Honeymoon Part Deuce: ARUBA Day 5

Up at 8:30, I hit the gym, hubby went for a swim, had breakfast, went to the beach, had lunch, got ready for ATVing!

Tour guide picked us up in his ratty white Jeep at 1:30 in the lobby of the hotel and brought us to the building from which we left on the ATV's.  My husband and I rode one together; there was a couple in front of us on an ATV together that were on their honeymoon, a young married couple behind us, 2 chicks riding solo, and a few other couples.  Our tour guide was a little crass but we had a great time!  We rode through neighborhoods to some old rock formations, which we climbed up and from there could see most of the island.  Then we went to old gold mine ruins which we also were able to climb.  We saw where the natural bridge was before it collapsed, saw the oldest chapel on the island (Alto Visto) which is still operational although it had to be rebuilt after a fire in the 1900's.  A couple was getting married there as we all pulled up.  We went off roading to the California lighthouse (gorgeous view!) and then finally ended up at Arashi beach where we were able to swim and clean off some of the dirt!  Then we headed back to our starting point, got in an old school bus that was painted with tons of flowers, and were all dropped off at our respective hotels.  It was a blast!

We went to dinner at Casa Tua Barcelona and split paella for dinner, then headed back to our beach where we had planned to have our usual wine on the beach.  Instead we ended up getting sucked into the commotion at Matthews, ended up getting pushed behind the bar where a crowd was dancing (doing the YMCA! And we had to do it too!  I don't even do it at weddings!) we had 2 shots poured down our throats and ended up staying at the bar and dancing for a few hours.  I ended up behind the bar 3 more times in a Conga line where everytime we went behind the bar the waiters and waitresses spanked us (WTH!?).

Honeymoon Part Deuce: ARUBA Day 4

Up an hour earlier this morning to get more fit into the day...my husband went for a swim in the sea while I put together breakfast: egg white omelet with smoked turkey and cheese, fresh fruit, and coffee.  We ate on the balcony then took our walk on the beach.  We layed out for a few hours, some island dogs came by us at one point (although during daylight hours much less scary!).  Finally I bought a huge white hat for the beach I had been eying since we arrived.  Too bad it's too windy on the island to wear it!!

We had lunch in our room, then headed up to MooMba Beach by the high rises for the Jolly Pirates snorkeling/booze cruise tour.  While walking toward the pier, something wet landed on my shoulder and baseball hat, looked like water when I looked at my shoulder so I asked my husband if water landed on my hat as well. I tipped my head down for him to see and as I did, this clear slimy bird sh*t slid off the front of my hat.  I was so disgusted!  My husband was laughing so hard he almost peed his pants.  He told me it's good luck to get sh*t on.  I told him that's what people tell you so you don't feel so bad about the fact that you are covered in sh*t...moving on.

We had time to kill before boarding the boat so we sat at a beach bar and had a beer.  Finally we took a smaller boat over to the pirate ship.  The trip lasted 3 hours, during which there was open bar, we stopped at 2 different sites to snorkel (the Antilla shipwreck and the Peter Ellis shipwreck).  At the first stop the guys running the ship told us we had to put our flippers on, life vests, snorkel gear, and jump off the top of the boat.  It took me a good 5 seconds before I could manage enough courage to jump 10 feet (if that) into the 60-foot deep water, but I finally did it.  At first trying to snorkel out in the middle of a sea I was having anxiety, a tough time breathing through the tube, but finally after I saw all the cool fish I think I forgot what I was doing and I snorkled around just fine.  As we were getting out of the water one guy loudly said to some girl "did you pee?" and she was squinting and scrunching up her face and she said "not yet, I'm trying".  Really??? Why don't you just announce it the world...musta had one too many Aruba Aribas before getting in the water...

After the 2nd snorkeling stop, one of the guys came around pouring shots in everyone's mouths (not that anyone needed them!) Turns out the girl I was sitting next to and talking to the entire time on the boat is from my state, and only lives about 30 minutes from me!  Talk about a small world...

