Aruba

Aruba

We arrived in Aruba the night before Dick & Terri’s arrival. In Aruba you have to call the Aruba Port Authorities to ask permission to enter the harbor. Small vessels have to enter along with the hug freighters and cruise ships we even use the same docks. The entrance is marked with large green and red buoys the channel has a large reef between the two entrances in Oranjestad harbor. Customs and Immigration boarded our boat and complete the clearance procedure. Mystique looked so little along side of the hug commercial dock.

We anchored in an anchorage alongside of the airport runway. Pinchos bar and grill located on a pier over looking the water is right in front of our boat. We arranged to meet Dick & Terri there. They had no problems finding us. We ate a wonderful dinner at Pinchos went to Mystique had a few cocktails and let Dick and Terri settle in for the night. We provisioned the next day, walked around town a little then returned to Mystique to prepare for our long journey to Panama. This will be our longest crossing ever it should take us 5 days and 5 nights to arrive in Panama. It will be nice having extra crew aboard for the night crossings.

The local currency in Aruba is the Aruba Florin (AWG or Afl). 1.77 Afl to 1 US$ (no sales tax). The people here are well educated, often speaking several languages. It is a happy nation enjoying a high standard of living with low unemployment, also safe and friendly. Aruba remains part of the Dutch Kingdom having direct ties to Holland but no longer needing the central government of the Nederlands Antilles to manage it’s affaires. The northeast coast is rugged and wild while the interior is desert-like with a variety of cacti and rock formations.