When I told one of my friends that we were going to spend two months in Aruba, that he asked me how we’d keep busy. Perhaps he had visions of us lazing in the sun on the beach reading trashy novels. Or as another friend who gave up cruising said, “Well, partly, I went back to work because, really, how many games of golf or tennis can you play on different beaches before even playing gets old?”
Us? I can still hear my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Cohen, many of whose apt proverbs … “Only boring people get bored.” So after a few days of beach sand, and a day or two of pure logistics like unpacking our suitcases, buying groceries, changing money, we started looking for ways to make our own fun. We’d already visited most of the typical tourist sights, and weren’t interested in shopping for diamonds or going to the casino. But:
I learned to melt glass (in a half-day workshop that had me utterly addicted, except glass and sailboats really don’t mix very well)
We did a lot of diving
Watched most of the carnival parades
Studied the local birds (this is a ‘tropical’ family, mom feeding her teenage offspring. Tropial are native to the ABC islands and only here, much loved, and have a beautiful song.)
And architecture (this is a ‘cunucu’ style traditional house. The high gable is oriented to the prevailing trade winds which blow through to keep the interior cool; energy-efficient air conditioning)
Watched a lot of sunsets
Learned new and interesting foods (love eating things whose names we can’t pronounce - lekkerbekje is a kind of fried fish as is kibblingen; keshi yena is a chicken and fruit stew baked in the rind of an edam cheese; Tai leaf (sp) looks like an ornamental plant; and pastechi, my all-time favorite, is a turnover filled with melted Dutch gouda cheese)
Renewed old friendships and made new ones
And, yes, spent a lot of time on the beach!
