Day Five - Aruba

Day Five - Aruba

Today we arrived in Oranjestad, Aruba, the capital of Aruba. Aruba is somewhat barren. It appears that it is difficult to grow much of anything except cactus. We made arrangements to go horse back riding along the shore. This was not a cruise line sponsored event and Ron and I were the only two people along with our guide. The owner of the stable, Jeff, picked us up. Along the way to the stable he gave us the history of Aruba and it's people. Our horse back ride was two hours long. The part of the island that we visited was very rocky along the shoreline. In fact there were giant black boulders indicative of volcanic activity. I didn't think that I would be able to sit in a saddle for two hours, but it went fairly quick. Our guide spoke Spanish and knew about as much English as I know Spanish, but somehow we communicated okay. The horses seemed to know exactly where to go. The owner of the stable had arranged for a photographer to take our picture along the way. There were nice pictures awaiting us on our return. Of course, they were not free. But we happily paid the small price as a souvenir of our travels. Before we left Jeff's son, Jay, arrived. he was the person with whom Ron had communicated about the horseback riding. He just graduated from college and was helping his dad with the business.

Upon returning to the boat, we quickly freshened up and changed into some nice casual clothing. The boat's travel guide had suggested a very nice restaurant called Madame Janette. The food was excellent. It was an outdoor restaurant, but hardly a bug in site.

Upon returning to our room, we discovered that we were once again exhausted. It was only about 7:30 pm, but we both needed to take a nap. That was all she wrote for today. It is off to dreamland .