Aruba at night

Next we got to experience Aruba at night. We've never been at port after sunset, so that was exciting. Our ship advised us not to eat anything at this particular port and only to drink bottled drinks there, so we went back to the ship to get food and change out of our beach clothes before exploring the city.  We did some souvenirs shopping, walked through the shopping district to the local vendor market, then we walked to their historic downtown where there was a street festival going on with music and drums being played in the streets and women with colorful dresses and headpieces dancing together in the street. It was like we had stepped right into carnival. We continued walked a little further to a modern shopping center and row of restaurants before calling it a night and heading back to the ship. Things that I noticed that amazed me: there were no stoplights just stop signs and round abouts, things were incredibly cheap especially from the local people that lived there handmade things that cost $20 at other ports only cost $1 there, they love cigars they had several stores just for them and all of the restaurants displayed them in the desert cases, they have free healthcare there and their one hospital was the smallest most run down building that I saw on he island (which makes Obamacare even more terrifying) and the culture was an amazing mix of Caribbean, Spanish, and Dutch the people were pleasant there were vibrant colors everywhere and it seemed rather modern almost gaughty yet mildly dirty. It was an amazing first stop because it was so different from any place we'd ever been.