If it’s Friday, this must be Aruba

On Friday, December 22nd, we arrived in Aruba. Only days before we had been lying by the pool in Costa Rica, basking in the sun, and just as I was thinking, "Does it GET any better than this?" a waiter walked by and offered us complimentary frozen cappuccinos! It reminded me of an old Seinfeld episode where Jerry is sitting on a plane in first class being given the royal treatment by the flight attendant. A gorgeous model sits down next to him and they instantly hit if off. They're laughing and having a great time and just when it seems it can't get any better, out come the hot fudge sundaes!

But a couple of days later, when we landed in Aruba, we found ourselves in a different Seinfeld episode. First of all, our plane was delayed. Then as we were standing in baggage claim waiting for our bags I received a text telling me that Lenny's golf bag had decided to take a different flight (or words to that effect). No big deal, we thought, we're on vacation and everything will work out. After standing in line at the lost baggage counter for 20 minutes, we filled out a form and were told his bag was on the next flight and would be brought to our hotel later that evening (ha!).

After that we headed over to the Avis counter and waited in line another 20 minutes, only to be told that yes, we had a reservation but unfortunately they had run out of cars! Those familiar with Seinfeld will remember this conversation that occurred between Jerry and a rental car agent. Substitute "Laura" for "Jerry" and remove the funny parts and that's basically what happened to us:

Jerry: I don't understand. Do you have my reservation?
Rental Car Agent: We have your reservation, we just ran out of cars.
Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
Rental Car Agent: I think I know why we have reservations.
Jerry: I don't think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.

Later in the episode, Jerry actually gets a rental car, and the conversation continues:

Rental Car Agent: Would you like to purchase the renter's insurance?
Jerry: Yeah, you better give me the insurance because I'm going to beat the HELL out of this thing.

In our case, just when we were about to throw a fit, the agent told us that someone from Jay's Rent a Car was on his way over and would get us a car. Faster than you could say, "What the f#@k?!" a man was there and whisked us off to Jay's off-airport location in his slightly run down van. He brought out our "mid-size" car, which he promptly took back when Lenny informed him it was a compact. But the next car was fine, although it too was somewhat small. The fact that we were short one large golf bag made it easier to accept!

The next day, Lenny's golf bag arrived, and things went smoothly for the rest of the week. Lenny golfed and also had a great golf lesson. I went with him one day and enjoyed seeing all the interesting animals on the course - goats, owls, lizards, deer, and iguanas. There were also lots of birds on the island. One night we were having dinner at an outdoor restaurant and the chirping of the birds was unusually loud. We asked the waiter about it and he told us that in about 20 minutes it would stop completely, as the birds would be going to sleep. And just like clockwork, it did.

We also got out on the water several times. We took a lovely snorkel/sail trip to Spanish Lagoon and got to see my favorite fish - the colorful parrot fish! Lenny was lucky enough to see a six-foot eel!

The beaches on Aruba were stunning and the water was warm. We spent a wonderful afternoon relaxing on the beach, and I took several long walks when Lenny was golfing or doing research for the next leg of our trip. The dinners we had there were great, as were the desserts and drinks. Neither of us are big drinkers but we both enjoyed having frozen mango mojitos every few days!

One thing I found fascinating about Aruba is the fact that most of the people there speak four languages - English, Spanish, Dutch and Papiamento, which can be described as "a Creole language containing elements of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English and French, as well as Arawakan and African languages." It's spoken by about 330,000 people in Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba, which were formerly known as the Netherlands Antilles.

Since Lenny and I both speak one language (barely), we were amazed at the thought that the people there spoke four. And so we took a poll. We asked just about every service worker how many languages they spoke and nearly all of them spoke four. One waitress we asked also spoke German. And the van driver at Jay's also spoke Sranan, one of the languages of Surinam. He said he used all five languages everyday, as Aruba has such an international population.

Weather wise, Aruba was great. The temperature there is 82 degrees pretty much all year long. It rains on and off throughout the day but the rain doesn't last long. There is a constant breeze there which I found refreshing, although it isn't always great for golf.

I suppose the only negative things I can say about Aruba are that it's fairly touristy, it's almost completely flat, and in many places you can't put toilet paper in the toilets! I had also to pay $2 to use the bathroom on the beach, although as Lenny says, the ocean is free! There is gambling there, although Lenny and I didn't partake. But the people are friendly and Lenny and I had a great time!

For more photos and videos of Aruba click here.