WEBVTT - Been There, Dean That: Sunken Treasure in Aruba 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:03.720 Hello everybody, and welcome to episode nine. I've been there 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:04.360 being that. 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:05.720 Hello. 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:11.800 So if you follow us on social media, I hope 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:13.520 you do. I hope you do as well. 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:15.080 I think that you would know that we just got 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.480 back from the beautiful country of. 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.200 Aruba, gorgeous, gorgeous beaches. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.960 We just landed yesterday in Denver and then we drove 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.920 straight to our home here in the Roaring Fork Valley 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.400 and the drive was a little longer than I would 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.000 have wanted, but the trip itself was nothing short of amazing. 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.080 It was so gorgeous. The beaches are just like what 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:40.440 you picture a very relaxing vacation with crystal clear blue waters. 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:41.560 It was great. 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:43.360 I gotta say it was maybe some of the coolest 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.000 blue water I've ever seen. Yeah, it kind of We 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:47.720 were driving around the island quite a bit, and we'll 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:49.760 get into this hall obviously in a little bit. But 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:51.560 it reminded me of a mixture of some of the 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.520 places that we've been. Reminded me a little bit of Greece, 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:55.959 it reminded me a little bit of like Baja Mexico. 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:58.360 It reminded me a little bit of Hawaii. 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.280 A little bit of Maldives, water. 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:02.400 Yeah, yep. 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:04.800 I didn't think Waldive's always there. I was just think 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:06.959 in Greece, Mexico and Hawaiian. I see, but if you 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:08.320 think wal theves, I'm not going to take that away 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.560 from you, just clear. But how did we stumble upon 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.440 Aruba as a destination for us? Oh? 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.559 How did we? I we follow a few other travel 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.160 influencers and I saw that they went there, and I 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:23.480 haven't traveled too much to the Caribbean, same with you. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.240 Saint Lucia's the only other place I've been Saint Lucia. 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.360 I've been to Cayman Islands, and that is it. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:30.960 I wonder for Roatan counts, but I don't think it does. 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.559 Where is that It's like a small island off Underish maybe. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.800 And so I was like, let's go back to the Caribbean. 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.399 And we worked with their toursm Board and it's just 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.400 the people who work for their toursm Board spoke so 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.520 highly of a Rubot, which makes sense. But they were like, 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.640 just wait, like we come here every single year. It's 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:53.720 such a special place. And I was like, well, you know, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:55.040 you work for the tours and Board, so of course 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.400 you're going to say that. But then we go, and 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.360 it really is such a special place, and they kept 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.960 raving about the locals and how they're so welcoming. They 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:05.520 call it one happy island, and the locals are just 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:07.800 so happy to greet you, like everyone who lives there 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.680 is so truly happy, Like I don't think I came 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:12.000 across one unhappy person. 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:13.160 Yeah, it was. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.320 That's kind of why I was thinking about Greece a 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.640 little bit, was because it just seemed like everyone was 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:21.560 like we were are. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:21.919 First. 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:23.880 For instance, our first trip that we did, we went 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:25.600 to the park in the northern part of the island, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:27.560 and we had this great guide who was like telling 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.120 us a lot about the island. He was he was 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.760 born and raised there and knows it in and out, 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.560 and he was saying, like the country's main export, for 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:40.000 lack of a better word, is tourism, and so everyone 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.200 that lives on the island kind of knows that, and 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:47.440 they are just there to help be informative if they 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.200 can be. Everyone's just everyone's just so kind show. 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:51.760 Off the island. And it was so cool because we 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.320 drove i don't know, like an hour to the National 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.240 Park and immediately like the second molieve of the hotel 0:02:58.280 --> 0:02:59.880 he's like honking at someone and he's like, it's such 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:02.880 a small island, we all know each other. And then 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.040 it was like every two minutes he's honking at someone 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.440 and saying, hey, how's it going, Like he I swear 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:08.560 he knew everyone on the island. 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:10.680 Yeah, it seems like it was kind of like our 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.960 small town, but in and out there. So yeah, So 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.320 our first trip, we took north. 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.160 To Aercock National Park. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.440 Aerkock National Park that's exactly right with Ila Aruba was 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:24.919 the name of the tour company that we went with. 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.040 He was wonderful private tour guide. 