My flight got in in the afternoon and Mia wasn't due in until the evening (it's a long trip from Colorado). So I checked in, unpacked, and walked around to check out the resort. I decided to have dinner at one of the beach bars at sunset with a delicious Mai Tai. Now that's how you start a vacation!
Day two we sat ourselves on our "palapas" and drank pina coladas. Mia had to opt for the virgin variety as she is expecting a new little McCloy in April. We met with our "personal concierge", Naline, that afternoon who played a major role in some of the decisions we made on this trip, unfortunately... She talked us out of horseback riding, which was one of the few adventures we had wanted to do, telling us that it was dangerous; though she strongly and persistently recommended the Jeep tours, despite our clearly explaining that we were not interested in the Jeep tours because we both get motion sick and Mia is continuously nauseous from her pregnancy. Gotta love people that don't listen.
Day three we spent by the pool and mostly in the lazy river. We also learned some very important lessons... Lesson number one, apparently, when you order the drink special, two drinks for $13, they both come at the same time. Not knowing this ahead of time, I figured I would order the special, frozen strawberry margaritas, and have one now and one later. Not so much. Also, in the Aruban heat nothing stays frozen for long, and I'm not a quick drinker. Mia thoughtfully suggested that I bring the second one up to the room and freeze it for later. As I walked back to the pool I learned the second lesson. I scanned across the poolside patio for our chairs and saw Mia sitting about 10 feet away staring in shock with some other people toward our chairs. I walked over to her only to glance at our seats and find 1o LARGE iguanas eating Mia's french fries. Apparently, Mia was having her snack when she felt something on her neck in the chair, she looked behind her saw an iguana and screamed tossing her fries to the ground. Within seconds there was a mass buffet. Lesson number two,iguanas love french fries!
We then changed our seats as the iguanas continued to stalk our spot and resumed relaxation. We had a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant, came home and went to sleep.Day four, Naline strikes again... She had recommended that one day we take a cab a couple of miles up from our resort to the Arashi Beach on the northern part of the island. When we got out of the cab we walked down to the beach and looked around to find nothing. Yes, there was a beach and a couple of palapa huts for shade, which were all taken, but nothing else... We had intended on spending the day here. There was no bathroom, no restaurant, and most importantly no cab stand to get home! Mia and I looked at each other decided to lather up in sun screen and start walking back along the beach. That could be nice but this was coastline, not sandy beach so it was a rocky and difficult walk in flip flops and poor Mia felt like crap! Thank goodness we did have water bottles with us, and the scenery was beautiful, but it took us about 2 hours to walk back to the hotel. Here's a bit of perspective...
That's our hotel on the far left in the distance
Continuing our journey there is a shipwrecked boat ahead
We made it to the boat!
The rocky terrain
Getting closer.....
Needless to say when we got back we got out our inner tubes and relaxed floating in the water.Day five we spent between the pool and the beach. We decided to again take Naline's advice, this time on a restaurant that she recommended. We had specifically asked her for restaurants that had good vegetarian options, as that fits my bill, and with Mia not feeling well that's about all she could stomach as well. Good old Naline recommended that we go to the Brazilian Steak House for a "delicious" salad bar. So, we went, yes it had a full salad bar, but when the bill came we learned that we each paid $30 for salad and that the full steak dinner is $45! That's the last time we followed Naline's advice!
Day six we rented a car and drove down to the southern part of the island to go snorkeling at Baby Beach. We had a good time snorkeling around and even saw a small octopus! We drove back and had a great dinner (our best of the week) at Madame Jeanette's.
Day seven, our last full day, we went shopping in the downtown area of Orajenstadt, and had a delicious Indian lunch. I bought a little souvenir iguana magnet for Jack with movable arms and legs. I was hesitant to buy it because it looks like its holding a beer, but I figured I'd tell Jack it was milk (though both Mia and I thought it was weird that the beer was positioned upside down). Oh boy, I must not have had enough to drink that day because I was too naive, it was not until I got home and showed Kara and she pointed out that the iguana was actually holding a joint. Wow, I'm a really good influence!
We went back to the resort for our much anticipated massages. It was great, thank you Eduardo! After that we took a few peaceful trips around the lazy river and had pizza for dinner before heading to bed early as we had to catch a cab at 4:30 am to the airport.It wouldn't have been a DAM MAD vacation without a few hiccups, but over all we had a great and relaxing time!!!!
3 comments:
Love the recap of our trip!! Good ol' Naline. :)
I'm glad y'all had a good(?) time!
What a funny recap of your week! I can't believe you followed that chick's advice all those times. It sounds like a typical vacation for you two with lots of funny mishaps but fun no doubt :)
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