Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to episode nine. I've been there
Speaker 1: being that.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: So if you follow us on social media, I hope
Speaker 1: you do. I hope you do as well.
Speaker 3: I think that you would know that we just got
Speaker 3: back from the beautiful country of.
Speaker 2: Aruba, gorgeous, gorgeous beaches.
Speaker 3: We just landed yesterday in Denver and then we drove
Speaker 3: straight to our home here in the Roaring Fork Valley
Speaker 3: and the drive was a little longer than I would
Speaker 3: have wanted, but the trip itself was nothing short of amazing.
Speaker 2: It was so gorgeous. The beaches are just like what
Speaker 2: you picture a very relaxing vacation with crystal clear blue waters.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 3: I gotta say it was maybe some of the coolest
Speaker 3: blue water I've ever seen. Yeah, it kind of We
Speaker 3: were driving around the island quite a bit, and we'll
Speaker 3: get into this hall obviously in a little bit. But
Speaker 3: it reminded me of a mixture of some of the
Speaker 3: places that we've been. Reminded me a little bit of Greece,
Speaker 3: it reminded me a little bit of like Baja Mexico.
Speaker 3: It reminded me a little bit of Hawaii.
Speaker 2: A little bit of Maldives, water.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3: I didn't think Waldive's always there. I was just think
Speaker 3: in Greece, Mexico and Hawaiian. I see, but if you
Speaker 3: think wal theves, I'm not going to take that away
Speaker 3: from you, just clear. But how did we stumble upon
Speaker 3: Aruba as a destination for us? Oh?
Speaker 2: How did we? I we follow a few other travel
Speaker 2: influencers and I saw that they went there, and I
Speaker 2: haven't traveled too much to the Caribbean, same with you.
Speaker 1: Saint Lucia's the only other place I've been Saint Lucia.
Speaker 2: I've been to Cayman Islands, and that is it.
Speaker 3: I wonder for Roatan counts, but I don't think it does.
Speaker 3: Where is that It's like a small island off Underish maybe.
Speaker 2: And so I was like, let's go back to the Caribbean.
Speaker 2: And we worked with their toursm Board and it's just
Speaker 2: the people who work for their toursm Board spoke so
Speaker 2: highly of a Rubot, which makes sense. But they were like,
Speaker 2: just wait, like we come here every single year. It's
Speaker 2: such a special place. And I was like, well, you know,
Speaker 2: you work for the tours and Board, so of course
Speaker 2: you're going to say that. But then we go, and
Speaker 2: it really is such a special place, and they kept
Speaker 2: raving about the locals and how they're so welcoming. They
Speaker 2: call it one happy island, and the locals are just
Speaker 2: so happy to greet you, like everyone who lives there
Speaker 2: is so truly happy, Like I don't think I came
Speaker 2: across one unhappy person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: That's kind of why I was thinking about Greece a
Speaker 3: little bit, was because it just seemed like everyone was
Speaker 3: like we were are.
Speaker 1: First.
Speaker 3: For instance, our first trip that we did, we went
Speaker 3: to the park in the northern part of the island,
Speaker 3: and we had this great guide who was like telling
Speaker 3: us a lot about the island. He was he was
Speaker 3: born and raised there and knows it in and out,
Speaker 3: and he was saying, like the country's main export, for
Speaker 3: lack of a better word, is tourism, and so everyone
Speaker 3: that lives on the island kind of knows that, and
Speaker 3: they are just there to help be informative if they
Speaker 3: can be. Everyone's just everyone's just so kind show.
Speaker 2: Off the island. And it was so cool because we
Speaker 2: drove i don't know, like an hour to the National
Speaker 2: Park and immediately like the second molieve of the hotel
Speaker 2: he's like honking at someone and he's like, it's such
Speaker 2: a small island, we all know each other. And then
Speaker 2: it was like every two minutes he's honking at someone
Speaker 2: and saying, hey, how's it going, Like he I swear
Speaker 2: he knew everyone on the island.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like it was kind of like our
Speaker 3: small town, but in and out there. So yeah, So
Speaker 3: our first trip, we took north.
