Aruba 2021
Day 11: Friday, August 6
Pink Flamingo's and the real reef found...
So remember the other night I went on a booking spree for things to do? Well today was another day that was planned.
Me and the hubby were up at 6:15!!! Having our caffeine while I was packing for our exciting day today. Today would be a day that I decided we would not be making breakfast this morning because we were on a schedule. That meant the not-so-munchkin would not smell the aroma of bacon and eggs this morning...therefore we would have to wake her up this morning. At 8am, we went in and told her "Vamanos hija, it's time to roll"
We headed out and our first stop was the gas station! It would be the first time we had to get gas since being here. Not too shabby right? We have done a lot of driving around, even to the other side of the island, and the gas mileage was doing pretty good if I say so myself. We ended up putting $30 in the tank and we had between 1/2 & 3/4 tank now. Yes, I took a picture of the gas pump...how else am I going to remember what I did? LOL
After getting gassed up we headed out for our drive to the meeting point for...
DEPALM ISLAND!!!
Yep, we love this place! We've had good experiences each time we have been here in the past (other than me falling and hurting myself right before we left last time) from the great snorkeling here, the awesome SeaTrek adventure and of course all the food and drinks are included. HOWEVER, the reason we are stopping for breakfast this morning was because due to COVID they were operating on limited hours at DePalm, which means they weren't serving the all you can eat breakfast this time around. :(
Of course you have to answer so many questions and fill out so many forms and consents just to get to the actual tickets...which of course will render several emails with receipts, tickets and so on. It's really such a process. Whew!
So on our way to the Depalm meeting place we would discover that we were going in a different direction than the other times we had been to this part of the island. This time we were on the other side of Hooiberg. We managed to find a McDonalds and decided to stop there and grab something and head to the parking lot at DePalm to eat. We found that fast food in Aruba works about the same as back home...order a double sausage McGridle and get a single bacon McGridle.
We arrived at the DePalm parking lot a few minutes after 9am and checked in. Like previously, they did not ask to see our tickets, they did not ask to see my receipt, they only ask for the name. Shew, all that work when you book it and you don't show them any of it. I feel gypped!
They told us to head down to the dock to wait for the ferry over and the captain of the boat would let us know when to get on. There were only 2 other people on the dock at this point and then 3 more came after that. So, not many people were waiting and that was fine with me! We were going to be first on the island. We'd get prime property.
The first ferry pulled up and several employees came running down the dock and piled in. I guess this was their boat over.
The second ferry pulled up and the captain motioned us in. Woo Hoo! We are going over now.
There were a few more employees that came with us. As we headed out, a few more people showed up on the dock and we decided to turn around and get them. It is so hard to get this child to smile these days. So serious!
There we go.....(I had to threaten her...just saying)
It's a short ride over and then we were pulling up. We could see the new water park with the water slides. This is where they had the ziplining when we were here last and Sakari was all of a sudden having issues with extreme things and backed out once she got up there.
We picked our spot on the beach and then we decided to go look for the flamingo's. This was something new to DePalm since the last time we were there. I really had no idea if they were just wandering around the park on the beach or what. Then I seen a sign and headed over.
I headed over to the area and we would find that there was a small fence blocking off the flamingo's on the beach from the people coming into the fenced area. Hmmm, this is not what I had pictured.
There were some beach chairs over that way, but I guess they were for "special guests" that paid for it. I guess we weren't going to be able to swim with the flamingo's on the beach. Boo! I could, however, find a way to take pictures of them on the beach to show family and friends back home...without the fence in the picture, therefore looking like we were spending the day on the beach with them and making everyone jealous. :D #biggrin
Don't it just look like we are hanging out on the beach with flamingo's? It's all about the shot. hehe
Walking back to our non-important-people spot on the beach...which is the same as their spot just minus the pink animals.
At this point, I decided to walk around and take pictures of DePalm before it became overwhelmed with a lot of people.
This area is where they have places to sit down and eat, the bar for drinks, a pop station, and the kitchen where you get lunch at.
They do have a pool table in this area too.
Back where the zipline used to be you'll find some chairs under palapa's, but there's a sign saying they are reserved for those on UTV tours only. You'll find a volleyball net and this is where the slides are located.
This is over by the kiddie water park (the one I fell on the steps and hurt myself last time to the point I could barely walk).
Right across from the waterpark is another beach but I believe it is a "reserved" area. I'm honestly not sure why it's so special that it's reserved.
Mr Crabby Cakes was spotted...
