Aruba - Day 4

 I guess even on vacation we can be creatures of habit.  We got up and enjoyed another breakfast on our balcony.  This time we had a water aerobics class to entertain us as we drank coffee and ate toast and fried eggs.  We had to bring our car back so before we did that we stopped at Da a local Dutch drugstore, for some more lip balm and lotion.  The weird mix of arid and humid was doing a number on my darkening skin.  I got the best tube of Blistex my lips have ever touched.  I highly doubt I will be able to find one like it here in the states so I shall savor each application and keep my eyes peeled for the white, blue, and red stick! 

Since we were on that side of the highway we made our way down to Palmera, the local rum distillery and store.  You might think it not a big thing to cross the road to get to another shop but boy, let me tell you, they do not make it easy on you in Aruba!  You typically would have to drive half a mile before you could take a roundabout and head in the opposite direction.

Another Dutch lady awaited to answer all of our alcohol questions.  Well, not really, but I did see bottled Advocaat!  A treat reserved for the New Year holidays for our family tradition.  When the lady discovered my mother was a Dutch native she got excited and cracked open the bottle.  Before we knew it we were downing shots of local and not-so-local beverages.  As we left the store, lo and behold, we ran into Jeff and Lindsey!  Small island, I guess.  We laughed and mentioned to them quickly that the lady was liberal with the samples! I can definitely say that we weren’t tipsy but by the time we left, but our tummies were feeling like they needed food.  Fortunately, I had some Sultanas in my bag, so we munched on those while we headed to the Tamarijn Hotel to drop off our rental car.  Good-bye little car!  Little did we know that the bus going back in the direction of our resort took a route off that road.  We started walking, and walking, and walking.  We saw buses whizzing by going into Oranjestad but not one bus stop or bus was to be seen going our direction!  It must have been one of the hottest days yet, so we made sure to drink plenty of water as we walked along the path, wound our through various low-rise hotels, past Druif beach and Manchebo beach, sweat trickling down our backs.  We were eager to get to into the water to cool off.  Even though it was hotter than blazes, we enjoyed some new sights including very large iguanas that would cool down on the path in the shade.  It was about a two mile hike and we noticed security guards everywhere.  It wasn’t a feeling of “on, no, we must be in a sketchy part of town” at all.  We never felt threatened or wary of places we went but it was nice seeing police and security guards loitering the streets!  Perhaps they wanted to make an impression on all the tourists due to the Joran Vander Sloot nightmare that happened in Peru while we were there. 

Anyway, we went to Eagle Beach again, met a couple from Indiana, Lori and Jackson, and talking about…expensive food.  Hmm, definitely a hot topic of conversation!  We played more volleyball with some resort people and two local guys, Sergio and Julio.  Then we headed back to the pool for happy hour.  Yes, sometimes vacation traditions are the best kind! 

For dinner we went into the high-rise district and found a little Italian café, Amici.  It will go down as definitely our worst dining experience of the trip.  The food was delicious though.  I had a Smoked Norwegian panini (smoked salmon with sun-dried tomatoes, cream cheese, sprouts) and Mike had the grouper.  However, the lack of service…We should have realized it right off the bat when we wandered into the place it was all women employees sitting at the end of the bar chatting away.  One finally sauntered up to us, telling us to sit anywhere.  We noticed the lack of proper service turned many people off during our meal.  We watched time and time again as tourists would poke their heads in and after no one greeted them, they would turn and leave.  We even had one couple sit down, then get up and leave after waiting for service!  Fortunately, we got our food quickly and halfway through the meal we noticed birds flying in and out of the dining area and landing on the clean cutlery and counters!  I said a quick prayer, something along the lines of “please don’t let me get sick!”  I didn’t, miraculously enough.  Mike and I definitely realize the adventure of being in a new place is sometimes means doing things that we wouldn’t probably do back home, so we kicked back and enjoyed the experience.  Of course, our conversation centered around the possibilities a cute little place like this had and what a sad loss for whoever owned the place!  After Amici, we headed to the shopping/cinema area to witness the Aruba Film Festival.  Red carpet, bright lights, and famous Arubans, as well as a few famous Americans, like Richard Gere.  It was honestly more of a hassle and small annoyance because of the chaos it caused and the difficulty everyone had in trying to get to stores and restaurants.  But it all certainly was very exciting for many of the locals.