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TravelHaven Journal — Family Trip to Aruba, Part 6

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday was our last day in Aruba, darn it. Everyone slept in except Arnold and me. We had planned to hit Baby Beach one last time and pick up the police report on the way there, then do some shopping in San Nicholas. With the others sleeping late, Arnold and I decided just to go get the police report and check out the shopping in San Nicolas on our own. We got the police report with no problem, but the shopping in San Nicolas wasn’t great so we just went home where everyone was finally up and around.

Mike, Lisa, Kaley, and Torrey decided to go back into Orangestaad to finish their shopping. Arnold and I chose to stay home and chill out, splashing around in the water at Mango Halto Beach just down the street. When the others came home after making their purchases, we ate leftovers (plenty from the week’s dinners!) and decided to go to the casinos, which we hadn’t done yet.

We chose the casino at the Hyatt, which advertised live music, just in case some of us lost our gambling stake before the rest were ready to leave. We called a cab so we could all imbibe and waited about an hour—no cab. So we called another cab company and they were there within 15 minutes. We had a great driver—very personable and full of information about Aruba. We got to the casino and most of us played slots. Torrey won some money, but Arnold was the big winner—about $300 playing craps. We walked around the hotel a while—it was beautiful, with lush gardens inside and some nice shops—and then called a cab and headed home.

On Sunday morning we would have just enough time to get up, pack, clean the place up a little, return the rental car, and get to the airport. We were really sorry to leave. Mike even stopped at a little apartment complex to inquire about rental rates, dreaming about retirement years.

Home Again

The flight home on AirTran seemed short. We took a taxi van from Orlando Airport back to Mike and Alisa’s house to pick up Arnold’s car and then said our goodbyes.

We all agreed it was one of our best vacations and certainly our most relaxing. It was great being beach bums for a week. And having the whole family together to enjoy the fun made it all that much better.

 

 

 

Travel Haven Journal — Family Trip to Aruba, Part 5

Friday

A very lazy morning spent lounging around the house.

We reported our loss to the Orangestaad police around mid-morning. Just a formality so we could claim reimbursement from our travel insurance. Three officers got there within five minutes and were finished fifteen minutes later. They came out from San Nicolas and spoke perfect English. They were great!  When we asked for directions to the police station so we could pick up the police report, they said, “Get on the highway” and I said “1-B?” They said “Huh? The highway.”  I said again “Highway 1 A-B” and they replied “Oh, we don’t know the names of roads.”  Everyone, including the cops, laughed at that! The happy ending here is that our new dive equipment will be partially paid for by the insurance company.

I think there’s a lesson to be learned here: always buy travel insurance that protects you against cancelled flights, hospital costs when away, loss of luggage, and loss due to theft. When you travel….buy the insurance policy! Oh, yeah, and don’t leave anything you value on the dang porch.

We left the house around 1 p.m. for Eagle Beach. We really liked that beach and the bartender, Lucy, at Passions on the Beach. We stayed there until evening. Mike, Kaley, and Torrey rode a jet ski and we spent a lot of time hanging out in the shade of the divi divi tree, very island. Around 6, we packed up and moved up to Arashi Beach at the very northwestern tip of the Island to watch the sunset, which was spectacular. It seemed many people come to this beach just to watch the sunset, a little like the crowd that gathers on Mallory Pier in Key West at sundown (no street performers though). The big difference for us was that we were standing in the warm surf. There are some really nice homes up there, some right on the beach and others across the street from the beach.

After the sun set, we made our daily stop at Super Center, our favorite grocery store (even if it doesn’t sell fish, which we thought was odd) to pick up dinner for the night.

 

Travel Haven Journal — Family Trip to Aruba, Part 4

With this post we resume the story of last July’s family trip to Aruba.

Thursday

Another bright, sunny day began with a jump off the dock directly across from our house into our own little lagoon/cove into the crystal clear warm water. There is something special about a short splash and swim before breakfast in the morning.

After breakfast we went back to Baby Beach. We had no trouble finding it this time and claimed a wonderfully spacious tiki hut. We stayed from about eleven in the morning until mid-afternoon, just relaxing and playing in the water. Arnold, Mike, and I took a drive back to the supposed fish camp we had found on Tuesday. In addition to not having running water or electric power, the shacks had no floors, just the natural beach sand. And there still weren’t any people there. It was difficult to figure out the purpose, but very interesting as a photo event for us. The beach along the shoreline is reef-like — very rocky — so water shoes would be a good idea here.

