Well, I'm finally back!
'Twas really great. We stayed at this hotel called the Radisson, pretty cool stuff there. Firstly, it was right next to the beach, and the water was so clear that you wouldn't believe it! You know that normal, darkish blue-green you see, normally? It was light aquamarine, and almost transparent. 'Twas incredible. I'll get to a bit more on that later.
In the premises of the hotel, there were birds! I mean, parrots and canaries and... all kinds of birds in cages! My dad and I went up to one of the cages, and, I swear, one of them started doing acrobatics! It was hanging by one talon, upside-down, and it was jumping across to other bars on the cage... Geez! I got a little too close to one, and it gave me an, er,
affectionate little nip on the finger. Broke the skin, too.
Anyways... On the beach, there were tons of merchants, all wanting to sell you a banana boat, a jet ski, trip to an island, you name it! There was also another part of the beach which I liked to call the Shell Shack. It was about a thirty-foot stretch of beach that seemed to be made up entirely of shells! They were all in little broken up pieces, of course, but it sort of hurt.
When the waves washed in, larger shells would come. If you were far out enough (and it's not very far), the shells would slam into your ankles with the waves. One word: Ow.
There was a nice pool, and we walked on the beach a lot, but there were two big main events: Snorkeling and a Jeep tour.
First, the snorkeling. I'd never done it before, so I was really excited. We went out on a fairly large catamaran, with a higher deck, a lower one, and a little medium-sized ring around it. The crew was really nice, and they had us partying.
Lots of music, a bar (Bleh, no alcohol for me. Just some weird blue drink that tasted like a blueberry Sprite. Pretty good, really.), and a deck to go off of. At first, we anchored by a shipwreck. We got on our masks and life vests (AKA Flotation devices, not to be confused with bathing suits full of air bubbles.). We went to the ladder, and went out. Needless to say, my two sisters freaked out. One was just plain scared, and the other said she was freaked out because A) We were in 60ft deep water, and B) She said a dead fish hit her. Bleh. I went out there only a bit, and saw some nice fish.
We went back on, spent about an hour sailing and having fun, and then we anchored again. This time, it was much closer to the shore, only about 12ft deep. I went out with my dad (others too scared) and it was
awesome! The current wasn't too heavy (last time, it was really rough), and I could see everything! It was really beautiful. I saw tons of fish, and if I stayed still, they would come near, and I had fish swimming around my legs by the dozen. It was a really great experience.
I was sad that we had to leave the boat at the end.
The next day, then, we went on a Jeep Aruban Safari tour. We had a few stops to make. We were following the tour guide in a Jeep, with five in the open-air back and my dad driving in front. (We had those rollover things on top just in case.) Our first stop was the Aruba Aloe factory, and it was more interesting than I thought. I didn't know much about the Aloe plant, and learned of its healing powers. We also learned that the liquid that runs from it smells like a dead, rotting corpse covered in cow manure and used as a latrine hole for thirty years. That explains why they used to use it as a laxative.
We then drove somewhat offroad (not really, barely any bumps) to the California Lighthouse, which was named after a certain sunken ship named the
California. Pretty interesting, got some good pictures, and used the restroom at a nearby Italian eatery.
Then, it got interesting. Really interesting. We began our offroad portion of the trip. We in the back had never been offroad, so it was a wild ride. Very bumpy, with many times when we'd be bouncing about a foot or so in the air above our seats! Some very close calls (including about a foot from about a fifty foot drop). A nasty part was a hill we had to climb, with a big turn and not much space. Fortunately, we made it unscathed to our first destination: The Donkey Sanctuary. It turns out it was mainly just a big grassy area in our trip that happened to house a herd of donkeys. They approached us, and we welcomed them from the sides of the Jeep. They were very gentle, and all they wanted was a bit of food. Fortunately, our tour guide had the answer: Quaker Oats Chewy Bars!
Finally, oatmeal to the rescue... They ate right out of our hands (literally). We got some good pictures, too.
After even MORE bumps, we came to the Alto Vista Church. Apparently, priests in the church would (at some period of time, not sure what it is) go on a journey across the island consisting of almost 24 hours. Along the way, there were wooden crosses that they would pass. Every time they came to one, they would stop and pray. Being Jewish, I wasn't that interested.
Next we went to a little cove (well, it was there, but to far down!). We were on a rock formation, standing at least fifty feet above a raging ocean, slamming into a sort of plateau of rock below us. It was an inspiring sight, especially when mist would jettison from a crevice down low, sending spray high into the sky. This was sort of a minor stop.
Next up was the Gold Smelter Ruins, a stone building built by hand in the 1800's. During a short Aruban gold rush, miners would bring their findings there. They would crush it into powder in a mill, and then put it into a furnace and make gold bars, which they would then sell to merchants. The first piece of gold was found by a boy, who gave it to his father, who sold it to a merchant for $17. The merchant later sold it for $75, and so it began. We didn't know much, but we went in and climbed around.
Finally, we stopped at the Natural Bridge. It was a very interesting place - a thin strip of rock in the air, with most of it's bottom hollowed out by erosion from the ocean. It mirrored it's title: a natural bridge. We took pictures of ourselves up atop the bridge from the sandy beach below. We also went atop the bridge, again, and went near the edge, hoping for some large waves to spray us. I wasn't all that lucky, only getting a tiny bit of spray near my knees. But it worked out all the same.
There were some other, minor things that we did as a family, but that was mainly the gist of the whole thing. Well, except for the airports. On the way there, clearly, we went through the normal security check and check-in. Then, upon arrival to Aruba, we went through customs. No big deal. However... on the way back, it was a whole different story. We checked in, checked our luggage and everything. Then, we went to Immigration, where we showed our passports and got whatever verified. Then, we went through another Customs checkpoint. Then, for whatever reason, we had to re-claim our luggage, go through Customs and Immigration AGAIN, load our luggage back, and go through security. Finally, we had lunch at Sbarro.
Then, to get into the terminals, we went through one final Customs check, and another security checkpoint. Final evaluation: GAH!
Then...
At Philly International Airport, getting our luggage was impossible. At first it said it was on Carousal B. Half an hour later, it comes off, still no luggage. We're baffled, stay there for an hour confused, then someone tells us Carousal B, again. Another 15, we're annoyed. FINALLY, it starts coming, and we spend about 2.5 hours there in total. We get home at midnight, when the flight landed at 8:30. We should've gotten home at 10...
All in all, though, a great trip! Still, it's good to be back at home sweet home.
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Hehe, my friends and I went on a snorkling trip, like you did, last summer. We went to a really pretty coral reef off of the last key of Key West, Florida. So many colorful fishies.. I even saw this huge manta ray thing. But then I saw one of those hammer head sharks and got out of there 
