NOW TO VIEW MY JANUARY AND FEBRUARY POSTS YOU WILL HAVE TO CLICK ON THAT MONTH SO THOSE POSTS WILL BE DISPLAYED.
TO VIEW PREVIOUS POSTINGS USE THE "BLOG ARCHIVE" UNDER OUR PHOTO ON THE RIGHT. THEN CLICK ON THE DAY OR DAYS YOU MISSED. ALSO CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM. I RECOMMEND THAT.
We are docked at Oranjestad on the island of Aruba today. Actually this is our first visit to Aruba on this "world cruise??" as the ship was denied docking here back on January 31st. It's sunny and 83 degrees this afternoon. More balcony time for me today. Wind out of the east, as usual, at 35 mph.
ARUBA BACKGROUND INFO:
Aruba is a
small (usually windy) island that is only 20 miles long and 6 miles across at
its widest point. It lies just 18 miles
off the north coast of Venezuela.
Although a very small island the population here is 116,000. Again, it has a dry climate and an arid,
cactus landscape. We are docking at
Oranjestad, the capital and largest city.
The economy
is dominated by four industries:
tourism, petroleum refining, offshore banking, and aloe exporting. 1,100,000 tourists overnight in Aruba per
year ¾ of them are Americans. The soft,
white sand beaches is its main draw.
Luxury hotels line the beaches and there are also upscale shopping malls. There are also 12 casinos and lots of
restaurants and night life. There is a
US Homeland Security and Border Protection at the airport to clear passengers
flying back to the States. 334 cruises
making port calls here per year with over 815,000 passengers visiting Aruba. These visitors are in addition to the 1.1
million mentioned above.
The world’s
largest desalination plant produces 37,000 tons of water for consumption per
day. The electricity is produced by a
heavy fuel oil plant with only 1/5th from wind power so far.
LAST NIGHT:
We really enjoyed cocktails and then dinner last evening with Phyllis & Al Wilhelm. Great conversation! We'll be having dinner with them again later on during the last month of our cruise.
Other world cruiser's whom we have known for a long time sitting near us last night.
Another table near us we these lovely folks who we have enjoyed dinner with earlier. The Silverman's and the Todd's with Nino photo bombing.
Well, we were pleasantly surprised with last night's show. We sat on the back row in case we did not like the show but we actually enjoyed it. I do not usually like instrumentalists and especially violinists, but Bernadette Nyari's show was very good.
TODAY:
No tour for me today. I just did not feel like touring. I just wanted to workout and then walk into town instead. In one month we shall be disembarking the WC in San Francisco.
I went up to deck 12 to take some photos this morning. It was VERY windy so mussed my hair up. It is always windy here on Aruba from all our past experiences here.
Like all the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonnaire, & Curacao) Aruba is very colorful. Lots of high end shops to be had, ie, Gucci, Swarovski, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, plus all the usual jewelry stores.
By the marina is a Renaissance Wind Resort.
It is a long walk to get off the pier and into town.
Carnival's Horizon ship arriving this morning. 4000 passenger capacity with a crew of 1450.
At 10:20 after my treadmill time I headed off the ship and into town. Rebecca wanted me to look for some things in a pharmacy. It was a long walk to the pharmacy I had found on Google Maps. At least the wind kept me semi cool for the walk.
This is the Old Protestant Church.
Not sure what kind of tree this is but lots of long pods hanging from it.
I had no luck at the pharmacy as they said my requested items were prescription items. They are but I can get them tomorrow on Curacao as they did not care and gave me what I wanted last time we were there. So I was back on board 40 minutes after I had left. Probably walked 1 1/2 miles.
We will not be leaving here until 10pm tonight as it is a short sail over to Curacao, our next port. So they are having another Grand Deck BBQ this evening on the pool deck. We never go to these except to take some photos. So will be dining in Compass Rose. Their idea of entertainment this evening is "Rock the Boat Dance Party" on the pool deck. Another thing we never do! There is also a movie in the theater but we can watch it in our suite so not going to theater.
