Venus Uprising Bellydance New York City: ARUBA SNORKELING TRIP

My boyfriend Scott and I have just returned from a few days on Aruba (a Dutch Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela). For me the greatest attraction was the opportunity to snorkel - I am a passionate fan of coral reef life, and a compulsive swimmer. I can swim for hours and from time to time I feel a powerful physical urge to do this: I suspect that my body needs some kind of adjustment that only swimming can give it.

Aruban reefs have a much lower density and variety of live coral and fish population than do the Red Sea or Hawaii, but they are still worthy of attention. The waters are blue and very clear, the fish are colorful, busy and friendly. Sea turtle nests are found up and down the sandy beaches of the southern coast of Aruba where we were, but we didn't see the turtles while snorkeling.

The most amazing experience was snorkeling the shipwreck of the Antilla, a World War II German ship. It is lying in 60' of water, but one of its sides comes really close to the surface. The entire ship is lime green from the corals covering it like a coat, some parts of its body have rusted off and vanished, the masts are reaching into the blue vastness of the ocean and schools of strikingly colorful fish, big and small, are swirling over it. I'd never seen a shipwreck before and didn't realize what a moving sight a dead ship could be.

I skipped dinner every day to indulge guilt-free in tropical cocktails, especially at a nearby bar featuring beds for two on the beach. The best local cocktails are quite creamy and heavy, with lavish amounts of Baileys, Ponche Caribe (milk and egg liqueur), Creme de Banana and the actual pureed bananas. In other words, they are your liquid dinner. It was fun, although the bar life survival was not easy: Many a bartender seeks to please your boyfriend by making your drinks strong enough to drop you off your feet (and into the boyfriend's eager hands) asap. So drinking required application of survival strategy.

While I love snorkeling, Scott's interest is mostly in exploring the land, especially driving in the "hinterland" observing the local economy, geography, and native vegetation. So our time was divided between snorkeling trips and traversing the dirt (or, rather, dust) roads of the northern, less developed and rugged coast of Aruba. While the southern coast is all white sand beaches, hotels, malls and casinos, the northern coast is barren reef rock cliffs, desert, and forests made of tall cacti and brush. The ocean eats into the coast made of ancient petrified reefs creating whimsical pits, caves and bridges.

A cashmere cardigan is the most important element of my snorkeling gear.