Insel Air from San Juan Puerto Rico to Aruba

Yes I know I had never heard of Insel Air either when I booked my flights. The taxi driver taking us from our Sheraton hotel to the International airport in San Juan had never heard of Insel Air either, but they do actually exist.



They are about as well organized as Bahamas Air but without all of the late flights. We had 3 flights to get us to our final destination and it only cost my family of 3 a grand total of $441 USD. We first caught a normal-sized aircraft to St. Maarten with a brief stopover and then we loaded more people on board and flew to the island of Curacao. We changed planes or should I say downsized to a 15 seater to fly into Aruba. We had a row of 3 seats at the very back and with this tiny aircraft, the side wall opened up where Darren was seated to get the baggage in. I personally have never seen anything like this. It is only a half-hour flight from Curacao to Aruba so it went really quickly. Dax read from his Diary of a Wimpy Kid book the whole time but we could not hear a word he was saying because the aircraft was so loud.

The bad news is that we have to take that same small aircraft off this island to eventually get to St. Kitts and I bought a Curacao-made liqueur called Ponche Pistachio Diva. I love the flavour of pistachio so I thought why the heck not it was only 7 USD to buy. Well please listen to me and don’t do it, the stuff is awful and I am trying to figure out what to mix with it in the blender to make it taste good. Who knows maybe I will come up with a good drink?


We landed in Aruba and picked up our car from Budget and we were on our way. There is no way to get lost in Aruba and we easily found our hotel the Marriott which is on the beach. This is a category 8 hotel with the Marriott chain and it is a really nice hotel. I was still flabbergasted at how much Aruba has changed in the last 17 years when we were last here. When we first came to Aruba in 1994 it was a sleepy little island with no fast food chain restaurants, barely a grocery store and wild herds of goats running through Orangestead the capital. Groceries were horribly expensive and we could barely afford to eat for the week that we were here. A box of cereal was 10 dollars back then and the cheapest thing was Coke so my husband was in his glory. Snorkelling gear to rent was 25 USD for a ½ hour of rent etc.



We are pleased to report that things have changed a lot thank God. We had stopped for a quick salad after our flight in at the local Wendy’s and it was a decent price. We went grocery shopping yesterday at a huge grocery store called Kong Fui (yeah we laughed at that ridiculous name as well) and things were very reasonably priced.



Aruba now has the second-largest desalinization plant in the world and they need it. The place is basically a tropical desert with tons of cactuses and iguanas which range from a beautiful turquoise color to lime green ones as well.



The steady trade winds produce a tree called the Divi Divi trees which grow curved towards the downwind and look very unusual. Along with finding and taking pictures of the Divi Divi trees we will be on the lookout for other wildlife as well. Apparently, there are still wild donkeys and goats to find on the island and we will start looking tomorrow.





We moved over to the Marriott Ocean Club timeshare for the week and things are going well except for the sad fact that Daxtin still hates his teachers. The grounds are really nice here and this timeshare has just finished a multi-million dollar renovation project so our two-bedroom/two-bathroom unit is really nice and large. Who needs to go home when you have all of the comforts of home and a turquoise beach to look at. Plus there are all sorts of pretty birds to look at off of my two balconies. Not to mention that the weather is perfect.