The Aruba Beach Club

Big From Our Balcony

Spring Break - a time of drunken debauchery, loose morals, and time in the tropics. Well, one out of three ain't bad. For Spring Break '04 (my last spring break) Sarah and I went down to Aruba to stay at the Aruba Beach Club at my parent's timeshare. For those who've been to Aruba, the ABC is in the low rise area, away from the more spring break-type scene of the high rises on Palm Beach, which was ok with us. To the left, you'll see the view from our balcony, one of the best units in the entire resort.

   Above, you can see pictures from Tuesday, when we went snorkeling. We went out with Jeff and Jethro on the Octopus, a small sailboat with only about 25 people on it. We only made one stop, for about 45 minutes, but it was fun and only $25 each. Most of the other boats cost more, and advertise an open bar, but we didn't imagine we'd want to go out snorkeling and drinking at the same time. To top it off, this boat had alcohol too, included in the "snacks".

   The first two pictures above are from around Oranjestad (Translation? Orange Town). The first is an iguana, which are quite common all over the country. Sarah and I decided that Arubans probably view them about the same way we see squirrels - utterly unremarkable and mildly annoying. I still think that's weird, since squirrels don't look like mini-godzillas. The second picture is a glass in which our ice cream came, from The Paddock, a restaurant downtown. I just thought it was kind of cool. The third picture is the $125 I won from the Casablanca Casino. See this entry for more information on that. I highly recommend the Spin 'Til You Win slot machines for all your money-squandering needs.

   On Wednesday, we went down to Oranjestad to take a helicopter ride, which lead to some excellent photos. Above, you can see the wreck of the Antilla, a German ship that was sunk by the crew when they got captured at the beginning of WWII. Next to that is Pelican Pier and the high rises. Pelican Pier is where the Octopus leaves from, and I think it's actually the cat closest to the left of the pier. Finally, you'll see the waterslide at La Cabana which is quite nice - Sarah and I pretended to be guests there and used it (security is lax, to say the least). Our pilot, Christian, mentioned La Cabana, and we told him we'd been there Monday and used their waterslide. He said "Oh, I've got to see this" and swung the helicopter over the resort until it came into view, which we thought was excellent. Christian enjoys the waterslide at the Hyatt, which we didn't get to try out. More pictures below.

   We also took photos with Tessa the Siberian Tiger, who lives in a tiger habitat in the center of the Seaport shopping area. We have some overpriced photos taking of us petting Tessa, which I'll have to scan later. Below is Sarah outside the ticket booth, Tessa with one of her "trainers" (actually just the son of the owner, who grew up with her in the house) and Tessa worn out from...nothing. In that second photo, she's looking right at me and she looks hungry. But then you can see just how soft she's gotten from years of pampering - she's lying down to sleep in the shade after a grand total of 10 minutes of picture taking. Models work harder than that - honest-to-god models!

   Thursday, we went ATVing out to the Natural Bridge and Natural Pool. If you go to Aruba, you really can't miss these sites. I'm fairly sure I saw them when I was here over 10 years ago, but I didn't remember them. The Natural Pool was especially cool. Click here to see the interior of those helmets we're wearing. If you can't make it out, that says "WARNING This helmet is a novelty item only and is not made for, intended for, nor designed for, use as protective headgear under any circumstances. The manufacturer disclaims all responsibility if used in anymanner (sic) other than as a novelty item". I thought that was pretty good, especially given how often I felt like I might roll the damned ATV. Definitely not an activity for the faint of heart, but it was fun.

   That's about it for what we did - a couple more pictures below, one from the beach (sexy!) and one from Gasparito's, a nice restaurant/art gallery where we went on our last night on the island. The patio there was very nice, and I bought Sarah a painting there as a souvenir (I bought myself an Aruba license plate at Pelican Pier). It was a great trip (thanks Mom and Dad) and we had a lot of fun. I highly recommend Aruba for vacations - the plane tickets aren't cheap, but the weather is incredible (Highs of 88°, lows of 75°) with almost no rain, no hurricanes, and a constant cooling breeze, and there's plenty to do. Of course, it'll make you hate New England when you come back to temperatures below freezing, but that's the price you pay.