Following our excursion to Costa Rica, and some time at sea, we arrived in Aruba in the Dutch Antilles. Technically, as we discovered, this is a desert island, as its average rainfal is 20 inches a year. It is 20 miles long by 6miles wide, and the capital is Orajestadt, which is also its main port(and popular with cruise liners!)
The rainy season ending April 2010 produced some 80 inches, and so far in this season it has been 120inches!! So much for a desert island!. One side effect is that the all the cactii, and there are plenty of them, are rotting whilst growing, as they cannot offload the water they take up.
In the morning we took a tour of the island, which included a trip on a submersible out to the reef and well preserved second world war wreck. By doing this, we saw most of the northern part of the island. The rweck is a German cargo ship that came into Oranjestadt in September 1939, as it had been instructed to seek a neutral port. It joind three others. After sitting around for a few months, one of them made a break for Germany, and managed to get back. Emboldened by this two others made a break for it, but a British was waiting and they were both sunk before getting into the Atlantic. The final one tried to sit it out, but the authorities ordered it to leave. The captain decided to scuttle the ship and surrender his crew for internment. She stayed inact until a violent storm in 2004 broke the ship into two parts. It sits in about 50ft of water. Whilst driving to get on the sub., we passeda small wreck on the shore. Our guide explained that this had been sunk as an artificial reef in 2005, well offshore in 60ft of water. Another big storm occured in 2006, and when it was over, thye found the wreck where it is now, back on shore!
During the trip, the guide mentioned that in the afternoon, in the town off San Nicholas, at the southern end of the island, there was to be a carnival She siad it was second only to Rio, though we have heard that before. We decided to go for a look-see, and took the local bus. A very helpful driver dropped us off as near as he could, at about 2pm, and showed us where to get the return bus from. We walked the rest of the way.
It was obvious from the crowds that something was going to happen, so we found a good vantage point in the shade, and waited (patiently!). Nothing seemed to be happening, and all the locals around us were obviously set for the long haul. By now we had been waiting about an hour, enjoying the atmosphere, so we sought advice. The most sober! said she expected the parade to pass around 5pm, but pointed out the direction it was coming from. We walked to towards it, and found it after about a mile, moving at the proverbial snails pace. (A snail would actually have moved faster!). Having found another shady place-someones sunshade!- we started to enjoy it, and was it colourful-and NOISY! Everyone was having a fantastic time, and liquid, both hard and soft, was flowing freely. It was also very hot.
WE saw the first six or seven floats pass, and that took an hour. One that did pass had a portaloo on wheels being towed behind for the use of the dancers, and it was being used, judging by the dancing queue!
Being a little concerned as to getting back the ship, we walked slowly back to our starting point, overtaking everything that had passed us. By the time we reached our original vantage point, so had the head of the parade. After blagging a beer each of the Budweiser stand, we set off to find our return transport.
That was an excitement in its self. The driver must have been practising for some grand prix, as we do not think we ever before gone round a corner in a service bus with all four wheels scrubing for traction, and the tyres screaming. We survived! though it was an unforgetable experience.
Next stop was Willemtstradt on Curacao. Unfortunately it was Sunday. Not only was it Sunday, but apparently there was carnival somehwere on the island, though nobody found it. The whole place was shut!. We did not chose to do a trip, as none really looked interesting, so we wandered and enjoyed the wildly coloured buildings. It was though very hot, with no wind, and the temperature was well over 30C. After a bit of shopping and a beer, we sought the airconditioned sancturary of the ship(as did most others.
Next stop Bridgetown, Barbados and swimming with turtles.