Aruba

Aruba was the last of the 3 islands.  They call them the ABC islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.  Aruba was my least favorite of all.  We docked in the capital city of Oranjestad.  I found it to be very touristy and expensive.

We looked at what there was to do and I decided that De Palma Island would be a good place to go as we wanted to try snuba diving.  Snuba is a form of snorkling where you submerge with just an airline but no tanks.  We had breakfast and got all ready to head out when it started to rain.  We decided to wait a bit and in an hour thought it safe to strike out.  We took a city bus to the De Palma stop only to find out that you have to book this venue and it is quite costly to go. They had snuba at the beach were we landed but the girl couldn't guarantee that we would get back in time to make the boat without rushing.  I would have chanced it but Ron worries about being late so undaunted we decided just to make it a day at the beach, and taxied back to Eagle beach.  It too was very crowded and they wanted $10 just to rent a chair with a palapa for shade.  We were told the average temperature in Aruba was 82 and the average water temp was 80.  Well the temp was about 90 and the water was more like 70...br-r-r-r.  The beach wasn't great as it dropped off very quickly and so swimming wasn't too much fun.  Then Donna spotted a sign that said 'Para sailing'.  A quick conference resulted in Donna and Harry agreeing to go sailing and Ron and I could come along as passengers. Ron had not gone swimming but rather had waited for us at a beach bar and had a couple of beers.

We had to take a water taxi back over to the beach we had just left in order to pick up the para sailing boat.  We had no sooner left Eagle beach when it started to pour rain.  We were in our swimming suits and the rain felt like needles on our arms and backs.  By the time we got there it had quit but in the meantime we and all our gear were soaked.

 Harry went first...

 up. up and away.....

Safely back on the boat. Harry thought it was pretty breezy up there and felt just a tad uneasy at times when he would start to sway.   Now it was Donna's turn and she was just beaming.

Donna in the meantime is up there swinging her legs and bending backwards to look up at the canopy.  She comes back and announces that she wanted them to go faster, that it wasn't exciting enough...adrenalin junkie.  To get back we had to take the same water taxi back to Eagle beach.  When we arrived at the beach to transfer boats Ron's beer had hit bottom and he said he needed to make a pit stop, so off he went.  The taxi driver didn't want to wait so he radioed his boss to tell Ron that we would be back and off he went to drop off a couple of other passengers. Harry, Donna and I were just shocked as we knew what a worrier Ron is. The only problem was that the boss never passed the message on to Ron so when he came back we were gone.  By the time the taxi returned for him 20 min later he was furious! poor Ron, I am sure he aged 5 years in that 20 minutes.  Having had enough excitment for the day we packed it in and went back to the mothership.

The entertainer this night was a flamenco guitar player named Charo.  She was very flamboyant and very siliconed up.  I think her face had seen about 3 face lifts, a nose job and about 1/2 lb of hyaluronic acid in her lips not to mention the perky Dolly Parton boobs.  She looked like a cartoon character.  It turns out she is about 70+ years old but she acted like a 30 year old show queen.  Some performers never say die.  She was an incredible player though which more than made up for it all.