Aruba is a major holiday and cruise ship destination with between 1 & 5 cruise ships a day! It is therefore geared for such visitors with gem / jewellery / watch and designer shops everywhere in Oranjestad, There are also a lot of hotel resorts for those arriving by plane. The countryside is very like Curacao and Bonaire with cactus plants, shrubs and trees. There are lots iguanas and lizards - my high light was feeding the iguanas on the marina sea wall which we did a couple of times with veggie scraps or banana!

   

We did get the bus to the south of the island with Jeff and Di from Canapasia, we were heading for Santa Cruz in the middle of the island but missed the stop so went on to San Nicolas! It's really an Oil refinery town but local artists have tried to make it attractive by painting some of the walls and buildings along one of the roads.

   

and my favourite

There are also pretty mosaic seats along each side

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Jeff and Steve waiting for Di and myself as usual! We went to Charlies bar for a drink - very touristy decor  filled with decades of international memorabilia - a nightmare to dust!

 

It wasn’t all play - I helped Sanne do some more sewing and she made a new windlass cover to replace their old one - she sewed it all by herself, my only input was advice - well done Sanne.

We also borrowed a Hookah - (Surface supplied dive / underwater air via a long hose rather than a tank) from Steinar on Numa and was able to clean most of the remaining growth from Curacao off the bottom of the boat and hopefully get the log working again, it was much easier than using a tank in the bouncy rough conditions.

 

Today we are all leaving  - next stop Colombia - we have managed to do a group checkout without having to take the boat to the dock again and will leave a little later - one of the boats has a problem with the Saltwater pump on their engine - Steve and Jeff are over there helping out - it would be wrong to leave with a boat in trouble!