Aruba 2021
Day 5: Saturday, July 31
Sand and turtles, what more can you ask for?
We were up at 8am this morning and hanging out by the pool as always. Every morning we not only had the goat family visiting but we had the blue Aruban whiptail lizards visit as well.
Our pool guy was there and making our pool sparkling clean for us so we decided no early morning swim today.
When it was time for breakfast I threw caution to the wind and decided it was a cereal type of day. HA! I would trick Sakari today because she wasn't about to smell breakfast and wake up!
As we were eating, the not-so-munchkin teen appeared all confused about why she was hearing clanging of silverware but wasn't smelling anything. "Gotcha!" I yelled! Hey, I got a grin out of her.
After eating I went to pack our things for a beach, any beach, I didn't care which as long as we were going. I left the decision up to the fam to pick the beach. Both the hubs and Sakari picked Baby Beach. Baby Beach was always Sakari's favorite beach to go to the last few vtimes we were here and it would be the one beach that she would always ask to go to twice.
We headed out with our trusty mapsme telling us which way to go. But, down the street from us (on the main road) we ran into construction and the road was closed right before the roundabout. We followed the arrows and then the mapsme voice and managed to somehow end up circling around and back where we started. Wait, what just happened? Time try it again. We followed some other cars this time and finally made it out of the vicious circle they had us in and back onto the main road again. Whew!
Here's one problem with mapsme...and it's the only problem I have really found so far: When you put in where you are going and then it tells you the route, it is DETERMINED that you WILL go THAT route or else! It does not like for you to deviate a different direction and will keep telling you to turn this way or that way to go in the direction it had for you. This is why we were going in circles...it was trying to lead us back to the way it was wanting us to originally go. It's not like google maps that will "reroute" you if you miss a turn or go a different way.
Once we made it over to the other side of the island, I first drove over to Rogers Beach and there were definitely more people there than the last time we were here. It looks like it has become a popular beach. Still no facilities or food though from what I could tell. I ask the fam if they wanted to stay here for awhile and they both said "Baby Beach". Alrighty then...
I drove over to Baby Beach and while circling the parking lot I decided I didn't want to go to the exact location we had always went to. I wanted a different experience. So we parked toward the opposite end and decided we would stay there. It was less crowded, which meant no beach chairs, wind/sun screens or food. That meant less people.
So we searched for a place to sit and it was pretty open. We did find these dead bushes and figured we would try to nestle together under it. Now we did bring our little "tent" from home with us...just for occasions like this on the beach when we might need it. It's compact and folds up into a little carrying case. However, it was too big to put under the trees so we decided not to put it up.
This would be our spot for the day:
It is definitely a beautiful beach with white powdered soft sand and calm crystal turquoise waters.
I immediately headed out to the water. Now I had completely forgotten just how shallow this water is. I mean Sakari was a lot shorter when we were here last and it didn't seem quite this shallow. You can walk really far out and it still be below your waist. That's why they call it "baby" beach. It's where families come with their littles.
Sakari decided to stay back and was snacking already with the food we brought and she had many friends. I think she drops food on purpose because no matter how many times I yell at her about it, it continues to happen. "What? I dropped it and they took it" Suuuuurrrreee you did.
Now I wanted to go snorkeling of course, but Sakari did not. I telling ya, I don't know who has replaced my kid these days. However, the hubby said he'd "walk out there" with me, because you could literally walk all the way out there.
I went up and down the rocks looking for anything interesting.
Someone spilled their cheerios for breakfast this morning.
I spotted a banded butterfly fish
And also a foureyed butterfly fish
The hubby was just wading along with me as I told him about anything that I would see...which wasn't too much.
I tried going around the rocks and onto the other side of them, but it was super wavy over there and it really didn't feel safe. There were people over there snorkeling, but even the hubby agreed that we shouldn't go so we turned back. I headed all the way down the rocky line and this is basically what I seen. Mostly nothing.
At some point I didn't see the hubby's feet anymore so I came up and he had gotten out of the water and was walking down the peninsula.
Funny how I've never noticed this place over here. I think it was a restaurant and it had a pool by the ocean as well.
The hubby came back with a beach ball he found way out there. No one claimed it as we walked by them heading back to our area so no telling how long it had been out there.
There was a tree growing out in the water. I just kept wondering why and how this happened and how does it not wash away or uproot? I would see a lot of people go over to it and take pictures. I knew that was something I wanted to do with Sakari too at some point today. There was also one growing up by the water line.
The water is so crystal clear here.
I rested for awhile but was really unsatisfied with the snorkeling experience. I made up my mind that I was going over to the other side (the busy side) and giving that a shot. Of course the hubby and Sakari didn't want to go. They just wanted to sit on the beach. What has happened to my child??? Who took her away?
I hadn't made it too far into the water when the fun started!!!
Dude was just chomping away like me and the couple that was standing beside him didn't even exists. He came extremely close to me and even if I didn't see anything more, I was happy for the day.
He was in knee deep water at times so when I stood up, I could see that the hubby and Sakari were starring at me. I looked at them and started the hand gestures...point here, make big round circle, point, act like swimming, point, show the big sign with both arms.
Well, the hubby bit and along he came but still no Sakari. He came into the water and I told him what it was and he said "That's what Sakari said when you were pointing...it was probably a turtle" ...and yet she still didn't come?
I gave him my snorkeling mask so that he could go under and get a better look.
Once he was done, I decided to head on over to the way I was going. Things got a little better with the snorkeling.
