The Aruba Health App (where you can get your test results back) didn't have a notification when I woke up Sunday morning, but I decided to log in and check anyway. To my delight, our results were in and they were negative; we were "free to move about the cabin", or in our case, the outside world. The email confirming our negative status was sent at 1:06am so that was a pretty good turnaround. We putzed around for a bit and then decided a trip to the grocery store should be prioritized because although I had brought coffee with us, we didn't have any milk. As it was Sunday, we weren't sure what would be open, but we found a small shop down the road from us. Back at the apartment with coffee in hand we headed for the water.
It was a 5-6min walk down the road to get to the water, but I wouldn't call it a beach. Malmok 'Beach' is more of a rocky ledge of limestone and coral along the coast. A nice place to snorkel (the Antilla Shipwreck is off-shore and visible because of the clear water) and swim according to the visitor guide, but definitely not made for sunbathing. Despite only being 10am it was hot, so we sat under a palapa (little thatched umbrellas) and chatted while watching the little lizards (some of which are bright blue) scuttle around and reveling in the salt air and blue vistas before us.
Back at the apartment we live-streamed my pastor's sermon and then had some lunch. Our third travel-mate was soon to be arriving, so we decided to hang out at the pool for a spell while we waited. She had a vastly different experience at the airport (no lines it seems). Plus she'd been able to get her PCR test before leaving the U.S., because of her line of work, so she ended up having to wait for us -- the directions on my phone to get to the airport were not the reverse of the route we'd taken the day before, so that slowed us down as I don't trust myself with directions.
We quickly collected her from Queen Beatrix Airport and went in search of coffee (she drinks coffee like I drink water). Our first two attempts resulted in business that were closed so we headed towards the Cruise Terminal hoping the tides would turn. We did find the "I 'heart'Aruba" sign and a stand selling empanadas. Not knowing if our issues with closed stores was due to a Sunday or the pandemic we decided to just head back to the apartment when she spied an open coffee shop - point for us. After showing us our little home for the week we quickly decided that we should do a sunset sail and we should do it tonight (the biggest discounts are on Sunday). We booked and paid online, got dressed and headed out. While standing on shore waiting to get on the boat we read a sign that said there was a rope swing on this cruise - which explained why everyone else was wearing swimsuits!
The boat was nice enough and the crew was entertaining. We sailed south towards Eagle Beach and they put down the anchor so we could use the rope swing. The youngest really wanted to go in and I wasn't opposed. As our Grandmother had taught us: if you don't have a swimsuit, don't let that stop you, clothing dries! I'm not a fan of heights but the swing wasn't that high off the water and the water was amazing. We even did some tandem swings, which turned out rather comically. The sunset on the way back to dock was just lovely and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
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