First land tour for our group

Today is Thursday, December 3 and we are still traveling to Aruba.  Last night, seas were very, very rough and the ship rocked accordingly.  This morning has been leisurely as we don't dock until 1:00.  Our tour leaves at 1:30.

Temperatures are very warm and quite humid even though looking out our cabin doors and listening to the wind howling, one might think it was 20 degrees and ready to snow. ( we wish). The reports we have in the cabin are we are experiencing 60 MPH winds.  We totally believe it.  We thought Dec 1 was the end of hurricane season.

We spend nearly 4 hours touring Aruba, Town and Countryside.  Aruba is 16 Miles long and 6 Miles wide.  Today, the major industry is tourism.  Aruba is Dutch and people here speak Dutch, Spanish, English and native mixture of everything Papiamento  Children learn Dutch in school.  Aruba is very arid and dry.  Less than 20" of rain a year.  Cactus is major plant all,over the island.  They even make fences from cactus-- no painting, no maintenance!

   

                     Arid countryside

          

               

                                        Sea grape tree 

       

      Very interesting cemetery.  Each of these belongs 

to one family and generations are buried in the family " house".