Danki Dushi Aruba

Days flies by when you have good times with friends. I did not think about staying in Aruba for three weeks, nonetheless it has been a pleasant visit. You know you have been in one anchorage too long when; you recognize most of the boats around and every time you step ashore people know you by name, then it’s time to move on! The longer you stay in one Island the more convenient it becomes, you know where things are, where to go and you find new friends. However, the main reasons Earthling has not moved in three weeks is the weather. There will be a weather window on Monday and Tuesday with calm seas and moderate wind and we have to jump on it to sail to Colombia. The passage from Aruba to Colombia is considered to be very challenging. It is rated as the fifth most difficult passage in the world. Swells and currents from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean can collide and create large sharp seas. We shall wait and see in a couple of days.

California Light House

The Old Fort on the Windward

Sunset by Arashi Beach

Aruba is a great hub for friends and family to fly into. My friend Nick flew in on a non stop flight from Boston last week. It is nice to have old friends aboard, Nick’s visit was a great reunion. We rented a car and explored the Island. The highest elevation is 175m/600ft and there are steps on the side of the hill going all the way up, it didn’t take long to go up and down and the best view of the island could be viewed from here! We also drove through Arikok National Park to the windward side where there are a few very cool caves worth seeing. The drive through the national park and the North side of the Island is scenic and it is a fun ride on dirt roads along the windward coast. On the Leeward are the “High Rise Hotels” along long beautiful beaches such as Palm Beach, Eagle beach, and Manchebo Beach. At the most Eastern corner is Arashi Beach, where locals go to and the California sand dunes and Lighthouse are just around the corner.

View of the Tallest Hill

View from the highest Point

Nick is pointing at the Pinnacle

The Light Shall Set You Free

Guadirikiri Cave

Stock up Reef Rocks and make a wish, lots of wishes must come true here

As of a couple days ago my friend Hector joined Earthling. He will be aboard till Cartagena, Colombia. Hector is fluent in Spanish, which makes communication easier in a Spanish speaking nation. Earthling’s boat buddy S/V “Chiron” is also here and we will be making the passage alongside each other.

In Papiamento
Danki=Thanks
Dushi=Sweet

View the complete Album of Aruba on fb page, click here

Follow Earthling’s crumb trail from Aruba to Colombia on spot connect       

Love From Aruba

A Hidden Paradise

Helicopter Landing by Palm Beach Hotel

It’s amazing to visit places that are so remote from the rest of the world. Barbuda and Antigua are one nation and only 25 miles from each other, yet so different. In Antigua there is an abundance of resorts, hotels, restarurants, and tourists. In Barbuda there are  only 3 resorts, one of which, has been closed for years. The other two, "Coco Point Lodge" and "Palm Beach Hotel" are very private and out of most people’s budget. Coco Point lodge won’t even serve to the cruising community and Palm Beach Hotel has a special pricing strategy, which in simple words, means don’t come here unless you have an endless supply of money. If there was a survey for the most expensive cheeseburger in the world, “Palm Beach Restaurant” would definitely make it in the top ten! A regular beer is priced at $19US and a chesseburger $49US, excluding the 20% tax. We see the same helicopter flying in and out everyday just to drop off guests.

We have anchored in three different places during the 7 day visit to Barbuda. The most scenic anchorage is by 11 mile beach. The sand on this beach has a pinkish color and is absolutely magnificent and reserved for a very few people. The stingrays here are not shy to jump out of the water, gliding over it so elegantly. I wish it could have been captured on camera. We feel very fortunate and lucky to be one of those few people visiting this hidden paradise. There is not a single soul on this beach. What’s even better, is that we setup a bonfire on the night of the full moon. Our friends and us gathered wood for the fire and set up our tent just a few feet from the clashing waves on this long stretched beach. Hotdogs and baked potatoes were made for dinner. We collected enough wood for the fire to last until midnight, then we all crashed in the tent.      


The only town and the capital of Barbuda is Codrington and most of the Island’s population live here. Codrington is named after the family that originally came to the Island in the 1600’s. It’s not even that easy to get to this town. We had to take our dinghy to the beach, pull it across the beach over to Codrington lagoon, and dinghy 1.3 miles to the town. There are taxi services that take people across the lagoon so you don’t have to drag your dinghy, but taxis are out of our budget. Our taxi is the dinghy and the 2  Dahon foldable bikes. We did the trip across the lagoon twice and the second time, the folding bikes were with us on the dinghy. These bikes have carried us to many places and are great transportation. The four of us biked 3-4 miles on a dirt road to get to the windward side of the island to explore some caves.
Why do we like to explore caves? Is it because mankind originally lived in caves? It’s fun to go in caves, and some advice, consider wearing proper shoes to be able to climb up rocks to even get into them. Furthermore, once you get into a cave, beware... there might be creatures living there. As I am stepping into one of these grottos, some kind of  animal started screaming loudly, just a few feet away! It surprised and scared the hell out of me. On top of that, as I am trying to walk away, Mike points out a huge bat hanging on the ceiling of the cave just above me! We later realized that there was no bat and the animal that screamed was just a bird!
      

Locals Commenting on Charlene

One of the Barbudan's Sunday events is horse racing and bike racing. We happened to experience a bit of each of these events. This Island has a bicycle culture, since it’s so flat. Everybody rides bikes and people are very enthusiastic about them. The few locals we connected with, admired our fold-up bikes so much they gave them names, Charlene and Maxene! The horse race was scheduled for 3:30pm and we were there till 5:30pm. They kept saying the race will start soon, and in the the Caribbean, that’s island time. For us cruisers, there are two times, it’s either day-time or night-time. When night-time approaches we have to get going home. Unfortunately, we never got to see the horse races because the night-time was approaching.
If we had spent another day in this town, everybody would have known us by name and we would have seen most of the townsfolk.

Love from a Hidden Paradise

Check out the Antigua photo album on Earthling's fb page