Days 5-6 (November 14-15, 2022): Last Few Hours in Paradise

Alas, all good things come to an end. 

We were up at 6:30 AM and left at 7 for a walk on the southern end of Palm Beach and to secure a palapa on the hotel’s beach. (Even by 7 AM, most of the palapas had already been claimed!)  We then had our last breakfast of this mini vacation. They make the most incredible omelets here! After that, it was out last bit of time in the water and enjoying the beach. 

11 AM was check out time, but the hotel was good enough to give us a voucher to continue using the their services until we left for the airport, so we used that voucher to get our daily milkshakes. Just before noon, we set out to return the rental car and start the check-in process at the airport, which we had been warned would take hours. It is indeed quite a heavy procedure, particularly because you do US pre-clearance in Aruba, which is rare among the Caribbean islands. You end up having to go theoufh a full security check twice in the process! The good part about it, however, is that once you land in the USA, you don’t have to go through any customs procedures. 

Our flight left a little before its scheduled 3 PM departure time, and we landed in Newark half an hour early. Which was great, because we only had a 45-minute connection time. But, despite arriving early, we quickly discovered there was no gate for us. So we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. By the time we got connected to a jetway and disembarked the plane, we literally had minutes to get to our next flight. Miraculously we made it. We got into Montreal 15 minutes early and tonight we are staying at the Sheraton next to the airport. Tomorrow morning, we have an 8 AM flight back to Halifax.  As soon as we land, we are both heading to work.

It was well worth the long travel time to and from Aruba, to have been able to spend a wonderful 72 hours experiencing another gem in the Caribbean. Thanks to Pam for her wonderful photography, and thanks to you for your interest in reading our blog.

During our 7AM walk, we saw this collection of conch shells on boulders near our resort.

Pam on our morning walk.  Doesn’t she look relaxed?

These small crabs were all over a pier and boulders near our resort this morning.

That’s our resort - the Riu Palace - in the top right on the photo.

As soon as we checked in last Friday, we got chocolate milkshakes and pastries at the coffee shop in the hotel lobby.  It became a tradition (haha, if you can call a few days a tradition!) each day since then to get chocolate milkshakes and pastries.  It was our last pleasure at the resort before checking out this morning.

They certainly don’t get a white Christmas here, but it doesn’t stop the Caribbean from going all out with Christmas decorations.

The airport in Aruba, whose code is “AUA”, is named after the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix.

Apparently, Aruba has a ton of iguanas and lizards.  But, apart from the gecko we spotted yesterday, we didn’t get to see a single one!  So we had to settle for this fake one at the airport.

The same United Airlines Boeing 737-900 that flew us down from Newark last Friday morning took us back to Newark today at 3PM.  As with the flight down, the return flight was completely sold out.

Aruba is a very flat island, with the exception of these two “lumps”, which form the highest peaks on the island.

20% of Aruba is protected as a National Reserve.  The Reserve is on the eastern side of the island and is quite inaccessible, unless a person has a Jeep or is into hiking for miles in the desert heat.  So it was fortuitous that we got this amazing view of the Reserve and its eastern coastline just after taking off from Oranjestad.

Passing to the east of the Dominican Republic, enroute back to the USA.


The view of downtown Montreal upon approach to Trudeau Airport tonight. The dark area on the far right side of the picture is Mont Royal. And note the colourful bridge (middle left in the photo): that is the Champlain Bridge, built from 2015-19, and famous for being colourfully lit up at night.


Our Montreal-Halifax flight was yet another sold out one. (Every one of the six flights on this trip has been sold out. The airlines are making their money!) A stunning sunrise in Montréal on this chilly morning (November 15). Also noteworthy is the plane above: an Airbus A220, made by the former Bombardier company that was swallowed up by Airbus after the development of the aircraft type — which went way over budget and over timelines — was finalized and in production. This model is built in nearby Mirabel and is, hands down, the most amazing and comfortable aircraft in its class, in my humble opinion. Despite it no longer being under the Bombardier banner, it is definitely a Canadian product of which we can all be very proud.

Another (daytime) view of downtown Montreal. Mont Royal is on the left, and the former Expo ‘67 - constructed from the material dug out for the Metro system in the mid-60s - is to the right.