Aruba Arrival

After a week of high winds while sitting in Curacao, the Starship has finally made it to Aruba. The weather gods are not with us at this time and after picking up another crew member Daniel who needed a ride to Panama we managed to find a short window across to Aruba before the heavy tradewinds set in. Now we are anchored off the airport in front of a delightful beach bar called Nikky's and the wind is howling 25-30 knots and predicted to continue for the next week. 

Daniel is from Argentina and an avid hunter gatherer. After a few days of sitting around and watching the wind blow he and Mike trolled in the dingy and brought us some fresh snapper and small barracuda to snack on. 

Aruba is known as the Las Vegas of the Caribbean, complete with cruise ships, casinos, health spas and high end resorts with corresponding high end prices.
An Aruba Arriba and a beer set us back $16.00 and we are already searching for the local market hopefully with some prices more fitting to our budget.    

As per our usual routine we rented a car to tour the island and tried to locate a laundry and a propane filling station. Aruba reminds me of a large glittering ice cream cake and it is very pink. The beaches are beautiful yet crowded, and every water sport is available. Windsurfing, snorkel trips, day sails, kiteboarding, scuba diving, and every restaurant you can imagine from Senor Frog's to Burger King to Hooter's.

A trip to the windward side to check the seas and wind just reinforced to us the need to stay put until things calm down and the weather forecasts are to Don's liking.

So we will wait and do what the sign says....Chill! I wonder how much a couch costs???