Speaker 2: To Aercock National Park.
Speaker 3: Aerkock National Park that's exactly right with Ila Aruba was
Speaker 3: the name of the tour company that we went with.
Speaker 1: He was wonderful private tour guide.
Speaker 3: It was kind of tricky because it's a very hot
Speaker 3: spot for cruise ships to send cruises to, and so
Speaker 3: a lot of people would be getting off the cruise
Speaker 3: ships and doing day trips and stuff up there. So
Speaker 3: we had this private tour guide, which was amazing. I
Speaker 3: always kind of reco and I think you even mentioned
Speaker 3: this while we were on it, like private tours are
Speaker 3: so much better than group tours in my opinion, and
Speaker 3: not ten out of ten times, but majority of the
Speaker 3: time I would say that they're better.
Speaker 2: You're on your own schedule, like you don't have to
Speaker 2: wait for other people. It's like, Okay, we're in and
Speaker 2: out of this cave. Let's move on to the next
Speaker 2: thing and avoid these other crowds.
Speaker 3: It's especially great for us because we love stopping to
Speaker 3: take pictures and you know, if we're allowed to fly
Speaker 3: our drone, will fly our drone. If we can in
Speaker 3: a in a big group, you don't necessarily have that
Speaker 3: freedom because you're kind of on the group's time versus
Speaker 3: your own time. So iilo rubatours. They were great. They
Speaker 3: took us up to Arakok National Park. Let us like
Speaker 3: walk around, let us swim in some of the pools
Speaker 3: up there. But there were a bit there was a
Speaker 3: big group of cruise line guests, so we kind of
Speaker 3: were like, can you just kind of keep us away
Speaker 3: from this big group over here. We want to either
Speaker 3: be ahead of them or behind them by a good
Speaker 3: chunk so that we can kind of have these areas
Speaker 3: more to ourselves. And he was super accommodating. Definitely helps
Speaker 3: us out with that, filled us in on so much
Speaker 3: information on the island of just like the growth.
Speaker 1: He's seen a lot of the history.
Speaker 3: Like the Frenchman past thing where you were saying like
Speaker 3: there's a big war there at one point, you know.
Speaker 2: And it's haunted, like he was talking about the Frenchman's past.
Speaker 2: He said, there are a bunch of documentaries on it.
Speaker 2: It was so interesting. He's like, I will not drive
Speaker 2: this road at night. Any local will tell you the same,
Speaker 2: because if you're here at night, you'll hear screaming and
Speaker 2: you'll hear all these crazy noises. People will just be
Speaker 2: driving down this road intead of only their car jerks
Speaker 2: and they get into a crash for no reason. And
Speaker 2: he said it's very haunted, which I found interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when he first mentioned it, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: you don't come here at night because there's like a
Speaker 3: lot of crime on this or something too, And I
Speaker 3: didn't say it, but then he was like, yeah, there was,
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of battles here fought back in
Speaker 3: the day, and so.
Speaker 2: The pirates came.
Speaker 1: Pirates came. And then I asked him.
Speaker 3: I think I was like, well, what is the crime
Speaker 3: like on the islands, because you just had a curiosity.
Speaker 3: He goes, Honestly, there's really not that much. And I'm
Speaker 3: sure he might have been underplaying a little bit, but
Speaker 3: I do believe him. He was saying that since it's
Speaker 3: such a small community of people, Like if you are
Speaker 3: caught being a criminal, your reputation gets tarnished immediately, and
Speaker 3: like you get kind of outcasted by the society there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it felt super safe.
Speaker 2: I had so many people dms, They're like, is it safe?
Speaker 2: Is it's safe? Do you feel safe? I'm like, is
Speaker 2: there like information out there that makes you think it
Speaker 2: wouldn't be safe or are people just hesitant in traveling
Speaker 2: in general? But everywhere we went I felt.
Speaker 1: Super safe, super super safe. So we did that. It
Speaker 1: was amazing.
Speaker 3: The caves, the pools, everything was. The beaches up on
Speaker 3: the north side maybe aren't as like swim friendly just
Speaker 3: because it's a little bit more windy.
