HH ... We're about 20 miles off the coast of Venezuela in the southermost part of the Carribean.

http://www.aruba-tours.com/map.html

Gonna lots more pix to share ... just got back from the casino playing "Fishey" games and my luck wasn't too bad

Were supposed to fish with some people from PA tomorrow, but they had to fly home unexpectedly ... so we'll likely play some golf and then get some fishing in later in the stay!

Low blows in the middle of winter, we've been on the recieving end for many a years ... so it's time for a little payback

Hi Bob(: It's your beautiful sister in law(: I had to write and thank you for the awesome candy bar that I didn't need! It reminded me of making smores, when we were trying to find a name for Benjamin(: I miss you guys and wish I were there, but I'm not. Instead I'm here in Alaska freezing...it's -14
Enjoy your trip and give fishgal a kiss!
p.s. Mya loved the pictures of you!

Start practicing, Bob...

"Marlin On! Marlin On! Marlin On!"

Looks like a fun trip so far! Very nice!

Yeah enjoy Bob and Corey. Still kicking myself and my wife in the butt for not coming with you guys. We will definately be ready next year. Good thing I didn't come along anyways I would of run the island out of beer. HAHA. Not missing much here. Raining and the rivers are in and out. Lots of fish moving up though. See you soon.

She lets you do that huh?

My wife would kick me right back... and not nessessarily in the butt!

I guess our timing to leave couldn't have been better Pat

Been having a ball the past few days ... got some more pix to share, but I'll have to break it up into a couple of posts so I don't go over the pic limit on a post!

We've got more lizards outside our room:



We thought this was some sort of an Eagle, but the locals call it a falcon, and we got to watch him munch one of the gazillions of birds outside the Bucuti:



A look at the high-rise hotels from the California lighthouse (we'll have pix of that later) ... we're in the low-rise area at the furthest point in the picture:



A view of the Tierra del Sol golf course, I'll be getting a round or two in here in a few days



Plunking Aruba style! They have rod holders set up on the beac and then send suspended baits out with the use of a balloon on the water's surface and let the trade winds carry it out to sea. No fisheys caught while we watched the sunset:

Aruba sunset #2 We're going to try to get a pic every night! In this one, you can see a giant freighter likely headed for the Panama canal:



And we talked about Texas De Brazil ... this place is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We sat on the private balcony for two located just above the reindeer in the pic. They start you with a Brazillian cheese bread and then you get a pass (or two) through the giant hot & cold salad bar area:



Next you have a dual-sided card, put it on green and they start bringing you 13 kinds of skewered meats ... the regular and garlic pichana was our fave, although I also enjoyed the parmesan-crusted pork loin too:



Oh yeah, our first night at the casinos ... we started at the Excelsior at the Holiday Inn because they were supposed to have single zero roulette, but we never saw a table with it. Their slots did not seem to be paying well, so we went over to the Wyndham and Corey did just fine with this 16 times 30 payout on the quater machine:



I got sick of feeding money into the quater machines, so I had to try one of those "Reel 'em In" nickel; video slots that you can bet a bunch of credits on. Wow, jackpot!! $200 on the nickel machine ... need that luck on the bigger denomination ones!

back on the beach to do some frying yesterday ... oh no, Fishgal has the red flag up! What does that mean??



That means we get lunch on the beach



Afternoon rolled around and it was time to try out our Snorkeling gear at Baby Beach ... too cool!



Lots of cool fisheys!!!! A late edit as we finally got a book to tell us what these all are: a juvenille French Angelfish



Not sure what this was:

More fish!! A rainbow parrotfish:



I believe this is a juvenille damselfish:



We got a new room at the Bucuti ... although we liked the garden side, now we have the same view as the cam at the top of the thread!



Some notes on the Bucuti: nice and quiet. Staff is very freindly and eager to please. We were offered champagne at arrival but being non-drinkers, they brought was an endless uplly of ice water as we checked in. Our first room was 215 on the ground floor, garden vew. We liked this a lot because we could lay out on the lounge chairs right outside out room. When we moved to 237 upstairs (better view of ocean from room) ... we didn't have this option. A/C on in room all the time, so always cool when we got back. I think the listed rate was $240 plus taxes ... we got a better deal through MCM Tours. Ended up about $225 a night with the 18% tax.

Quiet here, lots of room on the beach too ... always a hut open. Would do again in a heartbeat!

Had an always good dinner at Tony Roma's at then headed off for a show at the Allegro casino. Lip-synched "Grease", but almost so bad that it was funny! I'll get my pix with the showgirls before i go!!

More casino action last night, but I'll post pix of that later. A cloudy day today, so we're going shopping!

Fishing on Sat, the fella we were suppossed to go with bailed on the trip as he had to fly home, so we just gotta wait a bit.

Are you coming back Bob?

LOL Jerry!

Looks like fun, lots of Damselfish, Parrot fish and tangs I see.


That Falcon is way cool!

Yikes, watch out for those gnarly cactus by the beach, wouldnt want to get drunk and wander into those!

Not sure yet Jerry, if we keep the same luck in the casino, we might not have too

Pat, a couple of breweries and distilleries on the Island, you're set to go.

We'll post some more pix soon

Summers in alaska chasing big fish, winters on the beach chasing nothing in particular, fishing the OP inbetween, tough duty but I guess someone has to do it so all the rest of us realize just how much our life SUCKS!!!

Have a great time!

Nice pics Bob! Thanks for sharing

I'm going to start a part II of this so we can share pix and reviews without having to download all these pix again if you've already seen them