Day 3 - At Sea - Weather: Partly cloudy, Slight Seas, 86 degrees. This was also our first Formal night. There are so many events on board the ship during the day and night that you can keep busy or just relax. Every evening there was a show in the Vista Lounge. This night was the Captain's Welcome Toast followed by the show In Concert featuring the Zuiderdam Singers and Dancers.
Passing by Cuba on way to Aruba
Beautiful day at sea
Family group photo
Group photo - we all clean up pretty good!
Day 4 - Thursday, January 17, Zuiderdam docks in Oranjestad, Aruba at 8:00pm. It was another beautiful day at sea. Sandy went to the spa to have hair washed and styled and then to afternoon Tea. Ray went to a presentation on the history of the Panama Canal and then Paper Airplane Contest. Entertainment at the Vista Lounge was Island Magic. They are a Steel Drum band from Trinidad. What a musical experience....they play all the music by ear. Really a wonderful show.
Day 5 - Oranjestad, Aruba. After breakfast we all walked into town to check out some of the shops.....mostly jewelry stores. Aruba's capital is very charming. Pastel colonial buildings line the streets. The island is 19.6 miles long and 6 miles across. There is little variation in the climate. Temperatures average 81 degrees and they are outside the hurricane belt. The official language is Dutch, Native language is Papiamento and English and Spanish are also spoken. In the afternoon Ray & I took a shore excursion. We traveled on a bus along the windward side of the island. We made several stops. Our first was the Casibari Rock Formations, a cluster of huge rocks creating an unusual setting. We drove past another rock formation, Ayo, considered a sacred site. We stopped at the Bushiribana Ruins, the remains of a gold smelter that was built in 1825. It operated for 90 years and produced 3 million pounds of gold. Our next stop was at the Baby Bridge, a formation of coral limestone cut out by years of pounding surf. We also stopped at the Alto Vista Chapel and the California Lighthouse. We got back to ship in time for dinner. There were only 5 of us at dinner tonight. The others went on the Kukoo Kunuku Dinner & Night Life Experience. The show tonight wasn't until 11pm and it was the Indonesian Crew Show.
Main street in Oranjestad
Cemetery-Each little building belongs to a family.
Casibari Rock Formation
The island is covered with cactus
Ayo Rock Formation
Small cafe at the Baby Bridge
Baby Bridge
Along the coast you see a lot of rock stackings.
More cactus
Alto Vista Chapel - built in 1952 on the site of the first Catholic church built in 1750.
Inside the Chapel
California Lighthouse built in 1914 and named after the S.S. California, a wooden ship that sank near shore.
The Zuiderdam left Aruba sailing for Cartagena, Columbia at 11:00pm.
Saturday, January 19 was an At Sea Day.
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