Mar 17, 2020 - No Secret Here

Bernie Has Made This Point From the Beginning! —— A book that explains how we got here and where it might lead us if the public does not wake up, AND SOON! The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It From the best-selling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good, an urgent analysis of how the "rigged" systems of American politics and power operate, how this status quo came to be, and how average citizens can enact change. Millions of Americans have lost confidence in our political and economic...

Mar 16, 2020 - Still in Aruba!

Tried to leave for onward travel today. Went to airport as we were told when we arrived by airport personnel and desk people at Dividivi Air who fly to Curaçao and Bonaire. We arrived before 10 am and same folks told us all flights have been cancelled for everyone except country nationals/citizens. They suggested Copa Air where we were able to book tickets for MX City only since we are permanent residents there (own land). But flight today was full so we leave on tomorrow’s flight at 1 pm. After considering the costs of taxis back and forth...

Mar 15, 2020 - Aruba bus tour

3-15 To maximize our time here and get as much understanding of what Aruba is about we decided to opt for a very “not us”, expensive bus tour with La PALMA tours. The bus was only half full...and this is still high tourist season. A very good investment as it turned out. Our driver and guide, Melvin, is a native having been born here in 1958 and as he himself said, “ I’ve done just about every kind of work in my life”. A waiter at a high end hotel began his working life at 19, then construction worker, police officer, taxi driver, time...

Feb 11, 2020 - Packing

Being another sea day we had breakfast downstairs then returned to the room to start packing. I had mine done quickly, but Christine spent the rest of the morning carefully pressing her clothes into the suitcase then adding to mine. We had lunch from the Neptune Lounge, though I had to go upstairs as their supply of sandwiches had run out. We then went to the strings concert and retired to our room where Christine watched some birds catch the flying fish which seemed quite prolific in this area between Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas. We got...

Feb 10, 2020 - Awards at Sea

We had a later breakfast downstairs today as we were at sea all day. We had a walk then returned to our room and I did a little laundry. We went to a presentation of medals representing days cruising with Holland America. We had bronze ones for 100 cruising days. There were about 20 got one for 300 days, several for 500 days and one lady had over 2000 days. Six years of her life has been spent at sea on Holland America ships! There was a lunch afterwards which we skipped. We were at a similar one on the first part of our cruise and it was...

Feb 9, 2020 - Aruba

Another early morning with room service breakfast. Christine was early enough to get some shots of the moon while it was still dark over Aruba. We got ready and went to meet the tour guides. After some chaos we managed to find the right bus and things improved vastly. The guide was very good, easily understood and informative. We drove past eh airport and into the centre of the island where there is an odd rock formation called Casibari. We were encouraged to climb it for the view. This proved more taxing than expected and I doubt if...

Feb 1, 2020 - Oranjestad, Aruba

We rose early and had our last breakfast on board. Our luggage had been toted down to the hold and we were ready to take an excursion to view the small, desert island of Aruba. The passport control by the Aruba Customs agents took an unbelievable amount of time, but we were on the bus and headed out to see cactus after cactus on the sun drenched landscape. The most interesting stop was at the ‘Natural Bridge’ along the north shore. The old bridge collapsed over 10 years ago, but a new ‘baby bridge’ is now being carved out of the shore by...

Dec 30, 2018 - Aruba

Since we've been to Aruba a couple of times before, we decided to just get off the ship and walk around town, do a little shopping, maybe have lunch and make it an easy day. Oranjestad has lots of shopping and dining establishments and there is even a nice beach within walking distance. I wanted to get some of the famous Aloe, great for burns and skin irritations. It was nice to just walk around and we had a local snack called pan bati (a pancake-like bread) and enjoyed our time ashore. Back onboard ship, we decided to go to the seafood...

Apr 20, 2017 - Under the Sea

On Easter Monday we arrive at Aruba. Now you can look for it in your atlas or I could just tell you it is 17 miles off the Venezuelan coast and in the Caribbean Sea. It is the original desert island. It has the same rainfall as Arizona and so very similar vegetation, cacti, dusty scrub etc. It is weird to see somewhere that looks as if it came out of a western yet turn around and see the sea. Aruba might be in the Caribbean but it actually a part of Holland. The main town is neat and tidy and well maintained. However with the exception of...

Apr 23, 2016 - Saturday 23rd April

Aruba Apparently Aruba is “the ‘A’ in the ABC Islands”…so that helps ! It is about 15 miles north of Venezuela, so about as far down the Caribbean as it is possible to be and not be in South America, and is now Dutch, having been French, Spanish and English at different times in its history. You can forget all the ideas about it being a lush green Paradise Island….they have been having a serious drought. The wet season is October to February - but there was no rain at all during the “wet” season that has just finished – so they have had no...

Apr 19, 2015 - Caribbean Cruise! Day 3 Hello Aruba!

You always hear how gorgeous Aruba is and the friends, Keith and Patty Lindsey (Washington, D.C, we had met during our Cancun trip had traveled here 18 times and are on Aruba's tourism website! Aruba is nicknamed 'One Happy Island' because everyone is so friendly and carefree there. We had booked ourselves on a Jeep Safari with ABC Tours through Trip Advisor that included a visit to Aruba’s Natural Pool and Baby Beach on a unique off-road 4WD adventure to the island’s top natural attractions and traversing the rugged terrain of Arikok...

Mar 13, 2014 - The Caribbean

Saturday 8 March Day 65 - Bridgetown, Barbados It was a very early start for us because of an early tour to the Island. After docking we noticed a lot of boating traffic with both cruise liners as well as two beautiful tourist clippers. The cruise port was enormous and it had its own shopping centre as well as free Internet, so I was at last able to upload and download some stuff. It was slow but after the ship, it was a dream! I think everyone on the ship including crew was there! Barbados is a relatively small island, only 431 square km...