Aruba: Eagle Beach and Beyond

February 18, 2025

Ten Degrees and Getting Colder

Cold Sunrise That's just the name of the song written by Gordon Lightfoot. It was actually -13 F when I got up this morning (wind chill -24). Tucson may have pulled back into the lead! There's a lot of weighing pros and cons of Colorado vs Arizona by the wood stove. Not much else to report. I did enjoy a few games of pool and a beer with my brother this week. We don't get together very often, so it's good to try to keep the lines of communication open, especially with my mother celebrating her 86th birthday next month. He lives in Milwaukee and just started semi-retirement. Our opposing politics and lifestyles keep things very casual and surface-level. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's important to find common ground. He and his wife have started going to concerts and recently saw the Steve Miller Band. Music is one of our common interests.

During our second week in Aruba, our home base has been a lovely but economical Airbnb that is much larger than our first one. It’s a true one bedroom apartment with full kitchen and is about a fifteen minute walk to the beach. It’s also a five minute walk to Super Foods, the best supermarket on the island.

We have been taking advantage by preparing breakfasts and dinners in the apartment: The local eggs are amazing with deep orange yolks: For local fish, we have prepared grouper, red snapper and amber jack. I cook, and Julia does dishes. No complaints here.

Most mornings and evenings, we take long walks from Eagle Beach to Palm Beach—about a five mile round trip. Mornings heat up fast into the mid eighties with fairly high humidity. Evenings are delicious with cooling breezes and beautiful sunsets.

One day, we took the bus to the north tip of the island. Walking on the east side, we experienced more of the “Wild Coast” with big waves and rocky shores.