I spent my summer vacation in Aruba; an island north of Venezuela in the Dutch Caribbean - and the climate was a lot different than where I live in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador.

California lighthouse look off: ocean view from cool cafe off of California lighthouse in Aruba.

Cute gecko: "What are you looking at?"

Balcony view in Aruba on a beautiful early morning!

I had an awesome time! I went to Baby Beach and fed bread to a bunch of big fish. It scared me a little bit, but I really liked it.

Path from resort ... almost to the beach!!!!

Iguana: like a modern day dragon!

I also went to Eagle Beach, the second best beach in the world! I fed the fish there too, but they were smaller so I wasn’t as nervous. But other fish must have smelled the bread because these big angel fish came in and ate probably about a bun each! Their fins were all spiky so I kept my distance. But then disaster struck! There was this really stupid fish that swam right on top of the water. And then he started jumping sideways right out of the water, like he was walking on it. Well, to a bird, NICE!!!!!!!!!!! And you know the rest of the story, bird swoops down, misses, swoops down again, and voilà! No more stupid fish :( he he he.

Eagle Beach, Aruba: second best beach ever!

I also went to a cool place called the butterfly farm. It was sooo cool!!! There were tons of different butterflies! You know those ones you only see on TV, the ones that are like a reflective blue? Well they aren’t actually blue! They are just a normal brown. But they have tons of little tiny reflective scales that make them look blue. How do you tell a butterfly from a moth? Moths lie with their wings open, they never close them.

Butterfly Farm sign: cool sign  

Butterflies feeding on feeder: I didn't know butterflies drank from these things!

Outside of blue butterfly: no, it's not a moth

Cool!!! A bright blue butterfly, super cool!!!

A huge moth, yikes! The spots are see-through!

I loved my summer vacation! It was totally awesome!!

Ship dock: see the pink building in behind?

Drew Haines is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program.

All photos courtesy and copyright Drew Haines