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.640 It was kind of tricky because it's a very hot 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.280 spot for cruise ships to send cruises to, and so 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.040 a lot of people would be getting off the cruise 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.120 ships and doing day trips and stuff up there. So 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.440 we had this private tour guide, which was amazing. I 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.440 always kind of reco and I think you even mentioned 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.160 this while we were on it, like private tours are 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.480 so much better than group tours in my opinion, and 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.000 not ten out of ten times, but majority of the 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:50.080 time I would say that they're better. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:51.960 You're on your own schedule, like you don't have to 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:53.960 wait for other people. It's like, Okay, we're in and 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:55.560 out of this cave. Let's move on to the next 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:57.000 thing and avoid these other crowds. 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.200 It's especially great for us because we love stopping to 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.800 take pictures and you know, if we're allowed to fly 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:03.880 our drone, will fly our drone. If we can in 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.280 a in a big group, you don't necessarily have that 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:08.840 freedom because you're kind of on the group's time versus 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.680 your own time. So iilo rubatours. They were great. They 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.320 took us up to Arakok National Park. Let us like 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.479 walk around, let us swim in some of the pools 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.960 up there. But there were a bit there was a 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.400 big group of cruise line guests, so we kind of 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.080 were like, can you just kind of keep us away 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:27.640 from this big group over here. We want to either 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:29.040 be ahead of them or behind them by a good 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:30.680 chunk so that we can kind of have these areas 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:32.920 more to ourselves. And he was super accommodating. Definitely helps 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:34.800 us out with that, filled us in on so much 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.200 information on the island of just like the growth. 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.360 He's seen a lot of the history. 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:42.160 Like the Frenchman past thing where you were saying like 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:43.760 there's a big war there at one point, you know. 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.000 And it's haunted, like he was talking about the Frenchman's past. 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.520 He said, there are a bunch of documentaries on it. 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.400 It was so interesting. He's like, I will not drive 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.880 this road at night. Any local will tell you the same, 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.400 because if you're here at night, you'll hear screaming and 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:58.760 you'll hear all these crazy noises. People will just be 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:00.919 driving down this road intead of only their car jerks 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.280 and they get into a crash for no reason. And 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.159 he said it's very haunted, which I found interesting. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:07.640 Yeah, when he first mentioned it, I was like, oh, 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:09.080 you don't come here at night because there's like a 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.320 lot of crime on this or something too, And I 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.120 didn't say it, but then he was like, yeah, there was, 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:15.080 you know, a lot of battles here fought back in 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:15.680 the day, and so. 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:16.400 The pirates came. 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.000 Pirates came. And then I asked him. 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:20.560 I think I was like, well, what is the crime 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:22.760 like on the islands, because you just had a curiosity. 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.120 He goes, Honestly, there's really not that much. And I'm 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.320 sure he might have been underplaying a little bit, but 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.440 I do believe him. He was saying that since it's 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.000 such a small community of people, Like if you are 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.960 caught being a criminal, your reputation gets tarnished immediately, and 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.480 like you get kind of outcasted by the society there. 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:40.560 Yeah, so it felt super safe. 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:42.840 I had so many people dms, They're like, is it safe? 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.440 Is it's safe? Do you feel safe? I'm like, is 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.640 there like information out there that makes you think it 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.160 wouldn't be safe or are people just hesitant in traveling 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.600 in general? But everywhere we went I felt. 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.200 Super safe, super super safe. So we did that. It 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:55.680 was amazing. 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.599 The caves, the pools, everything was. The beaches up on 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.720 the north side maybe aren't as like swim friendly just 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:03.400 because it's a little bit more windy. 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:04.200 Upiki and windy. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:04.440 Yeah. 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:06.239 Yeah, so you're not really going to be like swimming 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:07.680 out the like you're not gonna be spending time at 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:09.479 the beach up in Erkok National Park. 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.680 Except that one beach dose plias. Two beaches those plias 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.479 in Ericock National Park you can swim in. But we 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.919 went on an windy day, so he was like, you know, 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:20.920 normally you could cliff jump here and you could do whatever, 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:22.760 but the waves are pretty massive. 