Walking toward the other area is the previous cafe they served breakfast. There's tons of seating along the waterfront and in the covered area where the food is at. There's also yet another building just like this one that had tables and chairs, but when I went over there this time, it was all cleared out.
In that same area, you will find where they do the SeaTrek. I absolutely loved doing it and if you get the chance, DO IT! It's probably the best SeaTrek ever. We've done several in different places and this has been the best.
They have the cup holders all over so that you can put your used cups in and they will pick them up.
Walking on my way back I discovered a peacock out just running around. So cool... He jumped the turtle fence as I walked by.
There is a store for a little bit of shopping and that's also where you will find the photo area. You can purchase your photo's from the SeaTrek and Snuba.
Back to our beach...
Someone woke up on the wrong side of the rock!
Ok, it's 5 o'clock somewhere right? Time to get our drink on...and on...and on... #biggrin
Now when we were over at the flamingo's, the guy over there told us at a certain time they let the fence down and you can go in with the flamingo's. Well, it was time and we headed over that way.
Well, once again, it was a little different than what we had pictured. The fence was actually still up and people waited in line for their turn to hop the fence (you know that's not my thing after breaking my leg hoping over something) and you can get down by the water, where they are at, and take pictures with them. Of course they told us to be very slow and gentle getting in the water or we would scare them.
Our photo shoot with the flamingo's was over and it was the next persons time with the flamingo's. The worker there took pictures for everyone and he did take a lot of them just to make sure that he got the perfect picture for us.
We headed back to our chairs on the beach and had a few more drinks.
So the big event of the day was....
WE WERE GOING SNUBA DIVING!!! We've never done this before but figured why not try it. We were supposed to do it in Cozumel, but I had cancelled because of the oral surgery I had right before we left for vacation. So now, we are trying it!!!
We were told to meet on the dock at 11am. Our instructors were Jervin and a guy that looked just like Gus from breaking bad (if you've ever watched that show). These guys were amazing. We just loved Jervin. He was so personable and smiley and just great.
We were the only ones there that had ever done any diving and 2 families had never even went snorkeling before. I guess they were jumping right in full force. During the instruction Jervin would tell us what to do and then point to us and say "what do you do now?" Way to put us on the spot Jervin! No worries, we passed every question.
Once the instruction was over the groups split up (I guess several of them were going at a later time and just 2 families were going now). I whispered to Jervin and ask if we could go with him and he smiled and said YES! He probably figured we'd be easy. I also whispered to him "Is it ok if we take our camera's?" (Because the website said no) and he said "You guys are experienced and I'm not seeing anything". Cool, just what I wanted to hear. "Sakari, run over to our stuff and grab the other camera and the GoPro". I assured him we would still buy his photo's.
They prepared our tanks (we were getting 2) and it was time to get in the water and do the darn thing! Yippee!
Then off we went. Just like scuba diving but with no tank on our back. Kinda cool...
Sakari was busy with her up close shots and she manages to get so close to the fish.
Are you noticing anything about our surroundings? Yep, tons and tons of coral and fish! THIS is what I was expecting to see when we were diving. Not some sandy bottom! This place is absolutely AMAZING and exactly what I expect to see when I'm diving somewhere.
I'm going to venture to say that Sakari finally got her groove back with her pictures this time around and on the right settings. She was back to taking some amazing photo's and all on the right setting.
So much beauty down there. Like I can't express just how beautiful it really was. I was in awe of everything around me.
Then all of a sudden I see Sakari not down on the bottom taking pictures like she always is and I knew this meant something must be wrong.
She's taking a picture of her leg...
I swear there has not been a vacation for years that she hasn't gotten stung by something. This time she got a little too close to some fire coral and it got her. It's ok though, she learned what to do many years ago (I think she was 5 or so when she was first stung in Cozumel by fire coral at Passion Island). She would just have to suck it up until the dive was done.
Jervin was checking our air:
I came across a family of flamingo tongue snails. I've never seen anymore than one at a time. I was looking all over for Sakari because I wanted her to get some good up close pictures but she wasn't anywhere near me. :( So, I had to attempt to get a few knowing they would not be the greatest.
A few more of Sakari's photo's
Sakari found a black trigger fish. <3
Now I do want to address "Snuba" and the art of it. You're blessed not to have to swim with a heavy tank on your back however, since your tank is up at the surface, on a boat, with your line coming down to your regulator...you are pulling this boat up on the surface. If you don't know yet, it's time you know...it's always wavier at the surface than down below and the further you go the less you feel it. So, we are down here in the un-wavy section while our 2 tanks are above in the wavy section. We are having to pull it. Sometimes you could feel it, other times you can't. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad and I honestly only noticed it when we were first going out...and at that point, Sakari seemed to be ahead of everyone so guess who did most of the pulling? :D hehe
Also, there was a time (I didn't see it), that the hubby told me after diving, that the waves made his line go up and over the boat carrying our tanks and he went up and had to flip it back over the boat. Like I said, I didn't see it (or you know I would have gotten a picture of it) but it must have been when we were in the shallow end.