Finally there was a rope swing: anyone who wanted to jump off the boat from the swing lined up and then one by one jumped into the water.  My husband went twice, decided the line was too long and asked the guys if he could jump off the opposite side of the boat and they said sure so there he went.

By the time we were coming back in to shore, we were all drinking and dancing and it wasn't even 6 pm yet!  We got back to our room and had something to eat, then actually went out to dinner at Matthews (all you can eat ribs?  My husband couldn't resist ;)

I was feeling a little woozy from all the sweet island drinks so we went back to our room and I was sleeping by 9:30 pm!

Honeymoon Part Deuce: ARUBA!

Day 1: I hired a car to take us to the airport 2 hours away.  The driver arrived right on time at 5 am-amazingly I was up, wide awake after only 4 hours sleep, and ready to head out on our official honeymoon adventure!

However, my excitement faded slightly when our limo driver was the worst driver ever!  When we were on the highway and there was a bend in the road, instead of staying in his lane the driver would merge into the next lane, no signal or anything, and I can't tell you how many times he was beeped at by other drivers!

I was nervous as we drove into NYC, since the terror threat was elevated for 9-11 weekend and there were vehicle checkpoints set up.  I thought it would take extra long to get to the airport but it didn't; an hour and 45 minutes later we were arriving, paying the driver, and dropping off our bag with JetBlue.  We went right through security with no problems and went to breakfast while we waited to board the plane.

On the plane we had 36 channels of DirectTV but they cut out as soon as we were over international waters.  However, we did get movie channels so I was able to watch Bridesmaids on the way down (funniest movie ever!) and part of Something Borrowed.

We arrived at the airport in Aruba in about 4.5 hours, not a bad flight at all, went through customs and then waited to meet with Hans who was renting us a car for the week.  He arrived about 20 minutes later and then we were on the road attempting to find our hotel, Casa del Mar.  It took us awhile and we ended up in the high rise area, while our hotel was in the low rise area, but we got to see a lot of the island! ;)

We were able to check in right away even though we arrived earlier than check-in time.  We found our room, changed for the beach and headed out.  We had lunch at Tortuga, a beachside restaurant at the resort next door.  Our first beer on the island (Balashi, of course, as it's brewed in Aruba) was delicious although they serve it in small cups and glasses because if you don't drink it fast it's warm in minutes! I had a grouper salad that was delicious.  We met a couple people, one of them a Giants fan like myself.  Finally we went and layed out, I applied sunblock twice for fear of burning to a crisp and ruining my whole vacation. 

After the beach we had the luxury of taking a nap, showering, and then heading out in our rental car to do some grocery shopping and then find somewhere to eat.  Since we were in a timeshare, we had all the amenities: master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and dining area, and a sweet balcony off the back of the room.

When we headed to the grocery store is when we found out our car battery had died because Hans had turned on the lights and my husband didn't realize so he didn't turn them off (it was daytime! lol). We found a security guard who borrowed his friends car and helped us jump ours, although he connected the wires backwards and sparks were flying when my husband went to connect the ends to our rental car!  Yikes!

Finally we got to the grocery store, and you could tell everyone had just arrived on the island because the store was mobbed!  We got the necessities for the week and left as fast as possible.  We unpacked groceries in our room and then headed down to our resort's restaurant, Matthew's Beachside.  There were tiki torches and the restaurant was open on the water side so what little breeze there was (apparently bad weather in Venezuela was sucking out all the breeze from Aruba) was blowing in.  I had a delicious glass of Carmenere red wine with my meal, which I had never had before but I am officially in love!

When we were done eating happy hour had begun (happy hour every day from 12-1, 4-6, and 9-10 with 2 for one drinks) so we each got 2 drinks and headed out to sit on the beach.  Talk about peaceful and relaxing, watching the waves, sipping some vino beachside, seeing the stars...Aruba is certainly romantic!  We took a bunch of pictures.

Finally we headed back to our room.  On the way we saw a skinny black island cat who looks like a smaller version of our cat Ninja at home.  I aptly named him Twinja and we continued to see him throughout our vacation.

We finally crashed into bed at 11:30 and that was probably the best night of sleep we had all week!