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:24.760 Yeah, we had wind kind of the whole time, and 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:26.640 I don't want to say it was a bad thing. 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.320 It was kind of nice because we came from twenty 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.680 degrees in Colorado to eighty five degrees there every single day, 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:33.920 and so it was nice to have the breeze kind 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:35.040 of like cooling you off occasionally. 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:36.880 Oh, it was great because I was laying out and 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.520 the wind was like heavy wind, but I was laying 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.320 out and I would get really hot and then a 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:44.120 gust of wind would come and cool me off, so 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:45.799 I could lay out for a little bit longer. 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.960 Yeah, and then later that night we went to dinner 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.120 at Kaya House. I do have to say because I've 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:52.600 had a couple of friends reach out asking me about 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.560 my time in Aruba, and obviously I say such incredible 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.400 things about it because we did like it a lot. 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.600 One of the things that I noted to each of them, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:02.680 which I don't normally ever talk about when I come 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.599 back from a trip, is the food there was amazing. 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:06.920 And Dean is not a foodie, so that's like I'm 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.240 the foodie. I'm the one who like plans meals and stuff, 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.080 and it's it's a big deal for that to come 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:12.720 from your mouth. 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:14.680 Yeah, Well, the food is so good. 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.480 The poke bowls every morning at the hotel Kaya House 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.280 was like it kind of felt like a mini elefante 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:22.840 in Aruba, which is like really cool. 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.800 I thought, yeah, if you've been to La and haven't 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:27.480 meant to Alfonte, you should go. But this was like 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:33.600 very La meets Toulom meets Aruba. It was such a cool, 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.240 trendy restaurant and the food was amazing. But my favorite restaurant, 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.360 which I almost canceled because I was like, I hate Mediterranean. 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.440 I don't I don't think I we should go to 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.040 this restaurant tonight. It says it's Mediterranean. I'm glad we went. 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.440 Dean was like, let's just go. We have reservations. It's 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.640 called Olivia in oranges stad oraistad. 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:53.480 I actually never heard anyone pronounce it, so I don't 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:54.840 know how I hear it. That is Ronidad. 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.400 Sounds like it would be more of like a South 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.160 Asian thing, but it could be like Aron Hasta or 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:00.680 something like that. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.679 Anyways, it's like the main town downtown, super super cute. 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:06.520 But we went to Olivia and that was my favorite 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.040 meal on the island. Every single thing we had there 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.840 was incredible. Also, make sure you go to downtown Ronjastad. 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.200 I didn't know this, but Aruba has a lot of 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.280 Netherlands influence and you can really see that in downtown. 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.000 Yep And I was actually really a surprise, so we 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.360 were into a car as well. I was surprised by 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.560 how easily drivable the island was, like most of the 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.040 touristy spots. I think what the guide was telling us 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.679 was there is like the high rise area, which is 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:34.520 kind of like the what would that be like the 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.880 northwest side of the island, and then the low rise area, 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.960 which is where we stayed at Manchibo Resort Bay Manchibo Bay, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.200 Manchebo Bay Resort, and from one to the next was 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:49.880 ten minutes, and so it's like just super easy to 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.160 drive a lot of roundabouts, but once you drive for 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:54.160 more than five minutes you kind of figure them out. 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.320 It was just easy to access everything from where we 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.719 were to Randjastad, from where we were to the high 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:00.120 rise which is like where a lot of the at 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:01.599 restaurants and stuff, where it was either ten minutes in 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:03.120 out of direction ten or fifteen minutes. So it was 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.240 like super easy to get around, which was really nice. 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.439 Also, they have a lot of healthy options, which I loved, 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.840 and the tourism board made sure to tell us They're like, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.000 don't get plastic water bottles because the top water is 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.360 drinkable here, which I feel like a lot of people 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.000 are cautious when traveling about drinking top water. But our 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.559 guide even told us that he showed us how what 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.920 is it desalinating? Desalinating the water? It's pretty cool. 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.559 Yeah, I want to ask the tour guide about how 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.959 the indigenous people lived on the island without desalination processes. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.439 Because there's no fresh water, there's no lakes, no rivers. 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:40.920 What did they drink? 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:42.520 It's a good question. 