Blogs from Aruba, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Wow, what a lovely 2 wks. Lots of snorkeling with some new fish and renewing acquaintances with old friends Linda at Zee Rover and Francis. We ate at Zee Rover's 3 times, Indo (Indonesian) twice, a fish and chips (grouper!), once on the beach for sunset, 3 times at Linda's for Dutch pancakes (our new fav is wet ginger, brie and walnuts), and cooked fish curry once and fish with rice/beans. The facility really was nice. We even got in the pool for about 5 mins, ha ha. Visited La Cabana for our happy hour brown ladies once, and bless 'em - John & Robin picked us up a pair when they were picking us up from snorkeling. Today we had to be up at 6:30 am for our final snorkel at Arashi. It was worth ... read more

Dear ones, We have been lax in our blogging, mostly because we do just about the same things every day, and the fish are amazing. We get up, have a small breakfast if we are meeting Francis to snorkel, and then we went to Linda's for the fantastic Dutch pancake again. But first - Sunday. We tried to find another church, because the New Life Tabernacle can last over 2 hours, tho we love it. So the internet said the main 'Protestant Church" in Orangestad had Dutch and English at 11. Sounded reasonable. The pastor welcomed us warmly, tho they didn't have a patch on Advent's welcoming, as only one other person said anything. Well, 2 when we count the pastor's wife. And the organ was great. and a cute baptism. And almost everything else in ... read more

To help celebrate Robin Legan's retirement, as of Sept 1, we all left Kent around 1:30 am!!! and drove to Pgh's airport to catch a Southwest flight. We got an amazing deal using our points, you see. Normal flights to Orlando and then to Aruba, except that the planes were COLD (there's Robin bundled up). Arriving early, it was certainly hot enough here in Aruba - 92? Two cruise ships were in. The Caribbean Palm Village is lovely - not far from St Ann's in Nord. Two bedrooms, 2 baths, nice kitchen and shared space. We need to shop asap for our provisions... read more

Carnival Sunshine arrived at Oranjestad, Aruba, at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Susan and I had booked the "Best of Aruba Island Tour" through Carnival. We met the tour just outside the cruise terminal. The cruise terminal was decorated with "Aruba, One Happy Island" signs outside and a display of colorful Carnival costumes inside. The tour bus headed out on to L.G. Smith Boulevard, the main street of Oranjestad. An "I ♥︎ Aruba" sign is here as are the parliament and Wilhelmina Park. (Aruba is a Dutch dependency and a constituent part of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. Aruba became a Dutch possession in 1636 following the Thirty Years' War.) Leaving Oranjestad, the single sizable town on the island, it was evident that Aruba is a desert island, not the typical tropical Caribbean island. The landscape ... read more

The first part of our voyage was actually a weeklong move back to where we are from. We spent a week catching up and saying goodbye to our families and some friends. It did not really feel as goodbye because we had already left The Netherlands almost two years ago and because we actually expect to see some or a lot of people somewhere in the world along the way. It's a small world after all. But this was a truly wonderful week, both warm with feelings and literally freezing because of the winter weather.The second first step was flying out from Amsterdam to Aruba, with our best friend Monique accompanying us as our flight attendant, bringing us a glass ... read more