Aruba, Part One: Mangel Halto Beach and Pos Chiquito

I finally had some time to sit down and go through the pictures I took on our family vacation in Aruba.  I'm really sad, because all the pictures I took with my underwater camera are now lost forever (thanks Olympus for making an underwater camera that apparently can't handle being underwater...)!  I took a really cool picture of an eel that I was SO excited to share, as well as a ton of other great pics, but I guess I will just have to mourn their loss and move on.  Sad.

Anyway, Aruba was super fun!  We stayed in an apartment in a small town called Pos Chiquito, which is south of the main touristy areas.  It was nice to have the beach pretty much all to ourselves, and there was some decent snorkeling if you went far enough out.  Apparently it's a really great place to scuba dive, because you can find octopus, squid and other fun creatures...I really need to get scuba certified!  Although I enjoyed the more laid back location, I kind of wish we had stayed near all the action up in Eagle/Palm Beach.  I would've liked to be closer to the restaurants and shops, but luckily taking the bus was really easy and fairly inexpensive, so we were still able to get around.  The people of Aruba are all extremely friendly and willing to help.  One of my favorite memories of the trip was when my daughter fell asleep next to a lady on the bus and the lady just put an arm around her to keep her comfortable...it was the sweetest thing!

Here are some pictures of our time in Pos Chiquito and Mangel Halto Beach:

There were a lot of pretty cacti everywhere...you had to be careful to watch where you were walking!

The mangroves were beautiful!

Every night the kids wanted to go in the "hot" tub...it was actually more of a "lukewarm" tub, haha.

The Aruba Sunset

More Aruba pictures to come!  Have you been to this lovely island?  If not, do you have a favorite place in the Caribbean?