Aruba, An Enchanting Desert Isle

"The ocean is a desert with its life underground and the perfect disguise above."

---from "Horse With No Name" by America

All travel is personal.

To some extent, you will find what you're looking for, although if you want to view glaciers, needless to say sunny Aruba, where most days temperatures hover around 80° F, could not possibly deliver for you.

Julie and I sought out a snorkeling adventure.

On our Panama Canal cruise two years ago, we took an excellent ship-sponsored snorkel excursion by catamaran in Aruba, and clicking this hotlink will not only tell you about that event but as a bonus reveal the blues lyrics I wrote to share the history of Aruba for FREE!!  Now that's serendipity!

On our recent Southern Caribbean cruise, we decided to travel on our own to Boca Catalina, near the northwest corner of this enchanting desert isle.  By the way, if you doubt Aruba could be a desert isle when it looks nothing like "Gilligan's Island," consider the wild cacti growing in the sandy terrain. Aruba boasts 350 days of sunshine and only 16 inches of rain each year.

We found terrific snorkeling access from the beach.  Several snorkeling boats brought their passengers to the same reef, bolstering Julie's choice of distant Boca Catalina as having been the right decision.

We claimed free beach space in the shade of a palm tree, a few sandy steps away from wading into the warm, turquoise water.  We periodically moved our towels to follow the shade.

Aruba's aquamarine sea immediately captivates all who see it, but the exotic world below the surface is even more enticing for us.

The water that appears iridescent turquoise from the beach becomes crystal clear when looking down through a sealed glass mask while floating on its surface.  The snorkel allows us to effortlessly breathe rather than pivoting our faces to gulp some air between strokes.

The overall effect feels very much like flying through an alien world.

The reef at Boca Catalina teemed with brightly colored tropical fish, and the coral backdrop made me think of that line as a "desert with a perfect disguise above," though its undeniably more otherworldly and to me personally more beautiful.

Because we snorkeled at every port,  I find it impossible to categorically describe everything we saw, but Aruba was awesome.

I can say we saw some gigantic red star fish (Mountainous Star Coral), and Julie spotted a cool Spiny Lobster, a breed without claws.  It was also on Aruba that I first encountered what I deemed to be Kobe Bryant fish.  They were "Forum Blue" (purple) and gold.

Yes, that is the extent of my Ichthyology, although with a fish card I believe these Kobe Bryants were two varieties of Basslets, Royal Gramma and larger Creole Wrath Basslets.

As I mentioned, all travel is personal, and for me snorkeling among these amazing fish brought to mind my dad, who loved tropical fish.

A couple of storefronts over from his beauty salon in Belmont Shores was Tex's Tropical Fish, a shop filled with aquariums and all manner of brightly colored fish.  I remember walking over to look at those small but exotic fish when I rode with Dad on Saturday mornings to take guitar lessons on the same block.

My dad bought a large aquarium from Tex to sit on the half bookcase between our kitchen and living room, and then he stocked with an interesting variety of fish.  My friends inevitably found this exhibit fascinating when they came over.  It was the first stop after the crystal candy dish, which Mom always kept full of individually wrapped candies so that any visitors, including kids, would feel welcome to take one.

My generous parents also bought me a smaller tank for my room in which I kept guppies.

In the back yard, Dad installed a fish pond, which he dug out himself.  Before putting in fish, Darlene and I used it as a swimming pool for a few weeks one summer.  Afterwards, Dad raised larger koi fish in that concrete pond, but the filtration system never worked very well, and he eventually filled it in with topsoil and planted a garden.

Remembering that era brought to mind that Mom and Dad also subscribed to "National Geographic," which they encouraged me to peruse rather than "saving" them.

Is it any wonder that I'm intrigued by travel?



I wish my parents could have experienced all the amazing lands I've visited and, of course, snorkeled all the gorgeous tropical reefs where larger versions of those aquarium fish thrive among colorful coral reefs.

They did see quite a bit of the United States, far more than most people who grew up in the farm communities of their childhoods.  Because neither thought of themselves as swimmers, they avoided the ocean, but they actually went on a few cruises later in life.  Dad cruised to the Mexican Riviera three times with his friends from Spires, and Mom came with my family to Alaska and on a few shorter Mexico cruises.

I'd surmise that they went about everywhere they actually wanted to go, and because neither thought of themselves as swimmers, they were unlikely to have tried snorkeling.

The American way, however, is to stretch the paradigm of possibilities with each succeeding generation.

I hope in the afterlife our ancestors can somehow see the world through the eyes of their offspring, but not knowing exactly what comes next, Julie and I will continue to experience as much of the world for ourselves while we're healthy enough to do so.