well this is depressing ...

[purbeast0]

The flight got in last night at 9:30 and I'm back at work 12 hours later ... man this really SUCKS.

On Thursday when I left we ended up missing our flight and stayed in Miami that night to catch another flight to Aruba early friday morning. Luckily our hotel was nice enough to let us move our trip back one day and everything worked out fine. So it was 4 nights/5 days in Aruba w/a bonus day in Miami.

Aruba is so beautiful. I would love to move there. The people are so nice there and the beaches are just beautiful. The scenery is also beautiful. I can't explain how much fun we had at that place. My GF and I even ate at this place that literally had our dinner table at the shore of a beach with our feet getting wet in the water as we ate. The trip was just unbelievable.

We did snorkeling, parasailing, waverunners, horseback riding (which encompassed going to the natural pool and seeing some breathtaking scenery), chilled on the beach, and went out every night. The only thing I didn't get to do was go Scuba diving because our hoseback riding thing got screwed up and we ended up having to reschedule that at the time we were supposed to scuba dive.

Snorkeling was so awesome and was much cooler than I thought it would be. I saw the Antilla shipwreck which was incredible. It's a 440 foot ship in about 60 feet of water. The water is so clear its very easy to see it from just snorkeling. I can't wait to go back though and scuba dive. I have some cool pics of the shipwreck as well.

I will post pics later tonight when I get home, I didn't have time last inght. I took about 500 pics and a couple little movie clips on my camera. Are there any sites to post a bunch of pics like that and make some sort of gallery? Or is that only available if I have my own webspace. I know I can use bbzzdd but I won't be able to put many pics online really heh.

 

[MrChad]

Very cool. Where did you stay? Was it all-inclusive?

 

[chuckywang]

Use IIS or Apache and host them on your own computer. There are a number of free web galleries you can download.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

How much for airfare/hotel?

 

[shud]

It could be more depressing, you could be lying in a river bed somewhere like that one chick. What's worse, you could have been from the deep south before it happened to you, also like her.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Yeah, I came back from Akumal sunday afternoon and went to work monday morning. This blows.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
Yeah, I came back from Akumal sunday afternoon and went to work monday morning. This blows.

This is why i always take off the following day when I come back from a vacation, especially one that requires airfare. Last thing you want to do is go right back to work.

 

[SouthPaW1227]

That's AWESOME sounding! But it's gotta be a bummer back at work

www.imageshack.us will let you form a gallery

 

[purbeast0]

alright thanks for the information, I can try to setup something and host on my computer, I did not know what was possible.

anyways i went through travelocity and booked back in March. the total for my GF and I was $1700 for airfair + hotel. The flight itself was about $650 a piece. We stayed in a REALLY REALLY nice place called the Amsterdam Manor. It was minutes from the shoreline. We were in the 2nd best type of room, so the price was really not too expensive for the hotel, the flight was the killer.

it was so amazing. i really am considering moving there and living there for maybe a year or so down the road. It is just that beautiful and I really enjoy the water. i could go snorkeling every day and not get sick of it. screw playing halo 2 or video games everyday when you can go in the water.

 

[gigapet]

did you take any late night drives with strange locals?

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
it was so amazing. i really am considering moving there and living there for maybe a year or so down the road. It is just that beautiful and I really enjoy the water. i could go snorkeling every day and not get sick of it. screw playing halo 2 or video games everyday when you can go in the water.

If you are serious then get certified for SCUBA here in the states locally and pick up some equipment you like instead of using rentals (regulator set, wetsuit, mask, and fins are what I?d consider the bare minimum). The short courses most resorts give you are not a substitute for proper training

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: purbeast0
it was so amazing. i really am considering moving there and living there for maybe a year or so down the road. It is just that beautiful and I really enjoy the water. i could go snorkeling every day and not get sick of it. screw playing halo 2 or video games everyday when you can go in the water.

If you are serious then get certified for SCUBA here in the states locally and pick up some equipment you like instead of using rentals (regulator set, wetsuit, mask, and fins are what I?d consider the bare minimum). The short courses most resorts give you are not a substitute for proper training

yea i REALLY REALLY wanted to try it out, and after enjoying snorkeling so much, my GF and I were talking about taking a little trip to florida to do more snorkeling as well as some scuba diving. can you get certified anywhere? like I'm in MD and there arent' any places to actually snorkel around here, but are there places to get certified for it?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: purbeast0
it was so amazing. i really am considering moving there and living there for maybe a year or so down the road. It is just that beautiful and I really enjoy the water. i could go snorkeling every day and not get sick of it. screw playing halo 2 or video games everyday when you can go in the water.

If you are serious then get certified for SCUBA here in the states locally and pick up some equipment you like instead of using rentals (regulator set, wetsuit, mask, and fins are what I?d consider the bare minimum). The short courses most resorts give you are not a substitute for proper training

I couldn't agree more. Try to find a PADI certified center and spend plenty of time getting used to the equipment, especially emergency techniques and how to avoid decompression sickness, etc...

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: purbeast0
it was so amazing. i really am considering moving there and living there for maybe a year or so down the road. It is just that beautiful and I really enjoy the water. i could go snorkeling every day and not get sick of it. screw playing halo 2 or video games everyday when you can go in the water.

