought beachfront property in Bonaire and established a resort after the war! That reminded me of our Revolutionary War, after which about two-thirds of the Hessian mercenary Prisoners Of War liked the American Colonies so much that they stayed and became Americans!

Our Captain said that the Antilla has been steadily rusting away over the decades he has been diving there. Back in the 1950s some of the masts and superstructure had been above water, but now all that is left is the ruptured hull on the bottom. It was an almost ghostly experience to see the twisted, coral-encrusted remains of the shattered hull looming up out of the darkness below. Eerie, for sure.

There were also several schools of reef fish out on the wreck of the Antilla, similar to the types of fish we had seen earlier on the reef just off shore. Since most of the Antilla was 30 feet down or more, it was dimmer and harder to take pictures of the fish.

Our final stop was to anchor just offshore north of Palm Beach, Aruba, where Alex took the ship's life boat to shore to get our lunches. While he was fetching our meals, we had a final opportunity for swimming and snorkeling and we took full advantage of that. Most folks just swam around the ship or used a trapeze rigged to swing out over the water and jump in, which looked like fun, especially for the younger folks who "cannonball" better. But after two sessions of snorkeling, Monika and I didn't have much endurance so we finally went back on board for a surprising nice lunch comprised of a cucumber and tomato salad, rice, broiled grouper, and chicken. I swapped my chicken for Monika's grouper, and she said the chicken was very tasty. I can testify the grouper was also good.

Then the sails were raised again and Mi Dushi sailed back to anchor offshore at the RUI resort, and we reboarded the Banana Bus for the short jaunt back to Oranjestad. We dropped the snorkel gear in our cabin, washed out our swimsuits, took a shower, and headed back out to do some shopping. We were fortunate to hop one of the new trolleys that run a circuit from the cruise ship pier over through the main shopping district of Oranjestad and back, because we were already pretty tired by that point. We took the trolley to the end of the line and walked back to see the city and do some shopping.

I am a sucker for that blue-on-white Delftware that is so popular and common in Holland, and Aruba is still a Dutch colony, so they have such things available. I was happy to pick up a coffee mug, a small snack bowl, and a figure of a Dutch boy and girl kissing that ultimately ended up on our knicknacks shelf. The storefronts were also rather colorful with bright pastels and gingerbread decorations. Downtown we even found a MAC cosmetics store in case Natalie wants to come to Aruba after her stint in Fort Lauderdale! Monika tried to find a dress but couldn't find exactly the right thing, possibly because she was getting awfully tired by that point.

We worked our way back to the ship and Monika simply dropped down onto the bed, requesting a beer and a pizza. Since she had been such a good sport that day, it didn't seem too much to ask. So off I went to the shipboard pizza parlor and grabbed five slices of pizza for our evening meal, which we consumed with a beer and a coke from the mini-fridge in our cabin. Then we just watched the sun set from our balcony, read our book, and turned in for the night.