view of the Constellation from the marina in Oranjestad
After we finished our snorkel excursion at our port stop in Oranjestad, Aruba on Celebrity Constellation we had enough time left to explore a bit. We went to shore hoping to find an island tour as we had on Bonaire after finishing a snorkel excursion there. Unfortunately there were no waiting taxis at the port. One lone brightly colored open-sided van/bus sat empty, but the driver said an island tour would cost $100 each, a far cry from the $25 each we’d paid for the taxi tour in Bonaire. We declined at that price. He said he planned to head to a distant beach soon to pick people up who’d gone earlier and could take us there for $25 each, but besides already having seen that area from the water on the snorkel boat, getting left on a beach near to the end of a port stop without a known means of returning to the ship would not have been an inviting proposal even if we were dressed for beachgoing, which we weren’t.
ads and empty booths
We opted instead just to walk around the town in the area near to the port. On the way out we passed through a row of nearly deserted booths along the pathway out and a sign advertising shark attack drinks at Lucy’s bar in town.
shark attack drink
In town we came across that bar and happened to see one of those shark drinks at someone’s table. Possibly another passenger from the ship, or maybe a tourist staying in town somewhere.
shops next to the port
Other shops just outside the port were much busier than the booths had been. Of course these shops would be accessible to people not from the ship and as there were only 700 passengers onboard it may not have been worth the time and trouble to open many booths that day. Or perhaps they were unoccupied due to the people who had previously ran them going out of business while no ships were cruising. Some of them also could have been open earlier to provide last-minute tours and had closed for the day by then. All just speculation since we went straight from the ship to our snorkel boat and hadn’t passed through the port area earlier in the day when booths may or may not have been open.
scooters for rent near the cruise ship dock in Aruba
Just outside the port we saw scooters for rent.
bikes for rent
People looking for something to do in town could also rent bikes, which we saw in a couple different places.
submarine rides
Atlantis Submarines had an outlet near the port so that’s something else people could do there.
long row of little shops
There’s lots of small open-sided shops with brightly colored merchandise.
stand in front of one of the little shops
Local crafts are for sale too.
pink palace
We saw a place that looked something like a pink palace with several buildings sprawling across a block. It could possibly have been a hotel, but that’s just a guess.
blue horse statue
The town was dotted with blue horse statues. The first one we came across stood next to a sign that said Paarden Baai (Horse Bay) was so named because in the past horses would be offloaded from sailing ships by throwing them into the bay there, and having a strategically placed horse on shore to lure them in. Though I’d guess a horse suddenly finding itself in the sea would find the land itself pretty alluring. The sign did not explain how they threw horses off ships either. Does not sound like an easy task.
cow bench
Horses were not the only farm animals about town. We came across a cow sitting on a bench near a steak house.
pelican at the marina
We found a live creature too in the form of a pelican at a marina sitting at the end of a little channel that disappeared into a cave under a bridge in the main street.
a boat disappears into a cave under the street
Later out of curiosity in investigating where that channel led, we found that it went inside a hotel called the Renaissance Hotel. The ground floor of the hotel was open to the public with a Starbucks and other shops near to the boat stop.
boat stop inside the Renaissance Hotel
Signs at the boat stop said it was a free water taxi service for guests of the hotel who wanted to go to the listed stops at beaches and other tourist destinations on the island.
you don’t see phone booths much anymore
There were lots of shops and restaurants and a boardwalk by the marina. It also had an old-fashioned English style red phone booth.
bags at a souvenir stand near the port
The motto of Aruba is One Happy Island. They sell clothing and other souvenirs with that slogan printed on them. Our taxi tour driver in Bonaire said that was because when they burned a bunch of seized drugs the smoke wafted over to Aruba. Of course that’s not what they say in Aruba. According to them it’s because of their wonderful weather, beautiful beaches, and the island’s friendly inhabitants.
solar panel tree
There are all sorts of shops and shopping areas near to the port. We also came across a solar panel tree by a building next to a church. We saw trolley tracks by the port and in town, but did not see a trolley on them until we were nearly back to the ship. The trolley takes people into town, but by our experience you could walk there and back and have time to explore in between before the trolley ever goes by. It’s possible that it may run more often earlier in the day when more people are coming and going, or for ships with more passengers though. Or that it went by while we were somewhere where we couldn’t see the tracks. There might have been a sign somewhere with a schedule for it had we looked for one, but we didn’t.
Aruba sign
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