Did you know…
The Beach Boys “Kokomo” was written as a theme song for the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Cocktail? There’s a scene where Tom moves from New York to a bartender position in Jamaica. Terry Melcher was in the studio. Mike Love was on the phone. They had a few bars of music, and Mike comes up with “Aruba, Jamaica, oooo I wanna take ya…”. And the iconic song of the ideal Caribbean vacation was born!
Wasn’t Tom adorable in that movie?
Go ahead, sing it loud! You know you can’t help yourself 😉
We visited Aruba on the fourth day of our cruise. It’s part of the Netherlands, but has had its own government since 1986. It doesn’t get much rain, so the landscape has a lot of arid-loving plants like cacti. We docked at a port in the capital city of Oranjestad, which means “Orange Town” in Dutch, the island’s official language.
I didn’t get many pictures of the island. The tallest point on the island, a volcano called Hooiberg (Dutch for “haystack”) was easily seen from the ship deck. It’s about 550 feet tall and apparently one can see Venezuela from the top on a clear day.
I chose a sunset cruise for our excursion. We were picked up from the gantry after dinner and taken across the port in an old school bus to a large catamaran. I didn’t bring my camera.
WHAT!
Yes, this promised to be a fantastic sunset and I didn’t have a camera. I wasn’t sure how big the catamaran was going to be and didn’t want to carry a bag. No excuse, I know…
The crew was amazingly entertaining and mixed up unlimited yummy cocktails. 80s music blared on the speakers. We watched the sun go down over the ocean as the crew took photos of friends and couples.
On the way back we saw a fire downshore. It looked like it could have been a flare at the refinery…except there was a lot of smoke. I never found out what it was.
I enjoyed the excursion and learned never to leave the camera behind again!
Day Five was our Curacao port-of-call. We docked in Willemstad early in the morning and weren’t due to leave until 4 pm. Plenty of time to hang out on a beach!
We debarked at 9 am and were met by the tour company with our Magic Sightseeing Bus. It was an old school bus painted bright green with “don’t worry” and “be happy” painted on the side in 70s fonts. Looking out the space where windows would’ve been, I saw lots of brightly painted buses waiting for tour groups.
People retire in Florida with Bermuda shorts and floppy hats. Old school buses retire in Curacao with artsy paint jobs. I think the buses have the right idea.
We drove through Willemstad and saw two of their famous monuments. Then we drove out to view flamingos at the Jan Thiel Lagoon, an area of old salt flats that is now protected for wildlife. The landscape in Curacao is much like what I saw in Aruba: arid and full of cacti. Finally, we arrived at Blue Bay Beach, a small cove in an expensive subdivision.
It was a lovely place to spend the day. We enjoyed the local Dutch beer (Amstel) while lounging on chaises under coconut palms. The clouds kept threatening rain, but we didn’t get a sprinkle the entire morning. There was a restaurant just a few feet away, but since our excursion ended at noon we decided to wait and eat when we got back on board the ship.
I pulled out my Kindle and was deep into a Janet Evanovich novel when I just happened to look up. This bad boy was standing not two feet away from the end of my chair!
I’ve seen larger iguanas in Puerto Vallarta, but his one acted aggressive. He kept pumping his head up and down and inching towards my chair. I couldn’t figure out why he wanted to come towards me. Was it the color of my beach bag? Did he want my beer? Or maybe he wanted to climb the palm tree that I was sitting right next to?
Then I saw a female iguana dart out from behind another chair and run to a picnic table behind me. The male was definitely doing the head dance now…and I was starting to get worried. I don’t think iguanas bite, but their claws are ugly and this one had a very long, whiplike tail. I really didn’t want him to climb over my chair to get to his girlfriend.
The coconut palm blocked my left, my husband’s chair was in my way on my right, and the iguana stood at my feet. I racked my brain. What could I do? He didn’t seem to want to go around.
I decided to try flicking sand at him. I know dogs don’t like it and thought iguanas might not like it either. The first few flicks (they were small!) made him look away. After a few more, he turned and ran around our chairs to the picnic table. The female was already gone.
I saw two more iguanas near the bus, and was able to get a halfway decent picture of the flamingos in the golf course lake as we began to board for our ride back to port. That was the extent of my Curacao up-front-and-personal wildlife experience.
So here are my pointers about Aruba and Curacao:
These two islands aren’t like typical Caribbean islands with lush rainforest vegetation. They’re drier. I’ve also learned that they’re rarely hit by hurricanes.
I’ve heard the snorkeling at Aruba is pretty decent, but I didn’t try it. If I went back, I would try the snorkeling and a visit to Hooiberg. I’d also go on the sunset cruise again. It wasn’t that expensive and who doesn’t love being out on the water at sunset?
The Blue Bay Beach on Curacao was a nice place to park for awhile. The only drawback was that I think the beach was built for tourists. As soon as you step into the water you have to walk over rocks. It’s not as bad as the beaches around Puerto Vallarta, but be prepared if you have sensitive feet.
When you encounter a full grown iguana who wants to be where you are, DON’T PANIC. Try to get out of its way. It doesn’t want to hurt you. It doesn’t want to bite you. It probably just thinks you’re some kind of moving tree. Try to be smarter than the iguana.
originally posted at annettezimmerman.com
