Our ship, the Grand Princess, docked in Aruba, on exactly New Year's Day.  Given that everyone everywhere celebrated and partied the night before, practically everything was closed when we arrived.  Only a couple duty free shops opened specifically to sell to the passengers of our ship.  The majority took the day off just like everywhere else.  Closed or not closed, we had a wonderful time here too and would certainly not mind returning for a much longer stay.  I think Aruba's draw more than anything else is the beaches.  After having toured the island, there is no doubt it has some of the best places for swimming in the Caribbean. The crystal blue waters of its beaches just seemed endless.

Just like the neighboring island of Curacao, Aruba has a strong Dutch influence.  It could be seen through the architecture of its buildings as well as the language spoken by the people.  Besides Dutch, however, other different languages were spoken here too by its people with Spanish spoken widely.  In fact, I spoke Spanish all the time I was in the island talking to locals and asking for directions.  Aruba after all is a mere 45 miles north of Venezuela.  Besides Americans, the Dutch were here too in droves.  Given that we were here over the Christmas holidays, I can imagine the Dutch coming here to escape the very cold winters in the Netherlands in the winter.

Don't the buildings look very Dutch?

This dragon actually stood on top of a bar along the waterfront.

There were plenty of hotels in Aruba.  We saw this one along L.G. Smith Boulevard.  What made it stand out for me was its furnishings.  Everything was Southeast Asian.  In fact, they looked like they were made either in the Philippines or Indonesia.  I figure they must have come from the latter given that Indonesia too was once a Dutch colony and its handicrafts very much resembles the Philippines's.

I just had to take pictures since I myself was in the midst of decorating my home tropical style.

Just take a look.

At this point we had already explored the downtown area for a few hours and were planning to return to the ship to change and head out to one of the beaches of the island.

After a light lunch on board, we joined a group of tourists going on an island tour for a lot less than the ship was charging.  There were official cabs and vans offering tours by the cruise ship terminal and we took advantage of the cheap price.

Marc and I went up to the top of this very big rock.  The climb was pretty steep and narrow.  Only one person at a time could go up or down.

This one though was off limits to the public.

From these huge rock formations, our tour took us to The Alto Vista Chapel located very high up on a mountain in Oranjestad with amazing views of the Caribbean sea.

If I were to be strict and adhere to correct Spanish usage, I would rename this church, The Alta Vista Chapel. The adjective, alto, needs, to agree with the feminine noun, vista.

This is where Marc and I went swimming.  It was on the way back to the cruise ship terminal and the driver of the tour bus kindly dropped us off here at our request.  From Palm Beach we took public transportation back to downtown which was around 15 minutes away. We rented some lounge chairs in the shade from a local who only spoke Spanish.  He advised us to not leave valuables in the beach.  He did mention somebody's possessions being stolen just the day prior. Anyway, it felt very safe in the beach.

As far as I recall, the water looked so inviting but it felt cold. It took a few minutes to get used to the water temperature.

Can you see the pieces of red paper on both sides of the street?  We saw them practically on every sidewalk we walked on in Oranjestad.  They were the burnt paper from firecrackers revelers used to welcome the New Year the previous night.

Our last view of the famous Haystack from the ship as we left for Fort Lauderdale on our return journey home.