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.240 Yeah, I actually just recently learned this is kind off topic, 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:50.880 but sort of similar to this situation. When the Forefathers 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.920 left England to come to America to settle it, the 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.720 water in England was so bad that it was safer 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.480 for them to drink beer because of this fermentation like 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:02.880 kind of killed all the bacteria and stuff. So when 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.319 they got to the US, they eventually ran out of 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.480 their supply of beer, and they didn't realize how safe 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.120 the water in North America was to drink, and so 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.680 they just started fermenting beer right away and started drinking that. Again, 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:14.920 isn't that so interesting? I don't know how accurate that is, 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:17.640 but that's just a recent fun fact that I had heard. 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.040 Maybe that's how they survived in Aruba just drinking beer. 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.040 I was surprised by. You know, you go to these 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.560 Caribbean islands. Again, we haven't really been to many, but 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:28.319 a lot of these like tropical places that you go, 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.880 there's kind of like a big like drinking culture, like 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.000 in Saint Lucia for instance. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.880 The rum here. 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:37.680 It's what is. 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:40.319 But it didn't really seem like it was a big 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.640 part of their culture, which I really respect that, you know, 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.360 like they didn't make it out to be a big thing, 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.120 which I don't even know why I respect that, but 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:49.679 it was it didn't seem like it was such an 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:51.320 important part of their culture, whereas a lot of places 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:52.400 that you go to it is a big part of 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:52.840 their culture. 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.560 Yeah, like let's go to the rum tasting. Let's yeah. 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.880 I agree, And maybe I'm missing that. Maybe we just 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:00.160 didn't get to experience that part of it. But I'm 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.360 kind of referring to it as a complimentary thing. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.880 Yeah, you know, yeah, because we're not big drinkers, so 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:05.720 it was kind of nice. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:07.920 Yeah, we only really drank that one night. We went 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:08.920 to Olivia. 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.400 And you were still in bed by nine, which is great, 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:24.040 great for you. And then we woke up the next 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:25.760 morning and we went on a boat, which is amazing. 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:27.839 We went with Delfi water Sports up in the high 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.760 rise area, so again it was like a ten minute drive. 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.200 I stayed up earlier or later that night prior because 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.760 there's a casino near the hotel that I just just 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:37.160 wanted to hang out at for. 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.880 A little bit. Miss in Vegas, Yeah, just missing Vegas. 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.160 I'm just a sucker for a good blackjack table. And 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:43.680 I got to say it was a small casino, and 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.000 I'm sure that like no one's going to go to 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.120 a roub for the casinos, but it's a fun little 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:49.480 thing to do at night, like we're not going to 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.880 be going to the clubs or anything like that. We 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.920 went to see the movie Dune too, which I want 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:56.680 to talk about in a second, but I was it 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:58.000 was just nice to like, if I don't want to 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.120 go to the clubs and like just drink a beer 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:01.480 and like be around a bunch of people, I can 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.160 at least go to the casino and do something like 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:04.840 I need to fidget, and so if I have like 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:06.680 poker chips in front of me and I can play blackjack, 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:11.200 that I love that personally. And I was surprised by 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:12.920 how like a legitimate of a casino it was. You know, 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:14.880 you go to certain places and there's like these offshore 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.040 casinos that are maybe a little sketchy, but this was 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.600 like super legit. It felt like I was just like 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.319 literally inside of a tiny Las Vegas casino. I loved it. 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:24.720 I know you didn't go in, but it was a 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.800 great experience for me. Made some friends, you know, that 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.120 kind of thing. But we did see Dune too one 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:31.959 night because we don't have an Imax near us here, 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.319 and so we wanted to see that movie obviously in 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.040 Imax because we've heard such great things. 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.040 Unfortunately for us, the non. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.480 English parts of the movie were translated to Spanish, and 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:43.880 so we didn't really get to pick up on a 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.000 lot of like the Iraqian stuff. 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.520 My brain was working over time trying to figure out 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:49.040 what they were saying. 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.040 Yeah, there would be like subtitles, and you know, I 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.760 speak very little Spanish, Kalin speaks even less, and so 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.720 anytime I would catch a word that I understood, I'd 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.800 be like, oh, they're talking about water. I'd like, Okay, 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.240 make so much sense. But I wonder what else they're saying. 