Aruba.

Our last port was Aruba. We all decided to go together on a beach excursion, to De Palm Island. I had envisioned something like Klein Bonaire - an island that a lot of people go to, but one which is basically just a lot of beach. De Palm Island was just all beach, but it was completely built up and organized. Kind of like a water park, but with sandy beach areas rather than just pools. It was ok - the water was nice, and there were some fish, but the snorkelling was not as good as we had hoped. Plus all the coral was pretty much dead because of the number of people visiting. But the weather was good - sunny but not too hot- it was a relaxing end and it was nice that we did it all together.

We were bussed in from the cruise ship and then it was a short boat ride across to the island. We got some flippers for Mark and me and found some deck chairs in a not-so-crowded area. Then we just chilled out for a bit:








Mark went for a wander and found a pelican:




And then we started snorkelling. It was Mom's chance to try it, so Dad demonstrated first:



Then it was Mom's turn:



Which I think was pretty successful!



Then Dad headed out for the open ocean:



Mark and I joined him, and we saw mostly parrotfish, like this one:


And some like this one, though I've forgotten its name:


And then some like these:





So it was pretty fun all around. Then we had our last queue for the trip to get back on the buses to go back to the ship (notice how much I look like Julie in that picture!):



Back at the ship I went off to get my last spa treatment while Mom, Dad and Mark went on deck to watch our last departure:



Which turned out to be pretty exciting, since a motorboat came out of nowhere and zoomed alongside to pick up the local pilot who had steered the cruise ship out to open water:



So an interesting end to our last "destination." We had one more day on the boat, which was entirely at sea as we made our way back to Puerto Rico.