| We decided to do something totally different. Since Aruba is renowned for it's reefs, scuba diving and tropical fish, we arranged for an Atlantis submarine tour. We took about a 30 minute boat ride to the docking area, a buoy in the middle of the ocean. The boat pulled up next to the sub, and unfolding walkways across for us to board the sub. The waters were very choppy and just sitting there bobbing around on the boat and the sub while boarding gave me a sick head. Once the sub started moving I was fine. The sub held about 50 people with a row of 25 chairs down the length of each side. Every two chairs shared a large window for viewing. It reminded us very much of the Disneyland subs, only this was real. We submerged slowly to a depth of 100 feet and made a "moon landing" on the soft sand at the bottom. We saw a ship that had sunk years before and was now a man-made reef. The abundance of tropical fish, corrals and other undersea plants, and natural reefs were beautiful. I shot 3 rolls of film on the sub, but none of them turned out. All you could see was blue with faint shadows of fish. I was very disappointed! Our sub ride lasted about an hour, we surfaced and re-boarded our boat back to the dock. The rest of the day was spent walking around the main shopping areas near the dock. |
