{"id":6189,"date":"2016-01-10T09:26:45","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T13:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=6189"},"modified":"2016-02-26T19:17:34","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T23:17:34","slug":"a-few-days-in-aruba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=6189","title":{"rendered":"A Few Days in Aruba"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ARUBA!\"<\/a>

ARUBA!<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived in Aruba at about 4 PM on New Years Day and dropped anchor in St. Nicholas Bay to clear in the following morning. In the morning as we prepared to raise the anchor we were greeted by the Coast Guard. They boarded the boat and\u00a0checked our documents before heading over to\u00a0visit Suzie Too for a visit. They were quite nice and were happy to pose for a photo.<\/p>\n

\"Aruba <\/a>
Aruba Welcome Visitors! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Aruba <\/a>
Aruba Coat Guard visiting Suzie Too <\/div> <\/div>
\"St. <\/a>
St. Nicholas Harbor is very industrial <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\n<\/p>\n

We’ve heard stories of the clear in process to Aruba and were a bit intimidated. Happy to report all went quite well for us. \u00a0Aruba is one of few countries who require all entering and departing boats to actually bring the boat to the Customs\/Immigration dock. \u00a0The main dock in Aruba is concrete with tires spread out along the way for large boats, not much protection for smaller boats. \u00a0When we arrived there was a large naval boat on that dock so we went to a secondary location. \u00a0 Apparently this dock had more tires spaced for protection and was an easier experience in general. \u00a0We all ended up with black tire marks on our boats but no real damage. \u00a0Echo and Suzie Too were the first to arrive but it got much busier later in the day as several boats arrived at once. \u00a0The Customs officer did board and search Echo but not all were searched.<\/p>\n

\"At <\/a>
At the dock to clear in <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"At <\/a>
At the dock to clear in <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Two <\/a>
Two boats on the customs dock <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

At one point there were 22 Rally boats anchored in the harbor.\u00a0 A few had opted to bypass Aruba and one boat will join us in Panama. \u00a0Lots of radio communication, weather watching, exploring, visiting and planning went on during \u00a0our stay there.<\/p>\n

Of course we did some sight seeing. \u00a0Aruba is a very busy place! \u00a0There are malls, shops of all kinds, loads of restaurants and even a movie theater which was showing Star Wars. \u00a0Several went to see the move, some even more than once.<\/p>\n

The public bus system is very nice. \u00a0We took a bus as far as we could to the Northwest\u00a0then explored by foot. \u00a0It’s a beautiful area with white sand beaches, huge sand dunes, a light house, great restaurant, refreshment vendors and amazing views. \u00a0From there we hopped back on a bus to head back to Eagle Beach which our\u00a0Lonely Planet Guide\u00a0<\/em>reported to be one of the top beaches in the world. \u00a0We found it to be quite beautiful and quite crowded.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"Beach<\/a>

Beach party in Aruba<\/p><\/div>\n

We enjoyed a nice lunch at a hotel along the beach then rode the bus back to Oranjestad. \u00a0We zoomed over to Echo to change and pick up a few beers then over to the beach to enjoy the regular “Suzie Too Sunday Beach Party”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We had received \u00a0several suggestions of things to do in Aruba from a Facebook post and are sorry to say we were not able to do much touring while there. \u00a0We did wander the streets of Oranjastad, spent time with our fellow rally members, joined a group grocery shopping trip and Jeff hosted a group navigation software class aboard Echo. \u00a0We would have liked to have seen more but did enjoy our time there.<\/p>\n

\"Hard <\/a>
Hard at work with Navigation Software <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Successful <\/a>
Successful group shopping trip. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Excellent <\/a>
Excellent grocery store! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rally<\/a>

Rally Planning Meeting before a great pizza dinner ashore<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Before leaving we had a group meeting ashore then all had dinner at a restaurant near the dinghy dock. \u00a0Very nice evening getting to know fellow rally members better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our check out process ended up being a bit different from the standard \u00a0experience in Aruba since there were so many of us and a busy cruise ship day. \u00a0Suzanne worked with Customs and Immigration to arrange a group check out on the beach near our anchorage. \u00a0Normally each boat would have to go back to the dock where we cleared in. \u00a0This is a somewhat cumbersome process for each of us, pulling out dock lines and fenders, motoring over to the area and communicating by radio to all the necessary authorities, tying to the dock while trying to protect your boat from the large concrete dock, later washing off all the black scuffs from the tires tied to the dock… \u00a0It was a much nicer experience to all meet on the beach at 6:30 AM with our documents. \u00a0At this point there were 15 rally boats remaining. \u00a0The customs and immigration authorities met us there, collected all our necessary documents and processed our exit. \u00a0All went amazingly well and we were all off within less than an hour. \u00a0Curiously they had informed Suzanne that we must all leave immediately and that they would keep watch to ensure we all left in a timely manner. \u00a0Not quite sure why but we were soon all off on our journey to Columbia and it certainly felt like a rally as 15 boats raised anchor and headed off as a group!<\/p>\n

\"35 <\/a>
35 of us waiting for our clear out documents <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"15 <\/a>
15 dinghies ashore for clear out process <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Heading <\/a>
Heading back to the boats <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Participation in Suzie Too’s OCC Rally has so far proven to be a great choice! \u00a0We have met so many wonderful and interesting people and look forward to exploring this part of the Caribbean with them. \u00a0Suzanne’s organization skills are amazing! \u00a0She and David have traveled these areas twice before and are great resources for all our needs. \u00a0Looking forward to all the adventures ahead!<\/p>\n

Next stop Santa Marta Colombia!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

~ Jeff and Mary ~<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We arrived in Aruba at about 4 PM on New Years Day and dropped anchor in St. Nicholas Bay to clear in the following morning. In the morning as we prepared to raise the anchor we were greeted by the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/svecho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/P10301151.jpg?fit=800%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2y1a7-1BP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6189"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6495,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189\/revisions\/6495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}