I started to see schools of blue tangs
A pair of Banded Butterfly Fish
More schools of Blue Tangs
More Banded Butterfly Fish
I spotted a squirrel fish trying to hide out under the coral
A large Trumpet Fish swimming by
I spotted a Fire Worm otherwise known as the devil worm. These things come in all types of colors but this one was easy to spot with the green and red. A lot of them are just brown and blend in with the rocks. Another reason why you do not want to be stepping on the rocks. They are everywhere!!! Now these things aren't venomous but they do have bristles that when touched, they break off into your skin and imbed itself, produce a substance inside your skin, then it hurts, burns and is highly irritating. They feed on soft and hard corals and anemones and they are a salt water tanks nightmare! I developed some in my tank before and they are so hard to get rid of and they multiply super fast and can get pretty darn big. Then of course everyone remembers my story (review) from being in Roatan and me and Sakari was stung by this cute little fuzzy caterpillar. It's the devil worm!!
Next up was a Flounder. These are the weirdo's of the sea because they have 2 eyes on one side of their body and they look like someone ran over them. Their eyes are not symmetrical. When they are born, they are normal and have one eye on each side, but as they grow and get older, one of the eyes migrates to the other side of the body.
I think this may be a One Spot Goatfish but the red fin on the back and tail is throwing me off. Either way, it's something I hadn't seen.
Now normally we sit at this end and it has the spot that opens up to this little section that everyone snorkels at. It's between the rocks but it has quite a current. But, there's usually a lot to see. There's an area you have to pass over to get to it and it's very deep. You usually find tons of schools of fish in that area.
However, this time I would find that there were ropes roping off the deep area. I didn't see anyone around but I did see people in the area when I was on my way there. There was a rope there before but this looked like it roped off the entire section on both sides. I decided, for some reason, not to go in the area or snorkel in between the rocks.
I got out and took some pictures of the area. I did end up seeing 2 people in there snorkeling.
Here's the area with the shelters that you can rent. They are like little half tents. This is exactly what we brought with us but in a smaller version.
I walked for a little bit but walking on the beach really hurts my foot and I end up struggling because of the sand and sinking. So eventually I just got back in the water to swim back.
Along the way I ran into another Flounder. I'm getting pretty good at spotting these camouflaged creatures. It was a small one compared to what I normally see. There was a guy in the area that swam over because he seen me taking pictures. After he spotted what I was looking at, he gave me the thumbs up. Yea buddy, stick with me and you'll be able to see LOTS. I'm a pro at spotting flouders.
I little further down I would find another one.
On the way back, I checked out this odd tree that was in the water. It was just really fascinating to me and had me baffled how it can still be there like that attached to sand.
I attempted some over under shots and they didn't turn out too bad. If only I could get it to focus on the top.
I made it back and I managed to talk Sakari into playing a little bit of ball in the water since she hadn't even been in the water yet and just sitting on the beach. I did ask her about knowing there was a turtle out there and she replied "yea, I figured that". Um ok, I guess she's seen enough that it didn't interest her?
I have to say that playing ball was a little difficult here. You couldn't really be all the way down in the water because it was so shallow so we pretty much ended up just standing in the water and throwing the ball. It didn't last too long because the wind was taking it away.
After that we headed out to take some pictures of her and weird beach tree.
Sakari showed me her masterpiece from the beach day of not getting in the water.
Here is a short video I took from our day at Baby Beach:
On the way home, as we were driving down the street we spotted 3 donkeys in the road. As I did Jeff Gordon turn in the middle of the street, they made it to the side of the road and two of them were behind the bushes by the time I got positioned. You think if we buy this house we get the lawn ornaments? :D
Sakari rolled down the window and one of them immediately came over and nibbled on her finger.
Once we got back to the house, we decided to swim and make up for lost time with the ball. Well, my foot really was bothering me today so I didn't last very long and decided to get out. The hubs decided to get in and play with her instead. It's about time you had ball duty!
Then we all headed for the showers. I ended up taking a cold shower to ease a little bit of redness I ended up getting today. Then I applied my nice cold aloe I bought from the mall. It felt and smelled SO GOOD! I love this stuff! I probably should buy more before we leave.
Sakari came to my room after her shower and said "I need you to come look at this". I'm thinking bug or something right? No, not even close!
She puts this metal piece in my hand. I said "Um, what is this?" and she points at the shower. I see the removable shower head hanging and I'm sure I had a puzzled look. Well, it's the part that holds the shower head up. The water pressure was crazy in this house and Sakari said when she first turned on the water, it blew off there and took the piece with it. She said it was like a crazy snake all over the bathroom throwing water around. But, she has huskies that get out a lot and she knows how to wrestle something down and capture it. We had a water mess to clean up but it was all good.
I immediately took pictures of it and told the "landlord". Of course with anything, we got an instant response saying they would send someone over to fix it the following day. Man these people are responsive and great! They just wanted to make sure no one was hurt during this explosion of water.
As always, we headed back outside to our "spot" for the evening and the hubby made brats and created a bit of a fire. It's ok, I like my food "well" done and put out by a fire extinguisher. No problem.
After eating the blackened brats, we cleaned up and decided to head to our rooms. Sakari headed to her heat spa to do another drawing.
I messaged Sakari and told her we were having popcorn and a movie (we really did bring our own popcorn) and she was missing out. She laughed when she seen what we were watching and said "not fair". Then we were off to bed after the popcorn was done and I really couldn't concentrate on the movie. LOL