Aruba Photo Gallery

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Aruba is one of the southernmost islands in the Caribbean located just 17 miles (27 km) north of Venezula. 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 all share a single nationality: Dutch.

In 1996, we spent a long weekend relaxing in Aruba. This may seem like an extravagance but it was no such thing. At the time, we were living in the Cayman Islands. Gary was working at Red Sail Sports and Nancy was staying in Cayman on a tourist visa. A Cayman tourist visa is only good for three months, so we had to leave Cayman for a short while and return to re-start the clock on Nancy's visa. Red Sail Sports has the watersports concession at Hyatt Hotels. Hyatt employees (as well as Red Sail employees) are entitled to a number of free nights at any Hyatt hotel in the world. Therefore, we chose to take advantage of this perk for our short trip. Since Red Sail has a watersports operation at the Aruba Hyatt, Gary's diving was also free. The net result was a very inexpensive trip.

Aruba is a country of contrasts. Unlike much of the Caribbean region, it has a dry climate and an arid, cactus-strewn landscape. (upper left picture) This climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. Contrasting that backdrop is a very luxurious strip of beachfront resorts (above picture) and the clean and orderly city of Oranjestad. (left picture)

Since this was just a short trip, Gary didn't bother to take his underwater video housing. Therefore, there is no U/W footage. For anyone wanting an assessment of the diving, I'd say that the diving was only "fair". Both the visibility and sea life were good but not up to the standard of many other more popular Caribbean diving destinations.

However, we had a GREAT TIME!

Share our experience in the following pictures:

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© copyright   Gary & Nancy