Palm Beach, Aruba
From Fort Lauderdale we cruised for two days arriving at the island of Aruba early on the third day. As we disembarked from the ship we were treated to a beautiful sunrise and warm temperatures. We had purchased an excursion named "Semi-Submarine, Shipwreck and Island Drive" for our short time on the island.
We boarded our bus for the excursion and followed the west coast of the island north, passing beautiful beaches, hotels and even one shipwreck. Our first stop was at the California Lighthouse on the northern tip of the island. The lighthouse was named after a U.S. ship which sunk near the point in 1893, years before the lighthouse was built.
We then rode our way south again to the downtown area, left the bus and walked to the Pelican Nest, a bar and restaurant located on a pier. Here we boarded a ferry that took us out to the semi-submarine, which was actually a surface vessel with a seating area that was five feet below the water surface. Once we were seated in the lower compartment, we were taken to see the wreck of the ship "Antilla". The story was that it was a German ship that was ordered to be seized by the Dutch government in Aruba after Germany invaded The Netherlands at the start of WWII. Rather than turn the ship over, the crew started it on fire and sank it.
The next stop on our tour was the Aruba Natural Bridge on the east side of the island. As it turns out, there were two natural bridges at this location, but the larger of the two had actually collapsed in 2005!
The last stop was at the Casibari rock formations. These are huge boulders piled such that they form the highest location on the otherwise flat island. No one knows why the rocks are there, but one theory is that they are the result of a volcano. Standing on the rocks we could see the island in all directions.
We returned to our ship shortly after lunch time.