Aruba: September, 1997

Travel We visited Aruba during the second week of September, 1997. We traveled from the US mainland to Oranjestad via a Sun Country Airlines Charter from Detroit. We rented a car at the airport and drove the short distance to the Mill Resort. Crime Alert! One of the couples traveling with us had their hotel room robbed while we were in Aruba. They had gone to the beach in the evening to do some snorkeling. They left their stuff (beach towel with hotel room key) on the beach while they snorkeled. They returned to find their hotel key missing from their belongings. By the time they got to their room, thieves had taken all of their cash and a portable CD player. Fortunately, none of their dive gear or important papers (passports, credit cards, etc) were taken. The moral of the story is: don't leave your gear unattended at any time on the beach or anywhere else!! We're not trying to steer you away, as Aruba has much to offer. Just be careful!

Accomodations The Mill Resort is a quaint resort, right across the street from the Wyndam Resort (and the beach). Since they are not on the beach, they have arranged a deal where you can use the beach at the Wyndam (although not the pool). The Mill has their own pool and pool bar, but clearly the action is on the beach. Personally, we found that all of the resorts welcomed guests from other hotels for most things (except their pools), and the dollars we saved staying at the Mill gave us extra cash for other activities. The rooms at the Mill were quite nice. We went with a group of 10 people so we saw 5 different rooms. One couple in our group got a kitchenette which was great for cooking lunches. We got a room with a jacuzzi tub. The jacuzzi was great after diving.

Food The Mill has a pretty nice restaurant on site. We had dinner there the first night and really enjoyed it. One thing that we noticed all week was the quality of the BEEF! The steaks were better than any I'd ever had in the states (sorry Texans!) We dined out every night. The favorite restaurant of the group was at the lighthouse at the north end of the island.

Activities Casinos. Snorkeling. Ruins. Caving. Natural Bridges. Off roading. Hiking.

Diving We went to Aruba for SCUBA diving. The reefs around Aruba are not known as the greatest in the world and they live down to that expectation. The coral is not in the greatest shape and the fish are limited as spear fishing is very popular. However, one thing Aruba does have is shipwrecks!! We signed up for a 10 dive package with Red Sail Sports. We started with the Pedernalis wreck. It is a WWII era wreck that is scattered far and wide on the reef floor. Next we dove the Antillia Wreck. The Antillia, a German vessel, had the misfortune of being off the coast of Aruba when the Germans invaded the Netherlands. The captain of the Antillia, not wanting to be the first German vessel captured during the war, fired up the boilers until they were red hot, and then let seawater into the ship. This blew quite a hole in the ship and sunk her. Now she sits in about 50 feet of water, some portions visible above the surface. After 50 years on the bottom, she has become quite a reef. One dive not to miss is the Sonesta Airplane. The plane was sunk intentionally. All of the seats have been romoved so you can swim through from front to rear. We got a really good picture hanging onto one of the propellers. Our best wildlife dive was at the Arashi Airplanes. As we were diving on the coral around the wreck, Tracy spotted a free swimming octopus (yes, in daylight). Dan got in close with the video camera and we got about 30 seconds of FANTASTIC video!

Copyright © 2001 Kris Warmann. All Rights Reserved.