Packing dive gear, picking up a stick shift truck (that only Mark could drive), then getting a pass to unlimited tanks with a chain of dive shops called Dive Friends - we set ourselves up well. By the end of the trip, Alisa and I could navigate the island... and Mark could make the correct turns.
We mostly ate at home after dark, getting (expensive) groceries, but it meant we didn't have to loose any daylight to stop diving!
A guide from one of Mark's dive shop friends was useful in plotting our courses for the days. There was the rough entry where most of us ended up skidding on the rocks. There was the shallow dive we finished by the pier - with enough air and time to do another, dusky dive (which is one of my most memorable).
For the eastern shore, where the currents need someone with knowledge, we paid a guide for a dive across an estuary (swim hard and near the bottom, or get caught!) to a reef wall.
We ate at a food truck - paying extra for the lionfish burgers to show them who really ruled the Caribbean.
After our days of diving, we got in 17 dives before getting on our plane back to Aruba. We stayed at a more luxurious spot, floated and watched the sunset (after going to a piano bar and eating along the strip).