We also explored some of the amazing rock formations near this beach area. They were probably a quarter mile from the water, but it looked like the ocean had at one time beaten against the rocks, undermining them in some places, leaving caves and jagged pieces of rock hanging down. The formation was at least 30 to 40 feet high. The land was flat leading up to the base of the rocks, so it appeared that the ocean had receded quite a bit. Also, the rock looked to us like hardened lava, yet there isn’t a volcano on Aruba. Very curious!

Unfortunately, when we got back to the rental house we discovered that the dive bag with Arnold’s and my snorkel gear and water shoes was stolen from the front porch while we were gone. We had left it on the front porch, so our mistake, but it was really a shame. It was a wakeup call for us to be more careful.

We dropped Lisa, Kaley, and Torrey off at the house after our day at the beach while Arnold, Mike, and I continued on to the grocery store to get the fixings for another dinner at home. It was another smorgasbord — beef tenderloin (which Mike rolled in sea salt, pepper and coffee grounds), steak, pork kabobs, hamburger for Kaley and ribs for Torrey. A feast complete with the usual adult beverages. Early to bed for me (10 p.m., as usual). No idea when the others hit the sack. Mike was mixing up another batch of his famous “Ritas” when I fell asleep.

 

 

 

 

TravelHaven Tips — Ugly American Credit Cards

Your U.S. credit card probably won’t be accepted these days by many merchants in Europe. Much of the European Union has converted to the chip-and-PIN system. Credit cards are embedded with a microchip and require a PIN (personal identification number) for transactions, similar to using your debit card for a point-of-sale purchase in the U.S.

The chip-and-PIN system is already in wide use in the British Isles, Scandinavia, France, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. The rest of Western Europe is making the switch this year. Even our close friend Canada will convert by 2015. So far, U.S. banks have not committed to any conversion. Automated machines in Europe may take your U.S. credit card if you know the PIN number. Make a point to ask your bank for the number before you depart.

If your U.S. card is rejected, there’s usually a solution. Cash still works and you can get it from any ATM, which has no problem accepting magnetic-strip debit cards. Of course, you can just stock up on foreign currency before you go.

Fortunately, automated payment machines at parking garages and tollbooths often have a cash option. At train stations, you can buy your ticket with euros, rather than charging it at a ticket machine. If the gas station has an attendant, he may be able to take swipe your credit card and have you sign the receipt – the old-fashioned American way.

At most hotels, restaurants and shops U.S. magnetic-strip cards can still be used in the new chip-and-PIN card processors, but that will likely change in the very near future. Then those venues will stop accepting the old-style cards.

There are other reasons that European merchants prefer cash. Some less-than-scrupulous owners prefer cash in order to under report income to reduce their tax payments. For others, the very high commissions charged by credit-card companies cut deep into the small profits of mom-and-pop businesses like boutique hotels and restaurants and souvenir shops. For these reasons, you might get a discount for paying with cash or be charged a fee for using your credit card. Some just don’t accept credit cards at all.

So it pays you to give up the plastic and change to an all-cash regimen when going to Europe.

 

TravelHaven News Brief — It’s Never Been Safer to Fly

In their article for the Associated Press, Joshua Freed and Scott Mayerowitz had this to say:

“The past 10 years have been the best in America’s aviation history with 153 fatalities. That’s two deaths for every 100 million passengers on commercial flights, according to an Associated Press analysis of government accident data.

The improvement is remarkable. Just a decade earlier, at the time the safest, passengers were 10 times as likely to die when flying on an American plane. The risk of death was even greater during the start of the jet age, with 1,696 people dying — 133 out of every 100 million passengers — from 1962 to 1971. The figures exclude acts of terrorism.

Sitting in a pressurized, aluminum tube seven miles above the ground may never seem like the most natural thing. But consider this: You are more likely to die driving to the airport than flying across the U.S. There are more than 30,000 motor-vehicle deaths each year, a mortality rate eight times greater than that in planes.”

You can read their entire article at http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/safer-fly-deaths-record-low-15265870

It’s reassuring to know that U.S. airline travel continues to make strides in safety.