Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Tuesday, December 31, 2019 -- Mattie died 535 weeks ago today. 


Tonight's picture was taken on December 20, 2006. My parents were visiting and we took them to the Botanical Gardens and around Capitol Hill. This is the only photo like this with the Capitol behind us that I have. Back then it would never EVER have crossed my mind that we wouldn't have many more Christmases with Mattie. 









Quote of the day: To move, to breathe, to fly, to float. To roam the roads of lands remote. To travel is to live. ~ Hans Christian Anderson

We arrived at Aruba this morning. Like Curacao, Aruba has a Dutch influence. This can be seen in the architecture and language. Of course it is Dutch with a Caribbean colorful flair. 

There are 103,000 people on the island and it is consistently a temperature in the 80's or 90's YEAR ROUND! With only about 16 inches of rain a year. 

At one time, Aruba had an oil refinery on the island and that was its main source of income. But when the refinery closed down, the island had to re-invent itself. So it is now devoted to tourism. In fact, I would say out of all the Caribbean islands we have visited, Aruba is the most well developed..... as seen in its infrastructure and cleanliness. On many of the other islands, you see great poverty. Not so on Aruba.

The island has plenty of hotels, 16 casinos, restaurants, shops of all kinds, and it is known as the "happy island." 

Like many of the Caribbean islands, Aruba was formed out of volcanic activity. The elevation you see on the right of this photo is a volcano. 

Unlike other Caribbean islands, Aruba resembles a desert. There are cactus everywhere and a lot of sand. In addition, you will find volcanic rock everywhere, as it was pushed out of the ocean years ago when a volcano erupted and created the island. 

Do you see the rocks? To me they look like brown Swiss cheese. 

 A close up of the volcanic rock. 

We had the world's worst tour guide today, Ronnie. Ronnie drove the bus and in one hand held the steering wheel and the other the microphone to talk to us. In addition, he had the radio blaring while talking to us and frankly whatever came out of his mouth sounded garbled.

The first stop on our tour was to the Natural Bridge. In 2005, the Natural Bridge, a coral limestone formation chiseled by years of pounding waves and powerful winds, collapsed to the dismay of locals and tourists alike. But a smaller bridge, the intact Baby Natural Bridge, is a structurally sound arch carved out of rock and coral. 

This is a photo of the baby bridge. In the 1990's, all four of us visited Aruba and actually stayed on the island. Back then, we saw the original BIG natural bridge. 

All around the natural bridge are volcanic rocks. It makes for a striking photo. 

Tourists actually create rock castles on top of the rocks. Do you see the stacks of smaller rocks placed on the bigger ones?

The second stop on the tour was to an Ostrich Farm. We had the opportunity to get acquainted with many of these interesting, flightless birds as well as the emu. Although Africa is the native land of the ostrich, this intriguing bird finds a perfect home in Aruba's rugged landscape. The ostrich is the largest living bird species in the world. Once at the farm, Harold (a farm tour guide) took over.

These beige like creatures are emus. The emu apparently has three toes, moves slowly and doesn't have much endurance to run for more than a couple of minutes. 

We were told that both emus and ostriches have small brains and aren't particularly smart. In addition, they NEVER bond with humans regardless of how much time they spend along side them. 

These are ostriches. The black one is the male and the beige one is the female. Ostriches have TWO toes, one with quite a large claw. They are said to be aggressive and can pack a MEAN kick. 

Ostriches can run 45MPH and can run for an hour. The female lays about 70 eggs a year, of which about half are unfertilized. The life span of an ostrich is 80 years!

See this claw?! How would you like to be hit with this foot???? The ostrich really looks prehistoric in so many ways. 

This is the size of an ostrich egg. In fact one unfertilized egg is equivalent to 34 chicken eggs. The farm had a cafe and I checked out their menu. An ostrich omelette was $65, and feeds 6 people!

You know the movie Jurassic Park? I felt as if the ostriches were watching us, just like the dinosaurs were in the movie. 

In the midst of all the ostriches was this cute lizard. 

Now when the male ostrich is angry and wants to assert himself, he puffs up his feathers. Just like this!

Harold was holding up an emu and ostrich egg. The black egg is from an emu and the white is from an ostrich. 

The farm gives you a chance to feed the ostriches under supervision. I asked Peter to try it. He was a good sport, but the female on the left was spirited. She literally nipped Peter's ear. They have a professional photographer on hand to capture the moment. Typically I don't buy these types of photos, but the one the fellow took was great and came in a wonderfully hand crafted wooden frame. 

Our third stop was to the Casibari Rock Formations. On the flat island of Aruba, there is an unusual presence of huge monolithic boulders and towering rock formations. These geological formations add relief to the landscape and a glimpse into the island's ancient past. Casibari boulders are clustered together weighing several tons and creating unique forms. 

There are walking trails through this rock garden, and a climb to the top of the highest boulder rewards with panoramic views. 

Do you see what we climbed through? You really have to duck your head otherwise you are going to get badly injured. 

The climb down was actually easier than the climb up. Each step was uneven and very steep!

Peter and me on top of the formation. 

Our fourth stop was to the California Lighthouse. Named after the steamship California, which sank off the coast of Aruba, this iconic stone lighthouse, built in 1910, offers picture-postcard views of the expansive coastline.

My mom and me under a divi-divi tree. Divi-Divi trees are known as Aruba's natural compass because they always point in a southwesterly direction. 

Meanwhile on Curacao and Aruba, fireworks are VERY popular for New Year's Eve. In fact, you can find people selling fireworks by the side of the road in stands.

This afternoon, the island was filled with smoke and all sorts of loud noises from fireworks. See all this red stuff? This paper debris was left behind from fireworks. Thousands of fireworks were set out on the street and lit. They then explode for several minutes causing chaos and smoke.  

See what I am saying? The bus drove through this smoky haze. 

It produces chaos and traffic jams. Mind you the official time for fireworks we were told was 11:30pm on the island. So I can only imagine what is going to happen then.

Smoke and firework debris. This was seen and heard THROUGHOUT the entire day. 

After lunch, we walked from the ship out into the capital town of Oranjestad. Our ship was in the background. However, after about a mile or so of walking, we turned around and walked back because the streets were packed with hundreds of people and fireworks were going off all around us. 

Aruba was our last port. The next two days of the cruise are sea days, and we land back in Florida on Friday.