BLOG, THE FIFTH

November 15, 2018

A good day in Aruba, and for those who like the beach, I am pleased to tell you we went to a beach.  Actually we went past a beach as we did a sunset catamaran cruise.  As we were sailing along, we saw one of the places that Wheel of Fortune features for the Prize Puzzle.  I don’t know the name of the resort, but it looks like a Mayan pyramid, two pyramids actually.  The sun went down quickly and there weren’t a lot of clouds, but the sky was beautiful and it was a fun excursion.  It was an all drinks included, alcoholic and non, and some people hit the booze as soon as the bar opened and stayed at it until we docked.  Your favorite cruisers each had two virgin pina colodas.

There were two women on the excursion who drove to the sailing vessel in those little golf cart looking things that try to knock you down as they zoom around the ship as though they were driving in a NASCAR event.  They parked them and walked onto the ship as easy as you or I would have done, and after swilling much hooch, walked off just as easily and drove their race cars back to the ship.  Go figure.

Jay and Pat, the ballroom dance instructors, told us about the excursion and so we booked it too, but about an hour before time to leave, Jay knocked on the door, said Pat was suffering with a sinus headache and he would like to give us their tickets.  When I told him we had purchased them, we went up to Guest Relations to see if we could get our money back.  He knew he could not because he had purchased them more than 24 hours earlier.  The lady at GR was Elena from Russia, and we gavarooed a bit.  She told Jay that because his wife was ill, she should be able to get their tickets refunded.  And Elena knows where Samara is.  She lives in Varonish, which is south of Samara on the way to the Black Sea.  Oychen horro-show!

After breakfast, this report is obviously not in chronological order, we walked out into the tourist trap.  From Deck 10 we had earlier looked out over the city and located a church spire and when we went ashore, headed for it.  We found St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church and went inside for a bit.  There was some remodeling going on – we think they are installing air conditioning.

After walking back into town – and we did 6.5 miles today – we hopped on the free trolley and round around again.  We got off at a mall and went into Dolce and Garbonza Bean (I can’t speel the real name) for Bonnie to look at a pair of sneakers we had earlier seen in the window.  They were very pretty with flowers and colors and stuff, but the material of which they were made was heavy and she said they would be uncomfortable, so we did not purchase them.  Or even try them on.

Back out in the mall I purchased a package of peanuts and a bottle of water, having consumed all of the water in my 24 ounce carrying along water bottle.  Those were the only souvenirs we purchased.

And now we are back in R15 and ready for bed having had a good supper (escargot and Caribbean recipe chicken for me and chicken tenders and lasagna for Mom).

Curacao tomorrow and a walk around in one of our favorite Caribbean stops – great history to explore.  Until then ...

TTFN