We were slowly heading back and still enjoying every single minute of this dive. This reef is absolutely amazing. I can't even express it. It's all I talked about for the rest of the vacation. I'm so happy that we decided to do it. I'm so happy that I didn't have any issues again and felt so at ease down there. I would 100% do this again on any vacation I'm on. I honestly didn't want to go back. I was having the time of my life!
I guess Sakari and I were both noticing the sand with the red in it. It was pretty.
We were almost back to the beginning when Jervin stopped and showed us something he found under water. I'm thinking it was either the leftover from someone catching one or some big fishes lunch. But we would find out after we got back that they shed their skin.
Sakari was still whelping up from her sting and she knew exactly what she needed to do...find some tomatoes.
We had a little fun with our friend "Gus" from Breaking Bad. He said this wasn't the first time he had been told that he looked like this Gus guy. He said he was going to have to look up this show and see.
Now Gus is a very serious business man. He's the leader of a drug operation and also owns a chicken restaurant as a front. We told him he needed to be serious and this is the pose we got.
The real Gus
Here is the video I shot during our Snuba Adventure:
It was around lunch time and we decided we wanted to get some hotdogs and fries. Their fries are AMAZING and cooked nice with the perfect crunch. Now the number one problem, which we found hilarious, was we both ask for 2 hotdogs. The lady behind the counter looked at us weird and put a bun on the plate and proceeded to put 2 hotdogs onto the bun. Ummmm, ok. No, that's not what we meant. We want 2 hotdogs. Give us another bun and we'll figure it out. LOL So, finally she took the extra hotdog off the bun and put it on another bun and handed it to the hubby. I told her I wanted 2 hotdogs and would you believe she did the exact same thing again??? LOL It took awhile, but she finally figured it out.
At least Sakari's came correct...fries and chicken nuggets....she added the pickles of course. The girl could eat just pickles and be perfectly fine.
We headed out to the water to cool off. It was a hot day like always.
Of course me wading around in the water for very long is not my cup of tea. I need to know what's under the water. You thought snuba would just be enough for me? Pshhh, wrong!
So, I decided to grab my snorkeling gear and head out to snorkel. I remember last time I was here the blue parrot fish grew bigger out here than most dogs. We had only seen one during our dive so I thought maybe I'd find some snorkeling in the more shallow areas around here.
So, here we go!
Well, there were some big fish out there, but not the gigantic blue parrotfish (they are the biggest of the parrotfish).
Well, that was the extent of my snorkeling. There were no ginormous blue parrot fish to be seen. After snuba diving, I guess you just couldn't top that. So, I decided my snorkeling time was up and headed back to the beach.
There were loud announcements going on...they were gathering everyone in the covered lunch area and it was time for SOME SALSA! I could see the look in Sakari's eye...yep, we're doing this. Now I haven't been dancing (either in public or private) since I got hurt. So, I knew this was going to be interesting to say the least. But, I'll do anything for her and even though she would act like she didn't want to (because she's shy), I knew she really wanted me to entice her into doing it.
We went up and listened to what they had to say. They started going over moves. We attempted to mock those moves. We were awkward, I was off balance, I was stiff legged, but I was laughing and so was she. Having fun was all that mattered and if we learned a few steps along the way then even better.
We practiced our new moves, learned more, practice new moves, added that to our previously learned (using that word loosely) moves and everyone was having a blast. All we kept hearing them say was "Hey Ohio, did you get that move?" "Hey Ohio, want to show the rest of the class how to do it?" Well, Ohio wasn't us, it was a group of very fun people in the front row (pink shorts above) and Ohio knew how to have fun! We put all the moves together and made it happen...well sorta. LOL We would be talking about it the rest of the night and Sakari would practice a little at home too.
After dancing we rested at the table and our jam came on...
Sakari wanted to head to the water slides. Daddy didn't want to go. I really wanted to go. Daddy's legs were still tired from Hooiberg (his excuse). My legs were tired from Salsa. But, Sakari wouldn't go alone. She's in the stage... So like I said, I really wanted to go. Okay....I'm going. I will try my best to protect my leg/ankle going down but it's toward the end of the day and if I was going to do it, now's the time!
