wildlife of Aruba

Monday night is always an odd night, what with coaching to get out of the way. No Conrad tonight - he's in Alabama - so it's me and leftovers and a short, easy bit of blogging before bed.

I'm still drawing on the Aruba photos for blog entries and likely will get one or two more out of them even if it was a month ago (and I've neglected the Easter weekend trip to Pasadena, haven't I?). No matter. Aruba was an extraordinary experience on so many levels - it merits more than one entry.

So while I'm winding down, let me post some photos of the wildlife of Aruba.

It actually surprised me that we saw relatively few colourful birds - I struggle to think of any though we heard much birdsong. Certainly we saw fish - bright blue parrotfish from a hotel bridge, all the fish in the water just below us as we dined on a restaurant's dock two of the nights there,

and the many other amazingly coloured fish on our snorkeling expedition. Frankly, the snorkeling was wonderful - at the second stop we descended into what felt like an aquarium - clouds of fish around us, nibbling at the sandwiches we held tight in our fists. That was amazing. Truly. I could have watched them for ages.

We saw many other gorgeously coloured fish while snorkeling, and that was a real highlight of the trip despite my foolish sunscreen failure.

Aruba is an arid island, a small island. So far as I know, there are no big mammals on the island. Wild ones, that is. But there are lizards.

If only I'd got a photo of that vividly blue one I saw near the Westin. Ah well. I did capture shots of a few others, including at our hotel.

The other cool thing was seeing the crabs on the rocks at the waterfront.

It brought back all the memories of overturning rocks on the waterfront at my Grandma's when we were younger, and picking them up so they could scuttle over as our hands, one hand to the next. I admit that nowadays I wonder how good eating they make...

Oh, and the first critter spotted? This little guy!

flying south

Still catching up here, and returning to that Aruba trip from almost a month ago now. Four weeks since the first lecture? Is that right? It seems so very long ago in some ways, and yet it wasn't.

I wrote a quick first entry on the work aspects of the trip, and I think on reflection I should re-emphasize this point: this is not a blog for me to discuss work, to discuss libraries. Incidentally, perhaps, but not the focus. I'm not particularly comfortable bringing my professional life into this blog (though happy to talk with you about it one-on-one), and so I gave that aspect of the trip short shrift. I am, however, proud of what Nancy and I undertook. I thought we made did a very good job of addressing our topic, and I found meeting with colleagues and others in Aruba quite rewarding.

But this is a blog about food and travel more than anything, so again I'll turn from talk of work and focus on some of the more interesting aspects of the trip. And for tonight, before I head off to bed, some aerial photos.

One of the many many great things about Conrad is that he flies a lot for work, and there are spillover benefits to me. Most recently, I've acquired his elite status on United. On the Aruba trip, that came in handy: upgrades! I found myself on the flight from Newark to Aruba sitting in Business Class in a window seat on the left side of the plane. I cheerily took advantage of the view (when I wasn't watching The Descendants or reading The Hunger Games) to check out the view and speculate on where I was:

New York City poking through the clouds.

The Carolinas?


Cuba?


Over Hispaniola?



Flying into Aruba.







Puffy clouds, turquoise waters close in to shore. It was entertaining in and of itself, and I found myself surprised time and again that I was actually making this trip.

The day that travel doesn't hold some small magic for me, I should relinquish my status and stay at home. May that day never come.

I was there for work, darn it!

Aruba. Never on my radar, to be honest. Certainly, I've documented here in the blog my more recent fondness for beach vacations (Hello Hawaii! See you in a handful of weeks!), but the Caribbean was not someplace I'd thought I'd visit. No particular reason. Just not on my radar is all.

And then that Nancy came into my life.

I don't talk much about work on here, if at all, and I won't bore you with details of things. Some background, however:

• You all know I am a librarian. If you don't, you haven't paid attention.


• In recent years I have done work with specialized collections.


• My library has a collection of Caribbean materials.


• I am a pretty decent public speaker when needed.

All of that translates into a handful of days in Aruba at the invitation of the National Library. Nancy and I

• visited a college prep high school library







• visited the National Library (the Arubiana collection - the main library was closed for renovations)







• met with the Minister for Justice and Education (meeting not shown) in Oranjestad, the capital (shown)





• presented at the University one night (and look, Conrad showed up to hear us - aren't we spiffy in our outfits?)(and then we celebrated with a late and tasty meal of pizza - that's Ronny from the National Library with us






• presented to the college prep students the next day (that's Nancy, sipping a cappucino beforehand and with Astrid, the National Librarian, with her)

In short, it was work. Really, it was. Nancy and I spent several hours there refining the two presentations. We were on the go a fair bit. We met many people (gracious hosts and others). We kicked some butt in our presentation. We were floored by the Friday morning students who asked many excellent questions.

And then Saturday I went snorkeling. And we dined out nicely. And there was a wee bit of shopping (only a wee bit). In other words, fun. And that's a different blog post to come....