Short Respite from Winter

We took a week off from winter to enjoy the sun and sand in Aruba. It’s a place we both wanted to visit so we exchanged some of our Hilton Grand Vacation points for a week at the Divvy Golf and Beach club. It was a beautiful resort and we had a great corner condo. According to one of the workers, it was one of the best units on the property. It was only a studio but was very large and had two balconies. We also had a private patio on the 3rd floor with a BBQ and hot tub. We didn’t use the BBQ and only went into the hot tub once as the water was actually pretty cold. Here is a video Peter took of the condo. https://youtu.be/5CV6nZgSF1E

The resort was quite large with several pools and restaurants. Our condo was adjacent to the large infinity pool with a swim up bar. We enjoyed happy hour every day but since people tend to “reserve” their pool chairs all day (don’t get me started) we most often took our drinks back up to our room and drank them on one of our two balconies overlooking the pool, lagoon and golf course. Here are a couple of videos Peter took of the pool area at sunset. It was beautiful

Resort Part 1 https://youtu.be/CUaeseOVOyE

Resort Part 2 https://youtu.be/HBx1m_uxctg

Our condo was the second floor; the third floor was our private terrace with BBQ and hot (actually…cool) tub.
At our private cool tub. We only used it once.
View from one of our balconies at sunset.

The resort had an optional all-inclusive package but for $270/day we took a pass. We had a full kitchen, so we went grocery shopping and got food to last the week. Groceries are crazy expensive ($10/pound for grapes). Even though we found some off-brand items we still spent about $150 for groceries. In Mexico last December those same groceries were about half the cost. We ate out a few times but mostly packed sandwiches for lunch and ate breakfast and dinner at home on the balcony.

At the Seabreez Restuarant our first night. We were tired from traveling and didn’t feel like cooking. The food was actually pretty good.

Sunday (3/1) was our first full day so we hung at the beach all day. Even though there were signs posted about not saving chairs and pulapas, of course just about every chair under an umbrella had a towel on it when we got to the beach at about 9am. It was pretty frustrating as that’s one of my biggest pet peeves with resorts and cruise ships. We finally found one, though, and staked our claim for the day. We had lunch at the beach bar and went back again for happy hour later in the day.

At the beach

Here’s a video I took at the beach. https://youtu.be/hACczJ-C-Uo

Peter has never been one to turn down a freebee so of course we had to attend the 90-minute presentation and in return we received a $100 gift card to a local seafood restaurant and a $50 gift card to one of the restaurants at the resort. We also got a free lunch as part of the presentation, so it really wasn’t a bad deal. During lunch our sales guy learned that we already had 2 Hilton Grand Vacation properties and a 5-year membership to a vacation club in the Caribbean. Since he knew we had zero interest in buying anything else he skipped the entire presentation. We went to lunch, toured the property (it was lovely), got our gift cards and left. We never even had to sit through the financial part. I guess he figured to cut his losses and try his luck with someone who might actually buy. So, we got about $200 worth of food for 2 hours of our time…not a bad deal.

These rest of Monday afternoon was spent in Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba. We took a local bus for $2.50 each and spent some time looking in shops around town. The town is quite small and doesn’t offer much but it was fun to walk around a little. There were no cruise ships in port so we had the town pretty much to ourselves.

In Oranjestad
Church in town.
Orangestad is known for its colorful buildings.

On Tuesday (3/2) we rented a car to check out the rest of the island. There isn’t too much there but we stopped at the lighthouse and visited the Natural Bridge. Once outside of the resort area much of the island is fairly desolate. It’s a desert island so the landscape is not very lush. But the desert also keeps the humidity down so I guess it’s a tradeoff. The houses range from beautiful mansions by the beach to shanties in some of the poorer areas.

California Lighthouse on the norther most tip of the island.
Natural Bridge; we got here just before two large tourist buses arrived. A few minutes later this place was crawling with people.

We stopped to snorkel a couple of times but compared to other places we’ve been (Hawaii, Costa Rica and Key West) the snorkeling wasn’t much. Of course we only went out as far as we could go from the beach but we were close to where the catamarans were so we think we were in the right spots. But, it was fun to be in the water which was cool but not uncomfortably cold once you got used to it.

That evening we used our gift card at the Driftwood Restaurant in Oranjestad. It was a lovely dinner and we splurged on appetizer, entrée, drinks AND a dessert. Since we only spent about $10 over our gift card it was a pretty great deal.

The rest of the week was spent by the pool. Peter played golf a few times but I couldn’t play as I had just gotten out of a splint from having surgery on my right thumb to get rid of the arthritis. For those of you keeping score, that’s 5 surgeries in 16 months. But (knock on wood) this should be the last of them for awhile. Since I have no strength yet in that thumb, golf was a non-starter. But Peter enjoyed playing a couple of rounds on the adjacent 9-hole course. I, on the other hand, enjoyed happy hour by the pool and a short trip to the Palm Beach area to check out the shops. Not much was open as this area is mostly for nightlife and most of the shops don’t open until 5pm.

Beach across the street. All beaches in Aruba are public beaches but the chairs and pulapas are owned by specific resorts and you must be a guest to use one free of charge. Eagle beach has chairs and umbrellas to rent. We went past it on the bus but didn’t stop.

Aruba is crazy windy all the time but it’s protected from hurricanes so it’s a primo retirement spot for expats who want to live in the Caribbean. After visiting several spots including Mexico, Costa Rica and now Aruba, we don’t think the Caribbean is a good fit for us. While we enjoy hanging at the beach and pool, one week of that is enough. We enjoy sightseeing, going to museums, etc., and there’s just not that much to do in any of these places. We talked to people who winter in Aruba every year and they sit by the pool and/or beach all day, every day, all winter. We’d be bored out of our minds so while we may go back to visit and still want to visit other tropical places (Panama is next on our list) we couldn’t live there for any length of time.

Peter on the tram in Orangestad.

So, that about covers it. It was a wonderful week filled with sun, sand, surf and cocktails but now it’s back to reality. I’m on my way to Occupational Therapy in about 30 minutes to start getting some strength back in my thumb and Peter is finishing up the basement after our summer flood.

Next up is our big European trip, unless of course all of Europe shuts down because of the Covid-19 virus. As of now, Cunard ships are still sailing Europe so our trip is a go…at least for now. Only time will tell what is going to happen but our fingers are crossed that this little bug burns itself out before our trip that begins on 7/29 with 2 days in NYC before our cruise. Till then, thanks for traveling with us and we’ll talk again soon.

Here is a link to the cruise we’re planning to take to Southhampton. We can’t wait!! https://www.cunard.com/en-us/find-a-cruise/M024/M024

Lynn and Peter

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