Aruba 2012 Day 9 (page 9 of 10)

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Day 9 - our last full day in paradise!

We started out the day with bacon, eggs & toast - how can that not be a great beginning?

Then we all headed back to Palm Beach for Mike & Greta's Windsurfing lesson. Jim & Trina were kind enough to park the car & kill time until we were done. They got some great beach walking in, found some shells, had a pricey beach drink ($12 - eek!) and Trina was the personal photographer for the windsurfers.

Greta & Mike both got up on the boards - that was the easy part. They are the "biggest boards on the island & some of the smallest sails". That is good - no need for one of us to end up in Panama w/o a passport! Mike did better than Greta as he has had a lot of sailing experience whereas Greta does not. But both were able to sail up & down the shore. Mike was able to turn the board & walk around the sail a handful of times - Greta got it done ONCE, very slowly, because Mike was there to talk her through every step. Otherwise, she's doesn't have enough feel to figure it out for herself (don't even ASK how long it took her to learn how to swim!).

Once the lesson ended, we headed back to our condo. Under the guise of "we should throw away food", we ate all the Dutch & Spanish cheeses, all the mango salsa, and most of the left over crackers & chips. Well, we were a bit hungry too! :)

Then we packed up a cooler, the rest of the beach gear & headed back to Mangel Halto beach for one last round of snorkeling at our new favorite beach. We didn't see some of the fish we'd seen the last time, maybe due to the fact that we were there in the afternoon, around the time we'd left the last time. But we did see plenty of fish and took LOTS of pictures. Greta even found the shipwreck! She swam approximately out to where she remembered it being described, but wasn't sure. It was a bit out, so she started to swim back, looked straight down at one point, and was shocked when THERE WAS THE BOAT WRECK! It's a 20th century cabin cruiser, so there were probably no gold dubloons. Besides, it's too deep for anything but SCUBA gear. After getting back & letting Jim & Mike know what she'd found, they had to go back out to find it themselves. Between her so-so directions, and the fact that now a boat was anchored out they found it as well & took some pictures, which was good, because the the camera battery died right before Greta got there. The most impressive thing of the day is that Jim got video AND sound of a big fish gnawing on the coral - it was amazing how you could hear his teeth crunching. If we can figure out how to compress it enough, maybe it will be located here eventually.

But Mangel Halto isn't all snorkeling fun. We waded through the tide pools created by low tide & saw a number interesting creatures. Most we couldn't ID, although Trina found a live starfish in the shallows near where we entered/exited for snorkeling. Also we saw THE BEST DOG ON ARUBA! There was a young golden retriever out there, splashing around in the tide pools for at least two hours, kicking over rocks and dancing around. We think he was looking for crabs that hide under the rocks, but it was amazing that he just kept going and going and going - kicking rocks, with his tail wagging, feet dancing about, and ears perked way up.

Eventually, we did have to go home. We showered, changed, and headed back to the Tulip. We ate our first dinner there, so we thoguht it was appropriate to eat our last dinner over there. Plus the food was good, and it is a one block away. So the food... Jim had the tasting menu again, and this time started with spring rolls, followed by fish & chips, and dessert was New York Cheese Cake. For their appetizer, Greta & Mike ordered the bitter ballen off the children's menu (and the waitress was wonderful - she gave us 8 bitterballen instead of 5, and left off the fries & applesauce). Greta had mahi mahi with a Creyole sauce (Aruban tomato-based sauce) & Mike had the Bami Goreng (Indonesian fried noodle dish) with shrimp crackers, atjar & chicken sate. For dessert they shared a slice of key lime cheese cake.

Then it was back to the condo for packing & downloading of pictures. On the way home from the beach, we'd stopped to buy a bottle of sparkling Chilean wine, to end the trip the same way we started it (including the same brand that Toine had purchased).

What a wonderful trip it was & great memories were created! If anyone would be interested in traveling to Aruba in the future, let us know if you want any advice!

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