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:03.800 So we are going to see it again. But it 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.760 was cool, Like you know, it's it's kind of developed 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.080 to the sense where you're you know, you're away from home, 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:10.720 and it feels like you're away from home, especially if 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.480 you're from the US, but you're you still have a 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.560 lot of like the comforts and luxuries that you're you're 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:15.600 afforded here. 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.280 I don't know if it was because we didn't drink 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.199 or what, but I feel like when we come back 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.200 from vacation, I'm usually so exhausted and drained, but I 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.080 feel pretty refreshed after this one. 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:25.720 Yeah. 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.800 I think it was just like it was very relaxing, 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.319 And I think part of what you're saying, like having 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.520 the comforts that you went at home, made it not 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:35.320 feel as draining. 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:37.000 Yeah, no, I agree with you. 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.840 I normally get stir crazy when I sit on the beach, 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.440 even like Saint Lucia and Maldives, these beautiful places that 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.439 we've been to a couple of days, until I'm like 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:46.800 all right, I'm kind of ready to go home now. 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:48.440 But with a Ruba when we were leaving, I was like, oh, 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.040 I could probably stay here for at least another half 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.640 a week week, Yeah. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:53.000 However long. 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.120 And you see a lot of people come from the US, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.680 specifically from like Florida and like that kind of whole 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.600 Eastern seaboard there because it's so easy to get to, 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.920 like so many direct flights from Florida and Charlotte and 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.880 New York and Boston and all these places. So there's 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.960 a lot of like a lot of people from that area. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.280 Maybe excuse a little bit older, but I do kind 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.280 of think that it's kind of starting to catch on 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:15.440 with the younger generation. 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.559 Yeah, starting to like I think years prior in our 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:20.440 tour guide even said this, it was an older crowd, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:21.640 and it's becoming a bit younger. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:22.440 Yeah. 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:28.080 Also, one thing that I highly highly suggest is there's 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.800 an option when you book your flight to have like 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:35.320 a private security escort you when you're when you're leaving Aruba. 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.720 I would one hundred percent recommend doing that. I don't 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:40.520 know how much it is. We didn't do it, and 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.960 we are notorious for getting to the airport like thirty 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:45.680 minutes before our flight. We got there an hour and 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:47.240 a half before our flight this time, which was good 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.520 for us. But sometimes like I feel like in Mexico 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:52.520 they have pre check. In my mind, I was like, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.320 they'll have pre check, and they don't have pre check, 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.800 and it's all one lines and there's like three different 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.440 security checkpoints you have to go through they also and 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.160 the lines are super long, So get to the airport 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:06.840 plenty of time, or get the private security that will 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.360 just escort you and bypass all of the lines. But 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.200 something that's really nice about Aruba the airport there is 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:16.200 that you get to do global entry and what is 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.240 it customs in Aruba, so then you land We landed 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:20.520 in Charlotte and we didn't have to do it when 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:20.960 we landed. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:21.480 That's true. 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:23.440 Yeah, it was nice for you because you hat global 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:25.640 untry so you could just bypass everyone. And then she 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.160 was waiting at the gate, like banking the gate officers 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.040 to keep it open for just a couple extra seconds 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:31.920 so I could get through it. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.160 It's like two minutes, where is he? Two minutes do 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.560 you know where your husband is? One minute? Where's your husband? 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.280 And I'm like I don't know. I don't know, and 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.160 then Dean comes running barefoot's. 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:41.960 Yeah I was, but I didn't have time have put 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:42.480 my shoes on. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.360 That's the only non positively glowing thing I have to 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.600 say about Aruba was the airport security just took a 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:49.280 little bit longer than I. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.040 Would have liked, way longer, but they do, you know, 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:53.640 give you an option to bypass it. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.320 Yeah, but yeah, there were so many checkpoints and I 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.640 got so lucky, like you were like, Okay, I'm at 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:00.360 the gate, they're about to close it, and I was. 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.040 There was still probably good eight hundred people in front 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:04.840