Sakari and I headed up and up and up...whew, those stairs wore me out as the little munchkins ran past me up the stairs like they were running from a fire. Man to have that kind of energy. Sakari was polite and walked slowly with me. At least I'm good with stairs going up. I just have problems going down and we were taking the fast way down so no worries about that.
We decided to head to the small slides first. I wanted to have a trial run first. Sakari picked one and I picked the other. She wanted to race, I wanted a lazy river ride. Oops, I was on the wrong ride for that!! We zoomed off and I'm pretty sure I won. I had weight on my side. I was pleasantly surprised that after a start of darkness, I came across an area that had lights coming from every direction. They were zooming past me like lightening bolts. It was pretty cool. Then I hit darkness again and wasn't sure which way I would turn next. But, I was prepared to brace myself for that big ending splash. Then boom...I had touchdown. Ok, all my body parts were intact. My foot wasn't on backwards. So, that meant that went better than my attempt to step over a gas pump hose. Winning! I was a little dizzy but I had Sakari already out of the water and starring at me to make sure I was ok.
Ok, time to do it again. We headed toward the stairs again and I took a deep breath. This time is was all the way to the top for us. We arrived at the top and I took one look at the slide. GASP! Now little did I know, this was a drop slide. As in DROP! You stand on the floor in a tube and then the floor drops out and you go straight down flying. I have only been on these once before on the ship and it was a lot of fun. Both thrilling and the suspense got your heart pumping. It was such a beautiful view up there!
The worker up there said "I'm not sure how everyone is getting up here. We were supposed to close 5 minutes ago. I guess they forgot to block the gate at the bottom." Well, I guess we are going to get at least one ride on this beast!
The views up here are amazing!
So I don't remember who went first because my mind was in a different atmosphere at this point. I stood on the platform and wait, I do remember Sakari starring me down at this point, gasping and putting her hands up to her face like I was insane...the poof! I disappeared from her. I was on the thrill ride, straight down, twisting and turning and I might have let out a squeal or two...you know, just for Sakari's sake.
And then I was done! I made it. I was all in one piece. My foot was still attached and I was not in pain. Next was Sakari's turn and I heard her yelling all the way down. She loved it! I knew there was no way that I was hauling my butt back up those stairs. If I wanted to go again, it would have to be the slide we just went on and now it was closed.
I headed back to our seats and Sakari wanted to continue on the slides. Daddy agreed to at least go over and take pictures. We also discovered that they allowed us to take camera's on them too. So, Sakari headed up with a camera and would discover that the drop slide was still open. She went on it several times and then went on the lower slides as well.
The hubs managed to get pictures of Sakari climbing those darn stairs...bless her heart. Too be young again...
She would discover that her camera kept turning off after around 10 seconds and she was really trying to get a video of the lower slide that SHE went on (not the one I experienced) because it had a lot more lights and shapes and was not dark like the one I went on. If I would have known that, I probably would have went back up there and tried it again. Now I'm sure everyone knows there's not really "lights" in these tubes. They are actually spots in the tube that have spots (panels) in them that allow the sun to filter in and they are colored so it looks like lights. So cool.
Here's a short video of her going in the slides.
I went over to meet Jervin at the photo shop to get our pictures he took of us. He pulled them up on the monitor and I just told him "I want them. I don't need to see them." I paid for them and he said he would put them on a disc for me to pick up later. The pictures were $35 and he took a total of 83 pictures. Here are some of the pictures he took:
It was around 4:45pm and we were milking every last minute at this great place but it was time to go.
It was time to get on the ferry going back...boo hiss!
We were in the car and headed home and knew we were close when we came across the road closure like always. I remember every time we've been here they have these signs up showing the statistics of fatal accidents for this year versus last year.
I guess the day had really took a toll on the not-so-munchkin.
We were home by 5:30pm. We hung out back of the house and I got in touch with my Aruban friend to see when we might be able to see her. We were being bothered by flies since we arrived in Aruba and tonight the hubby had had enough. He made his own fly smasher! (Out of my grocery bag I brought)
Tonight we would have taco's for dinner.
And then I guess it must have went right through us because somehow our toilet got clogged. We looked all over and couldn't find any plungers. I emailed the landlord and within no time this is was sitting on my front porch...
After eating we were so tired we decided to head to bed at 8:30pm. The only thing on tv was Everybody Loves Raymond and I couldn't keep my eyelids open and we were turning the tv off within 15 minutes and asleep by 9pm. I guess climbing those stairs and snuba diving wore us out.
Since Sakari had a nap on the way home, she headed to the sauna room and did some drawings.
