Aruba 2021
Day 6: Sunday, August 1
Motorized ocean wheelchairs for me...
The Mr & Mrs were up at 7:30am and enjoying our coffee and pop when our morning visitor came along again.
I was suffering with a can of "No Sugar" Coke (since I prefer Pepsi) because sometimes we are able to find Diet Pepsi and then most times we are not...and this seems to be an ongoing thing at any island vacation.
I was checking out the weather for the day and it was going to be a balmy 88 degrees outside. Now most of the time when we've been here before AND when you read up on Aruba, it will say that it's a constant 82 degrees here year long. Well, aren't we the lucky ones? I did feel like it was a little warmer than the other times we've been here before and we come at the same time each time (July-August). But I'm ok with it. Believe it or not, it's hotter back home and in the 90's! Maybe this heat would be the reason why as soon as I went and got a pop and sat down I would only be a few sips into it and it would be warm. With a carton of pop costing over $9, I MADE myself drink it all and not be wasteful....but that was painful to do. :/
Around 10am we decided it was breakfast time. I made french toast with a little extra eggs thrown in there and the not-so-munchkin's sniffer was working again this morning as she appeared from down the hall.
Now today's adventure was picked by Sakari, so no surprises for her today. We are going to ride the SeaBobs. Last time we did these, we went with Aruba Bob down on the opposite side of the island and went to Mangel Halto. It was an AMAZING adventure. The coral that we seen and the whole trip in general was perfect. We ended up in a shallow area to rest then circled back around and over a shipwreck.
Well, I wanted us to have a different experience this time around and was reading up on the trip by Noord. Seabob Aruba would be the one on that side of town.
Now there are different trips you can take and of course the price depends on the trip you want.
The cheapest is a turtle tour for $95 and you are in the water for 45 min.
Next is Boca Catalina, Malmok, Rock formation, 3 trapi, turtles area and small reef for $115 and in the water for 1 hr 10 min.
The grand pappy of them all tour is everything listed above PLUS the Antilla Shipwreck for $125 and in the water for 1 hour 30 min.
Now of course I asked Sakari what she wanted to do and once she heard the words "shipwreck" everything else I said was a complete blur. I guess shipwreck it was.
So here's the full description of our tour:
And this is the hubby getting ready for the day. He's let his hair grow out and it's at the point where it won't stay out of his face when snorkeling. However, he decided against the pebbles look this time around. LOL
So, I booked the tour for 3, costing $375, and our tour would be at 2:30PM.
We had a few hours to kill before it was time to go so we swam and played...you guessed it....ball.
At 2pm, I decided it was time to head out...I never like to be late for anything even though it was only right down the street.
We pulled up at Boca, the meeting place, at 2:10 and managed to snatch a parking spot under a tree and that would keep our car a little cooler for when we would return.
We waited and waited and didn't see anyone show up. I thought that was weird because normally vendors are really early for tours.
Of course since we were away from the house, we didn't have any service, but I was able to somehow get on my phone and read emails that had downloaded prior to us leaving. I had an email from them saying they needed to know our exact address (even though that was something that was filled out with our booking) and saying that the driver needed us to get on Whatsapp to give him the exact location so that he could pick us up. Wait what? I had talked to the people in the office many times and that was one of the questions they had ask me...Do you need picked up or do you have a car while on the island. I told them I had a car and would just meet them there.
Now panic was sitting in because somewhere along the line they are trying to pick us up and there was no way to respond. I didn't know what to do because they had not showed up at Boca yet. I asked the hubby if we were at the correct location and he had assured me several times. He's always been my personal GPS so I believed him. Wrong answer! Always take matters into your own hands!
At 2:40pm I decided to get out and walk up to the beach entrance to see if maybe they were down in the water and had parked somewhere else. As I walked up to the entrance, it said we were at Tres Trapi!!!! Crap!
Back to the car to let the fam know we were at the wrong beach!!! I drove next door and seen their van with the seabob's on the back...whew! They had finally found me. ;)
I told them what had happened and it was ok because they were still getting paperwork signed by the other couple and hadn't even taken the seabob's off the trailer yet.
We stood around for quite some time and they ask if we wanted to wear wetsuits. Sakari and the hubby declined and I can always take them or leave them. I've been suckered into getting a wetsuit with previous places before (usually scuba diving) and they won't mention there's an extra charge for it until after you complete the tour. However, I decided to go ahead and take one.
Next up they would have a short class on how to use them and the speed of them: which would be 0 (click) then it would go to 15 (click) then 30 (click) then 45. Now I assume this meant 45km, which would be about 27 mph.
We went down into the water at 3:15pm. They did carry all of the seabob's for us...thank goodness.
They brought the seabob's down to the water one by one. As they hit the water, each one of us would decide if that was their lucky color that they wanted. Sakari picked a faded neon yellow/green color. I picked a bright red color and the hubby had a silver one. The other couple had a bright yellow and a red one. I had really wished they had a different color for the guy because it would make it easier to tell us all apart in pictures.
Once you got your seabob, you could go around the area and practice using it while everyone else waited on another one to come down.
By 3:20pm we were all in the water and ready to head out. He said "Let's go find some turtles!" as we took off down the coastline. Of course prior to heading out, he would tell us "In no way chase the turtles or get close to them. We don't want to disturb them"
Within 3 minutes we would spot our first turtle. Now my pictures didn't turn out too good...especially since we weren't allowed to get close to them. :/
What we did notice is that he was diving down right beside them and taking pictures and going along with them. Hmmm, why couldn't we do that as well?
Then we came across this turtle who looked like its shell had been smashed at some point.
After seeing the turtles, he asked everyone "Do you want to swim along the reef and coral or do you want to head over to the shipwr....." Everyone screamed SHIPWRECK! Well, everyone but me. I didn't even get to say anything. I mean yes I wanted to see it but at least thought they would have us on the reef for awhile.
So, off we headed....out to the deep blue sea.
Sakari was really good at diving down. She's a pro. Of course she's always good at everything she does and especially if it's water related.
He would take several pictures of us as we zipped along and headed out to the shipwreck. I have to say that he took an abundance amount of Sakari. She was doing all kinds of dives and turns.