January 18, 2025–Aruba to Fort Lauderdale

On Wednesday we were in Aruba, a Caribbean island that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  Unlike many Caribbean islands which are lush and mountainous, Aruba is flat and desert like. And Aruba is also tiny—only about 6 miles wide and 20 miles long, with a population of about 108,000 people.  Geographically, it’s about 18 miles off the coast of Venezuela.  The official language of Aruba is Dutch, but the local people speak Creole or English.  The major industry is tourism, so the beaches are lined with hotels and restaurants.  I think the biggest draw is the beach and water sports.  

We went on our usual tour of the history of Aruba and truthfully, I didn’t absorb much.  In a nutshell, it was the same old story of the Spanish conquistadors marauding the island, enslaving the natives, and sending all of the gold they found back to Spain.  Later on, the Dutch ended up occupying Aruba.  

The “highlight” of our tour was a ride in a semi-submarine to look at the shipwreck of a German cargo ship, the ES Antilla, which sank off the coast of Aruba in 1940.  The ship was in the harbor on May 10 when Germany invaded the Netherlands, so the Dutch government ordered the seizure of all German ships in the Dutch Antilles.  The Germans didn’t want the ship to fall into enemy hands, so the crew scuttled the ship by opening the seacocks and setting it on fire in several places.  (It isn’t often that one gets to use the word scuttle.)  The German crew of 35 men were sent to Jamaica and interned for the remainder of the war.  

I had to look up all of this information about the shipwreck, because the tour guide on the semi sub was too involved in performing a standup comedy routine directed at an elementary school audience. She actually told the “Why are fish smart?” joke.  And then she told some super hilarious jokes about the movie “Jaws” set to the music from “Jaws.”  It was so dumb that I felt like booing or throwing rotten tomatoes at her.  Anyway, you are probably wondering if the semi sub was claustrophobic and a little eerie.  Why, yes, it was.  I wasn’t a huge fan.  The pictures below illustrate why.

We saw Heather at lunch and she informed us that she played bridge this morning and was off to play again this afternoon.  The woman is obsessed with bridge.  I’m not even sure she has gotten off the ship since Lima.  Apparently, a lot of cruise lines offer bridge programs on ships, including beginner and intermediate lessons, along with supervised games.  It seems to me there would be cheaper options than going on a two week cruise to play bridge, but maybe I don’t understand the obsession.  

Tonight we met all of the Machu Picchu people at 6:30 in one of the bars on the ship, and then went to dinner together. Actually, there were 14 of the original 22 people there. We don’t have each other’s phone numbers, so it was all word of mouth—you just had to tell people when and if we saw them around the ship.  I know I claim to be an introvert, but dinner was fun. We all agreed that the Machu Picchu trip was the best ever. By the way, when I saw Heather earlier today, she was in such a hurry I forgot to tell her about the meeting tonight.