After a day at sea we docked at Oranjestad, Aruba. Liz had signed us up for a “submarine” adventure and it happened almost as soon as we got off the ship. We got to see lots of coral formations, various forms of sealife and relics of various kinds. It was quite interesting. Returning to land from the submarine, we were anxious to see more. We walked along the waterfront for a while and came back to where we started and opted for lunch at Mojito’s Cantina & Grill. Now being right by the cruiseport you would expect this to be the stereo-typical tourist trap. And it might be, but we have been there several times now and the food is great, drinks are cold and you have great views of the Cruiseport and people down below. We highly recommend it to you. After satisfying our hunger we weren’t sure what to do so we approached a taxi driver who said he would give us a complete island tour for 10 dollars! He did a great job and we saw things we might not have seen otherwise and he proved to be a great tourguide without being obnoxious.

Aruba is an island and a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about 18 mi north of Venezuela and 50 mi northwest of Curaçao. It measures 20 mi long from its northwestern to its southeastern end and 6 mi across at its widest point. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, Aruba forms a group referred to as the ABC islands. Collectively, these and the other three Dutch substantial islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean, of which Aruba has about 1⁄3 of the population.

Aruba is one of the four countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten; the citizens of these countries are all Dutch nationals. Aruba has no administrative subdivisions, but, for census purposes, is divided into eight regions. Its capital is Oranjestad and that is where we find the cruiseport

Unlike much of the Caribbean region, Aruba has a dry climate and an arid or desert, cactus-strewn landscape. This climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny clear skies year-round. Its land covers 69.1 sq mi and is quite densely populated, current estimates of the population place it at 116,600. It is south of the typical latitudes of hurricanes but was affected by two in their early stages in late 2020.