Back home
Door: Marianna
21 December 2005 | Nederland, Rotterdam
Yes, my adventures are over for another year, and I'm back home in Holland in the freezing cold! Despite the weather it's nice to be home, I'm trying to get into the Christmas spirit by wrapping my presents today, I'm sure by the weekend I'll be a lot more Christmassy!
But anyway, my last few days in Aruba were great. On Friday evening after work at the clinic (just the one operation, but it took all afternoon.... why did we get all the complicated animals?!) the three of us climbed the highest point on the island, Jamanota. It was a fairly tough climb, but the view at the top was great - 360 degree view all around the island, including all the coasts.
On Saturday we took a tour of the northern and eastern parts of the island that we hadn't visited yet, starting with the amazing underground Quadariki caves, and the Fontein Cave (inside which were a couple of rattlesnakes in an aqaurium, argh! Rattlesnakes live on Aruba, but luckily we didn't see any in the wild!) Then on to Boca Prins, a bay at the coast nearby, and the sand dunes around it. We also visited the opposite point of the island to the California Lighthouse where there used to be another lighthouse, but it was a lovely spot anyway :)
Later in the afternoon we visited Baby Beach, so called because the sea is quite shallow by the beach. My last trip to the beach to boost my tan before coming home :( We also did a bit of snorkelling, there were loads of fish there, including some HUGE ones which swam right past us, except you wouldn't know if you didn't look under the water. There were also some beautiful maller ones, yellow, blue, purple, stripey and all kinds of other colours. Ahhhh! Just before sunset we climbed the Hooiberg (Hay Stack ??), a big hill near Kim's house where you also get a lovely view of the island. It was one hell of a climb, we had to stop for a rest quite a few times but we watched the sun go down at the top and got some nice pictures, disturbing everyone else's peace by chatting away constantly throughout ;)
In the evening we went on a mission to spend the money we had left over at Carlos & Charlie's again. Didn't quite manage it, but I had a fantastic night anyway, and we all managed to bring home another yard glass so now I have a matching pair :)
Sunday we recovered from Saturday, Irene and I packed our bags and left Aruba for Caracas where we spent the night. Unfortunately we couldn't get a direct flight back to Porlamar, and there wasn't enough time between the flights to get there in one day, so we returned to Porlamar on Monday morning. Our flight didn't leave until 23.15, we couldn't check in our bags until after 7 pm and we didn't have enough money to go anywhere anyway, so we spend ALL DAY at the aiport, bored out of our minds :( But anyway, finally we left on time, and spend the night in the plane trying to sleep until we arrived at Frankfurt (no, we still weren't there yet) where we waited another couple of hours until finally, FINALLY! we boarded a plane to Amsterdam, where we sat very impatiently for 50 minutes.
Of course we arrived at the very opposite side of the airport to the baggage reclaim so we practically ran there, picked up our bags and were met by our families :) :) :) And some lovely Dutch cheese!!! Quite strange to be home as it felt like I'd been away for a year, but it was great. I thought I might not be able to sleep that well because of jet lag or whatever, but I went to bed last night and didn't wake up till 11 o'clock this morning, so I did OK!
I'll upload my photos sometime in the next few days, and post another message when they're ready so you can all have a look. In the meantime, it's time for another cup of tea ;)
But anyway, my last few days in Aruba were great. On Friday evening after work at the clinic (just the one operation, but it took all afternoon.... why did we get all the complicated animals?!) the three of us climbed the highest point on the island, Jamanota. It was a fairly tough climb, but the view at the top was great - 360 degree view all around the island, including all the coasts.
On Saturday we took a tour of the northern and eastern parts of the island that we hadn't visited yet, starting with the amazing underground Quadariki caves, and the Fontein Cave (inside which were a couple of rattlesnakes in an aqaurium, argh! Rattlesnakes live on Aruba, but luckily we didn't see any in the wild!) Then on to Boca Prins, a bay at the coast nearby, and the sand dunes around it. We also visited the opposite point of the island to the California Lighthouse where there used to be another lighthouse, but it was a lovely spot anyway :)
Later in the afternoon we visited Baby Beach, so called because the sea is quite shallow by the beach. My last trip to the beach to boost my tan before coming home :( We also did a bit of snorkelling, there were loads of fish there, including some HUGE ones which swam right past us, except you wouldn't know if you didn't look under the water. There were also some beautiful maller ones, yellow, blue, purple, stripey and all kinds of other colours. Ahhhh! Just before sunset we climbed the Hooiberg (Hay Stack ??), a big hill near Kim's house where you also get a lovely view of the island. It was one hell of a climb, we had to stop for a rest quite a few times but we watched the sun go down at the top and got some nice pictures, disturbing everyone else's peace by chatting away constantly throughout ;)
In the evening we went on a mission to spend the money we had left over at Carlos & Charlie's again. Didn't quite manage it, but I had a fantastic night anyway, and we all managed to bring home another yard glass so now I have a matching pair :)
Sunday we recovered from Saturday, Irene and I packed our bags and left Aruba for Caracas where we spent the night. Unfortunately we couldn't get a direct flight back to Porlamar, and there wasn't enough time between the flights to get there in one day, so we returned to Porlamar on Monday morning. Our flight didn't leave until 23.15, we couldn't check in our bags until after 7 pm and we didn't have enough money to go anywhere anyway, so we spend ALL DAY at the aiport, bored out of our minds :( But anyway, finally we left on time, and spend the night in the plane trying to sleep until we arrived at Frankfurt (no, we still weren't there yet) where we waited another couple of hours until finally, FINALLY! we boarded a plane to Amsterdam, where we sat very impatiently for 50 minutes.
Of course we arrived at the very opposite side of the airport to the baggage reclaim so we practically ran there, picked up our bags and were met by our families :) :) :) And some lovely Dutch cheese!!! Quite strange to be home as it felt like I'd been away for a year, but it was great. I thought I might not be able to sleep that well because of jet lag or whatever, but I went to bed last night and didn't wake up till 11 o'clock this morning, so I did OK!
I'll upload my photos sometime in the next few days, and post another message when they're ready so you can all have a look. In the meantime, it's time for another cup of tea ;)
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