Sunday, October 19, 2008

Aruba

On day 11 we stopped in Aruba. Ryan, myself and the girlies took a snorkling/kayaking excursion. We left bright and early in the morning so sweet Becca slept in our room and took care of the younger two for us!
Our excursion took us to a beautiful white sand beach. The water was crystal blue and warm! We started out snorkeling for about an hour. Our guide let us out into the ocean. We had to swim in a line as to avoid the fire coral. Once past the fire coral we were free to roam. Madalyn and I did our traditional "holding hands" snorkel. I think we both feel some comfort in having someone else with us :o)! The fish and coral were so colorful! When we were done snorkeling we got ready for our kayaking adventure. None of us had ever kayaked before so we were so excited! I wish I had pictures of it because it truly was just like a postcard. We could see all the way down to the bottom of the ocean, the water was still and all different colors of blue! Words cannot describe. We will definetly kayak the next time we go back- yes the next time- who knows when, but someday!
Here is downtown Aruba. We did not have much interest in exploring all the shops so we only spent about an hour downtown. We did learn that all of Aruba's coastline is public. None of it is off limits nor do any hotels own the coastline. We also learned that lots of the taxi's in Aruba are "pimped" out! We sure enjoyed our rides in the taxi with the huge tv screens!
We also learned that aguanas run free here! They are everywhere- kind of freaked me out. After our excursion and shopping we headed over to the Westin to meet up with the rest of the Jones clan. Talk about iguanas- ugh! I wish I would have take a picture of all them them so you could appreciate what I am talking about! Where we were lounging out there were about 30 iguanas running around us. They would just stare at us like "you are in my space".
A funny story- my neice Rachel was sitting on her lounge chair eating her lunch. The iguanas started swarming around her. Soon one of the iguana's jumped right on her lounge chair to get her food! She of course jumped up and screamed- I wish it was on video! I felt so bad for her as I probably would have parked myself inside the hotel the rest of the day :o)!!!
Here is the beach front where we were hanging out. I loved this picture because it shows the European culture ;)!


2 comments:

Becca Jones said...

Yes. Love the Speedo men... or is that Dallin? Ha ha! Love the pictures!

Jenny Moore said...

Your trip looks absolutely amazing!! Glad that you took so many wonderful pictures and you've blogged so much of it!!
Looks like a great time!!!