Caribbean Treasures: Beachcombing

I went on a Caribbean cruise in the beginning of January.  Great way to start off a new year!  Our ports were Bahamas, Curacao, and Aruba.  Aruba was on my bucket list, so I was thrilled to go there.  I was having beahcombing with-drawls, because it is too cold for it in Chicago right now.  I had fun hunting for treasures on the trip. 

We stayed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a day before the cruise.  It is always good to have a cushion, in case of flight delays.  The ship waits for nobody!   I combed the beach there:

 ^These fish were made out of plastic water bottles.  They lit up at night.

I found mostly shells and coral on this beach.  I loved all the bright orange.

 ^I am going to run these shell pieces through my polisher. I think they will make good jewelry pieces.

I found only 2 pieces of sea glass

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^Some of the random objects I picked up. I love that the cork has an anchor on it!  I also picked up the bamboo and wire hoop, as seen in the first picture.  I didn't take it with me, because I had airport and ship security check points to get through.  A random wire hoop would be suspect.  haha 

My dad found this little treasure for me.  It was laying outside of a Starbucks.  It has The Little Mermaid on it. 

 

Our first port stop was the Bahamas island.  I have been there before, because the cruise line owns it and it tends to be a stop on most Caribbean cruises they do. I cruise with Princess.  I absolutely love their ships and staff.  It is a classy cruise experience. The Caribbean Princess is a 5 star ship.  There are mostly adults on the ship, which is super nice.  The food and entertainment are amazing.  If you have never been on a cruise, or were disappointed with a different cruise line, I definitely suggest trying Princess.  

Here are the treasures I picked up in the Bahamas:

 Only 1 piece of sea glass.  It is a pretty olive green though. I love the intact sea fan!

 Brain Coral!

Pretty pinks

Our second port stop was Curacao.  This island sits right next to Aruba, in the far south Caribbean (next to Venezuela). We hit some storms while passing Cuba, that produced gale force winds.  These winds slowed the ship way down and made for a very rough ride.  The swimming pools on the ship lost most of their water, because of the intense rocking of the ship.  Due to this set-back, our ship was 4 hours late to port.  This severely cut the time and daylight we had on the island.  I was not able to get to a beach.  We mostly did shopping and had some drinks.  The beach was too far away to access quickly.  There were some rocky areas near the ship, so I climbed around in there to search for beach treasures.  I figured the waves would have washed stuff into there.  Sure enough, I was right!  I found all of the treasures in the dark.  There was a good amount of glass trapped in there.

^An idea of how choppy the sea was.  This tug boat guided the ship to the dock. 

 The colorful buildings that Curacao is known for. 

Our ship and the rocky areas that I explored. 

Not bad for a few minutes of searching!  The little Holland flag was a plus. 

Last, but certainly not least...ARUBA! 

The most beautiful beach I have been to in my life...so far!

 Itty Bitty Crabby Committee

Neon blue!  How cool is that?

Iguana

Divi Divi Trees that are native to Aruba

This was a very LONG beach to comb.  I have a bad foot, so it was interesting.  I got plenty of leg cramps.  =)  

A lost hat.  I left it, in case its owner was near by. 

Pretty good haul for such a pristine stretch of beach.  The bunny was mostly buried in the sand. I kept the fabric ribbon to tie around my jar. 

 Love the colors of these.  Reminds me of the sunset and little Asian hats.

 

Shell boobies!  haha

 Many bottles of champagne were popped on this beach. I love the Aruba brand of beer's name. Chilling is the main activity in Aruba.  =)

I also found a sparkly, gold Christmas wreath but it was too big to take home.  I'm weird, I know! 

I display my beach treasures in jars on my dresser. 

 Right to left: Tiny random objects, pretty pebbles, fossils, sea pottery, polished stones, sea glass, and large random objects.  The iguana is from Curacao and the sea turtle is from Aruba.

My shark's teeth collection and the shark I bought in Aruba.

I will share my vacation memory jars, from this trip, in a different post. Thanks for reading!  Hopefully there are other avid beachcombers out there who can enjoy these posts.