We really enjoyed our few weeks in Aruba. The weather was fantastic. No rain, warm but breezy days and the evening temperatures were very comfortable. We used a light sheet to sleep almost every night. The island has changed since our last visit about 15 years ago, when Steve and I went to Aruba after a week in Bonaire. Of course, we fell in love with the island of Bonaire and had not returned to Aruba. In the photo gallery there is a picture of the hotel Steve and I stayed at all those 15 years ago.

Returning this time as a cruiser was very different. In order to clear customs and immigration, we were told, you have to bring the boat to Barcaddera or possibly Orenjastad. The port authority told us we needed to clear at Barcaddera. We tied up at the black tire lined commercial dock. We heard that sometimes the dock can be full of small fishing boats and very crowed but today there was a spot for North Star. After about an hour of paper work we motored up to the anchorage. After several attempts to get the anchor to hold we found a spot on the sandy bottom and anchored just north of the airport runway not far from the beach. The landing pattern for incoming planes was almost straight over our mast.

We were a short, but potentially wet dinghy ride from the main town and the marina. The Renaissance Hotel has what seems like a constant line of ferries that bring hotel guests from the mainland to an island just across from the airport. These ferries met each other coming and going with loads of people. This constant traffic kept our boat moving pretty regularly and could make for a wet situation with anything concerning the dinghy. There were never more than 3-4 boats anchored in this area with us.

The town was brightly colored, clean and the people very friendly. We noticed quickly that cars would stop on a dime to allow pedestrians to cross the street. Aruba has many restaurant from home: Wendy's, Taco Bell, Subway, Hooters, Hard Rock Cafe, McDonald's. Dunkin Doughnuts, Starbucks, Dominos. There may be more, but that is what I remember off the top of my head. And of course we tried a few of them. Right there by the marina were many restaurants, several hotels, casinos and a movie theater. There is also a movie in the hotel area. We tried both. Very nice and modern. There were at least two and sometimes three cruise ships in an any given day except Easter weekend when there were none.

The bus terminal was located at the end of town not far from the cruise ship docks. We utilized the public bus system several times for trips heading north on the island. The price to get anywhere you wanted to go was about 1.50 pp each way. We made several trips to the grocery stores and several trip to the beach and hotel area. There were three grocery stores a short bus ride from town. The newest looking one being Ling and Son. It was very nice and looked like a large grocery store from the states.

We rented a car for two days and drove around the island. The hotel area has grown since our last visit here. Only the beach side of the road had buildings on it then, but now both sides of the road were filled with hotels, shops and restaurants. While we had the car we dropped off our laundry at a mat not far from the grocery stores. What a bargain! We had a huge bag of laundry washed, dried and folded in the same day for 15 US. On our drive up to the north end of the island, we enjoyed the view of the beautiful beaches, the California Light House, and the rugged terrain on the windward side of the island. The natural bridge located on this side of the island was a rock formation between two protrusions of land that formed a bridge over the ocean. It was intact when we were here before but has since fallen into the ocean. The southern end of the island was much more industrial and reminded me of Curacao.

While driving on the windward side of the island we stopped at several rock formations, there are photos in the gallery of these boulders in the middle of nowhere. We also got a photo of the blue lizard called a Bloblo in papiamento, the local indian dialect. In Aruba this lizard is from a separate species from the other islands and has a brighter blue color.

We also saw a dead boa on the road in the park. We had to do a little research on this but this snake is not native to Aruba and has become a problem because of its eating habits. We read on one site there may be some kind of reward for dead or alive captures.

While we were at anchor the military ship, Ms. Rotterdam, from Holland came into port. From shore a twenty one gun salute announce their arrival and the crew were on deck in their white uniforms. They made a mock docking unassisted and then went back out of the port area and made the real docking with the assistance of a tug boat.

We waited for a good weather window to head to Columbia and made our plans. This time of year is good for this passage. The only problem is we were trying to get a few days with enough winds to sail. We picked a good few days and made the sail from Aruba to Santa Marta ,with only a few lulls in the wind, in about 36 hours with no problems.