Aruba 2018: Palm Beach Stay and Vacay

Alright, alright!  [Pictures to come...]

It's been WAY too long since I traveled and updated this blog but I am BACK!

Bryan and I traveled to Aruba with friends, Dave and Lexi, for a 2-week 40th birthday vacation celebration.  We're hitting the three ABC islands, in order, so it's gonna be a blast!

Flights were good, considering we had the red eye from Calgary to Toronto Saturday morning.  I actually slept!  We didn't get stuck beside screaming kids!  No obnoxious people were giving me dirty looks for being a 'bad mom' (a little side note on a recent flight to Mesa I took alone...see below).

Anyway, we arrived, safe and sound in Aruba on Saturday afternoon.  Customs was super easy here - no mystery button to press to see if you were either A) free to clear or B) subject to a complete smackdown by angry officials.  Phew!

In all honestly, customs here was the most efficient I've ever seen it anywhere in the world.  We didn't talk to anyone, just lined up through one of the many chutes to scan our passports and take our pictures.  Very quick and very easy!

Of course, leaving the airport after picking up our bags, there were other customs officials watching everyone leave.  It boiled down to them asking if you were American.  If you said "no, Canadian (or European)", they waved you through; otherwise they asked you more questions.  Hmmmm...

Anyway, our Holiday Inn Beach Resort is good.  It's large, we could have chosen all inclusive but we did not.  Here's my review of this place:

• If you want to be super touristy and be charged way too much for EVERYTHING, this is THE place to stay.  It's literally across the street from a high end shopping and restaurant mall, which does have a lot going on.  But everything costs so much...
• The beach is great, long, lots of room.
• You have to put your name in a 'lottery' everyday at 3:45 to maybe reserve a palapa (i.e. shade) for the beach the next day.  Weird.
• The service is crap... at the pool bar and on the beach.  You basically just have to give up on expecting any.
• The service in the restaurants has been okay, friendly people, just quite slow on getting you the bill or taking your money (I feel there should be some statue of limitations on how long a customer should be expected to hang out and wait for someone to take their money...15, 20 minutes???).
• It's too busy...lots of families and wealthy (aka obnoxious Americans) here.  Not my style.
• You can very easily walk down the beach and go to another resort or one of the other bars, restaurants, etc. for something different.  

Bryan and I must have gotten the cheapest room in the resort, too.  On the plus side, we are right beside the Fitness Centre, which is ideal for me!  

However, we think we're in the housekeeping quarters because they hang out in our hallway and the rooms around us all have doorbells.  It's the main floor with a view of nothing.  

And, the bar next door pumps out bass until 2 AM every night so there's that too. 

I've learned a long time ago that I don't like being "touristy". I don't like shopping for souvenirs, I don't like Americanized food, I don't like trends.  

I like off-the-beaten-path, I like local, I like exploring.  So this resort is decidedly NOT for me!

However, we did do some exploring down the beach on Sunday to see what's going on for activities.  There is a lovely dive shop right beside us (THAT we can see from our amazing first floor room in the hotel - :) ).  We found a number of kiteboarding shops, too, plus some yoga, SUP, and a few other equipment rentals or activities (all overpriced but hey).  

Monday morning, Bryan and I got up early and had a bit of trouble finding a place to eat breakfast before 8:00 AM.  We did try this nice cafe, called Sushi Bagels, that served a good, reasonably priced breakfast.  The service was awesome too!

We've talked a few times about this issue:  There are so few options available for breakfast or to pick up food to go prior to diving.  Most of the dive shops want you there around 7:30 or 8:00 to get your gear, sign forms, etc. so it doesn't really coincide when touristy restaurants open.  So, we've thought it would be very helpful to open up an early morning breakfast / takeout snack or lunch box place just for divers!

Anyway, Monday, we dove with Palm Beach Divers, who were amazing!  Both dive masters were friendly, safe, and helpful.  They accommodated my inability to stay warm in the water by allowing me to use one of their own full length wet suits.  It helped...a bit.

We dove down to the Antilla, a World War II German cargo ship.  The story is that this ship made frequent trips down to Aruba to pick up food and merchandise and return it to Germany.  In 1939, when the Nazis invaded Holland, the people of Aruba were ordered by the Dutch to arrest the crew of the Antilla.  The Captain was ordered by the Nazis to not allow the ship to be taken, so the Captain turned up the heat on the engines, swam ashore, and the ship blew up.  No casualties, but a very real exploded ship to dive down to now, just off the coast.  It was cool - we were able to go through a few spots in the ship.  It is quite massive!

The second dives on Monday and Tuesday both were reef dives.  We saw some turtles on one dive, a large grouper on another, and a variety of Caribbean fish on both.  It was nice, easy, and calm.  I have come so far with my buoyancy while diving that I don't struggle or panic when I start to sink or float. It's great.

Our first dive on Tuesday was to see some airplanes.  The first was taken apart before it sunk, so you see a couple of propellers, an engine by itself, the wings and the cockpit.  It must have been a small plane.  

The second plane is missing its engines and tail fin, but it was a DC-10 (maybe it didn't have a tail fin???) and it's quite intact.  They removed the seats and stuff from inside and sunk it, so we could enter through the back and swim up to the exits at the front.  Very cool - I wanted to swim through again!!!  

Last night (Tuesday), we did a sunset booze cruise on a pirate boat with Jolly Pirates. Another awesome tour company here in Aruba.  We boarded around 5:30, set sail and they took us to a public beach and anchored just offshore.  There we had time to use their rope swing, which was fun.  A lot of flops by a lot of people but it was great entertainment.  And the drinks were super strong and sweet so they went down easy!

On board, we watched the sun set (it happens SO fast) and then came back to the pier to dock.  I learned that, in the local language, "Kada Keto" (kay-dah kay-toe) means to politely shut up.  :)  

Afterwards, we ate at MooMba Bar and Restaurant - a place Bryan and I had been to a couple of times already.  The service there was great, the food okay, and the scenery amazing.  

Yeah, food here has been a disappointment for the most part.  Today we're leaving Palm Beach to move to a different area of Aruba and this morning I JUST found a vegan / vegetarian smoothie and juice bar!  Grrr!  

Bryan and I did get to Diana's Pancakes for breakfast, which a lot of people on our plane here said we had to try.  They serve authentic Dutch pancakes (more like crepes) and they were delicious.

(My Mesa Airplane Story:  I traveled alone to Mesa and was seated in the aisle seat.  A young guy with 2 little girls sat beside me.  The girls were good but they were talkative and squirmy and he couldn't get the little one to sleep.  He did well to keep them entertained and quiet.  

People kept walking by during the flight and giving me dirty or strange looks.  I was just sitting there reading my book and, later, drinking wine straight out of the little bottle they served it in (the girls were well-behaved but kept kicking my seat and table tray so I didn't want red wine all over everything...seemed safer to leave it in the little bottle with the lid).  

The plane landed and we were ready to get off.  The lady across from us, who had given me a couple of weird looks, was looking at me again oddly and I caught her eye.  She looked startled and then asked "How old are your girls?"  I looked at her and said "Oh, they're not mine.  They're his."  

So, everyone walking by giving me dirty looks, I believe, felt that I was the worst mother ever for totally ignoring my 'husband' and our 'girls' while he was struggling with them!!!  hahaha)