Hello everyone!
I haven't written in awhile... my Dad was here for almost three weeks. We had an awesome visit. He left on Sunday the 14th and we have spent every day since catching up on boat chores. Friday we celebrated our 16th Anniversary. Can you believe it? Where have the years gone? The boys are growing like weeds, they are both handsome young men whom we are so proud of. We had a lovely dinner on the boat prepared by the galley wench. Unfortunately, I caught a flu going around and couldn't enjoy much of it. I was sick for a few days but am feeling better now.
We love Aruba! The climate here is the same throughout the ABC islands, dry, sunny and windy. We like it! The average temp is about 80 F. We are still in the marina, having moved here from the windy anchorage just after Dad arrived. It is very comfortable, but we are right in front of the casino, so lots of people coming and going. People watching is fun! We have full use of the facilities at the Renaissance Hotel, so we try and head over there most afternoons for a couple of hours of sun and swimming. They have two pools and a beautiful beach. The boys stay in the water the entire time we are there, they are like a couple of fish! We also have use of their "private island". At the end of the walkway in the marina, they have boats that come pick up people to take them over every half hour. We took Dad there one day, it was pretty neat. They have the same beach set up with chairs, etc. as at the hotel, but it is bigger and lots more palm trees. There is also a topless beach, and in one corner of the beach is a little pond where tame pink flamingos hang out. Greg and the boys made quite a fuss about going to see the flamingos... I am sure they never noticed anything else on the beach ; ) They had little stands where you could buy dry food pellets to feed the fish and flamingos. Well, I held out my hand to this flamingo, he pecked some food out of my hand, but then started pecking toward my face. I ran away but he kept after me... it was quite hilarious, Greg just keeled over laughing at me, quite the sight I am sure!
Dad sure timed his visit right, as we were here for the entire carnival, which was pretty wild. We saw one of the parades, it was the lighting parade. It didn't get to the downtown area (where we are) until 11:30 p.m. and went until 1:30 in the AM. The lights and costumes were incredible! They adorn the costumes with mini LED lights, it is quite something to see. Lots of girls and women, of all shapes and sizes shakin' their booty! Harvey's eyes bugged out a few times! The music is incredibly loud. They load huge speakers onto flatbed trucks. As they go by, you can feel the beat of the music throughout your entire body, and it feels like your heart is going to stop. I don't know how they can stand it for hours on end. We felt completely deaf when we got back to the boat, like when you have gone a music concert. It was an experience we will all remember for a lifetime!
We rented a car for three days and toured the island a bit. The island is lined with beautiful white sand beaches and palm trees, and of course all the hotels have lovely gardens surrounding them. The interior is dry and scrubby, with different kinds of cacti. We toured some ancient rock formations which were pretty neat. From the top we had a great view of the island. Aruba is very developed, in the ABC's it is known as "little America". There are usually 3 cruise ships in per day, so the downtown streets are lined with shops and malls with trendy little stores, like Gucci, and a million jewellery shops selling everything from emeralds to diamonds. There is a McDonalds, Wendy's, and even a Starbucks near the marina. We took Harvey to lunch at Hooters one day. It was very quiet, we were the only people in the restaurant. The two waitresses had very small hooters, so it was somewhat dissapointing for Brett and Dylan. They are almost 13 and 16, and were hoping to get a good eyefull. Yup, they take after their Dad!
My Dad treated us to two dinners out. We don't go out to eat much at all, so this was a treat for us that was really appreciated! One night we went to the Driftwood, which is a famous seafood restaurant here. The owner goes out with his own boats to catch the fish for the diners. The second dinner we went to Pinchos which is out on a dock over the water. The ambience was beautiful, we watched the sunset and enjoyed our meal out in the open with lots of breeze. Great food, and great company.
We are not sure how long we are going to be here. Greg is, as always, working on the boat. It is very convenient to do so from the dock. He has cleaned up both sides, scrubbed down the decks and painted the metal along the insides of the entire boat. He has also been cleaning up in his engine room. Remember when we had all that water INSIDE the boat? Well it rained through the floor into the engine room. So Greg took up the floor panels, and painstakingly scraped all the rust, vacuumed it out, and painted it all with special rust proof paint. It looks amazing! We still have issues with the water maker, Greg has parts on order, and hopefully, keep your fingers crossed, we can actually get it working!
I have been busy with galley wench chores, cleaning out the v-berth, or the "garage" as we call it and my food storage bins. It's quite the challenge trying to keep this old boat bug free. But my motto is "A clean boat is a bug free boat", so yes, I clean a lot! The peskiest ones are the little black bugs that like to get into dry foods. I have every tupperware container I own in use, and use lots of zip locks. It is a constant battle. Most dry foods I buy go into the freezer for 24 hours first, to kill any eggs that might be in them. Sounds gross, I know, but this is life in the tropics. I just try not to think about it! We have had a few roaches but have gotten rid of them with Combat, it is great stuff. I freaked out the first few times I saw them, but now I am a ruthless bug killer!!!! The boys just laugh at me, and Greg shakes his head. Fridays are laundry day. We have a folding cart, I tie my laundry bags to it, and off I go. It is a short walk and the laundromat is huge with machines that actually work. The spanish lady that runs it is really helpful. Once Greg hs our water maker going, he will put the new seal on the wash machine in the boat, so I can do laundry on board.
The boys spend their mornings doing school work. We have a good system going. They are both taking Spanish on line with a great program called The Rosetta Stone. It uses a unique style of learning, using visuals and Spanish, you learn without translating anything into English. I think I am going to do it as well. That way we could all practice speaking Spanish together. They also do Math from free material downloaded from the internet, for each of their grade levels. For a combination of English, History and Social Studies, they work on a template I designed for them, for each country we have visited so far. They have to research and write about the country's culture, politics, size, population, languages spoken, climate, currency, industry and commerce, history, and what they liked and didn't like about it. This will also be a great way to look back on our travels, especially when they are grown up. They spend each morning doing school work, and their reward is a few hours in the afternoon in the pool. While they do their school work, Greg and I do our boat chores, which works well because it is still fairly cool in the morning.
Brett has been busy on the computer and created a blog of our travels. We hope soon to have Google AdSense ads on out blog, because when someone visits the site, and clicks on the ads, we get paid for it. As a side bonus, it's much more organized, and you don't have to download the pictures to see them. The blog address is: http://www.dutchdreamervoyage.blogspot.com/ Brett has only just started it, so there isn't much on it yet. In future, instead of sending out an email, the next time I type up an update for family and friends, I will post it on the blog, and will email you to let you know it is there. We will see how that works.
We hope you all are keeping well, happy and warm. We love to hear from you, keep those emails and pictures coming!
Take care!
Love the Dutch Dreamers
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