If you are serious then get certified for SCUBA here in the states locally and pick up some equipment you like instead of using rentals (regulator set, wetsuit, mask, and fins are what I?d consider the bare minimum). The short courses most resorts give you are not a substitute for proper training

I couldn't agree more. Try to find a PADI certified center and spend plenty of time getting used to the equipment, especially emergency techniques and how to avoid decompression sickness, etc...

yea they had the PADI certifications over there as well. I remember seeing that. I believe getting certified there was $350 which I am assuming is pretty expensive compared to what it would be somehwere else.

also, about hosting an image gallery on my own home computer, can i get a little more detail about that so i can try it when I get home?

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: purbeast0
it was so amazing. i really am considering moving there and living there for maybe a year or so down the road. It is just that beautiful and I really enjoy the water. i could go snorkeling every day and not get sick of it. screw playing halo 2 or video games everyday when you can go in the water.

If you are serious then get certified for SCUBA here in the states locally and pick up some equipment you like instead of using rentals (regulator set, wetsuit, mask, and fins are what I?d consider the bare minimum). The short courses most resorts give you are not a substitute for proper training

yea i REALLY REALLY wanted to try it out, and after enjoying snorkeling so much, my GF and I were talking about taking a little trip to florida to do more snorkeling as well as some scuba diving. can you get certified anywhere? like I'm in MD and there arent' any places to actually snorkel around here, but are there places to get certified for it?

Yes, there are many places that offer training even where there is no diving. Heck, I lived in Springfield IL and there was a great PADI dive shop that offered basically every course and had their own indoor pool.

 

[purbeast0]

oh yea, and one thing i did not know about aruba until I went there is how WINDY it is there. the wind is CONSTANT. however, w/out wind, that place would be too hot. the wind helps cool things down. its cool too cause all of the trees are pointed to the west because the wind always is blowing west.

 

[Aharami]

good to see ya had a good time!! you got me so jealous cuz ive been meaning to go to Aruba for a year now. But plans never work out...:|

so...did the underwater case live upto your expectations?
post all your pics if you can...i wanna see all of them

if you cant find anything else, i can put them up on my website (not permanently..sorry). but I can keep it there for about a month or so. let me know...
i have a upload ftp server set up, you can upload ur pics there...
PM me for details

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Aharami
good to see ya had a good time!! you got me so jealous cuz ive been meaning to go to Aruba for a year now. But plans never work out...:|

so...did the underwater case live upto your expectations?
post all your pics if you can...i wanna see all of them

if you cant find anything else, i can put them up on my website (not permanently..sorry). but I can keep it there for about a month or so. let me know...
i have a upload ftp server set up, you can upload ur pics there...
PM me for details

it was amazing man, definintely plan to go. yea the underwater case was awesome. i got some great pics. one thing that sucked though was at the first snorkel site, i had my camera on SCN mode and thought i had it on the underwater setting, but it was on nightshot mode, so the first 20 or so pics came out a wierd blue shade until I realized it was on the wrong setting. i got some nice pics though. i have right under 500 pics i took there, i would say probably 75 or so were from underwater stuff.

 

[Aharami]

how was the water? warm or cool?

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Aharami
how was the water? warm or cool?

perfect. it wasn't too warm at all. it wasn't cold either ... it was just right. the temperature of it felt so satisfying and refreshing whhen you walked into it. i am now an Aruba fanboy.

 

[Aharami]

im an Aruba fanboi and Ive never even been there

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Aharami
im an Aruba fanboi and Ive never even been there

trust me, once you go there you will be even more. it met and exceeded my expectations. my GF and I are seriously going to start looking into what all it would take to move there. i talked to people already and they told me one bedroom apts go for $400/mo there, and houses can be bought for $50-$60 grand. one of the taxi drivers told us that you need to get special permission from the government to actually work there however, but that its something that is not impossible to get.

 

[Pastore]

Was that $1700 including everything? If not, how much would you say you spent the entire trip, including meals, activities, souvenires, etc.

 

[laurenlex]

Pics! I will be there next winter, but only for a day. It's a cruise stop. Can't wait.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Beast1284
Was that $1700 including everything? If not, how much would you say you spent the entire trip, including meals, activities, souvenires, etc.

no that was just flight + hotel.

i would say we spend about $2000 on everything else, maybe a little more. however we did a lot of activities which were pricey, as well as eat out every night at nice restaraunts. i would say i spend probably $300 - $325 on dinner alone. our very last day we did a lot of stuff. we went parasailing in the morning ($50 each, $100 total) then went horseback riding ($60 each, $120 total), then went to dinner where we ate with the table at the shoreline ($111 including tip), then we took a cab downtown ($20) and ended up partying ($100 on drinks the whole night). luckily we caught a ride w/other people to the restaraunt as well as home from the bars. but that day alone, as you can see, we went all out and spent about $500 in one day, not including purchases we made. we spend probably $200 on souveneirs and stuff. we also went out everynight, spending probably $60 - $100 every night on partying.

its way worth it, and we had saved enough $$$ to do everything we wanted to do w/the little time we had. next time I go i'm renting a car though to explore the island more, and to not have to worry about cab fares to get to places (although at night i would take bus into town and cab back home to not worry about drinking/driving).