Speaker 2: Upiki and windy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you're not really going to be like swimming
Speaker 3: out the like you're not gonna be spending time at
Speaker 3: the beach up in Erkok National Park.
Speaker 2: Except that one beach dose plias. Two beaches those plias
Speaker 2: in Ericock National Park you can swim in. But we
Speaker 2: went on an windy day, so he was like, you know,
Speaker 2: normally you could cliff jump here and you could do whatever,
Speaker 2: but the waves are pretty massive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had wind kind of the whole time, and
Speaker 3: I don't want to say it was a bad thing.
Speaker 3: It was kind of nice because we came from twenty
Speaker 3: degrees in Colorado to eighty five degrees there every single day,
Speaker 3: and so it was nice to have the breeze kind
Speaker 3: of like cooling you off occasionally.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was great because I was laying out and
Speaker 2: the wind was like heavy wind, but I was laying
Speaker 2: out and I would get really hot and then a
Speaker 2: gust of wind would come and cool me off, so
Speaker 2: I could lay out for a little bit longer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then later that night we went to dinner
Speaker 3: at Kaya House. I do have to say because I've
Speaker 3: had a couple of friends reach out asking me about
Speaker 3: my time in Aruba, and obviously I say such incredible
Speaker 3: things about it because we did like it a lot.
Speaker 3: One of the things that I noted to each of them,
Speaker 3: which I don't normally ever talk about when I come
Speaker 3: back from a trip, is the food there was amazing.
Speaker 2: And Dean is not a foodie, so that's like I'm
Speaker 2: the foodie. I'm the one who like plans meals and stuff,
Speaker 2: and it's it's a big deal for that to come
Speaker 2: from your mouth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, the food is so good.
Speaker 3: The poke bowls every morning at the hotel Kaya House
Speaker 3: was like it kind of felt like a mini elefante
Speaker 3: in Aruba, which is like really cool.
Speaker 2: I thought, yeah, if you've been to La and haven't
Speaker 2: meant to Alfonte, you should go. But this was like
Speaker 2: very La meets Toulom meets Aruba. It was such a cool,
Speaker 2: trendy restaurant and the food was amazing. But my favorite restaurant,
Speaker 2: which I almost canceled because I was like, I hate Mediterranean.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think I we should go to
Speaker 2: this restaurant tonight. It says it's Mediterranean. I'm glad we went.
Speaker 2: Dean was like, let's just go. We have reservations. It's
Speaker 2: called Olivia in oranges stad oraistad.
Speaker 1: I actually never heard anyone pronounce it, so I don't
Speaker 1: know how I hear it. That is Ronidad.
Speaker 3: Sounds like it would be more of like a South
Speaker 3: Asian thing, but it could be like Aron Hasta or
Speaker 3: something like that.
Speaker 2: Anyways, it's like the main town downtown, super super cute.
Speaker 2: But we went to Olivia and that was my favorite
Speaker 2: meal on the island. Every single thing we had there
Speaker 2: was incredible. Also, make sure you go to downtown Ronjastad.
Speaker 2: I didn't know this, but Aruba has a lot of
Speaker 2: Netherlands influence and you can really see that in downtown.
Speaker 3: Yep And I was actually really a surprise, so we
Speaker 3: were into a car as well. I was surprised by
Speaker 3: how easily drivable the island was, like most of the
Speaker 3: touristy spots. I think what the guide was telling us
Speaker 3: was there is like the high rise area, which is
Speaker 3: kind of like the what would that be like the
Speaker 3: northwest side of the island, and then the low rise area,
Speaker 3: which is where we stayed at Manchibo Resort Bay Manchibo Bay,
Speaker 3: Manchebo Bay Resort, and from one to the next was
Speaker 3: ten minutes, and so it's like just super easy to
Speaker 3: drive a lot of roundabouts, but once you drive for
Speaker 3: more than five minutes you kind of figure them out.
Speaker 3: It was just easy to access everything from where we
Speaker 3: were to Randjastad, from where we were to the high
Speaker 3: rise which is like where a lot of the at
Speaker 3: restaurants and stuff, where it was either ten minutes in
Speaker 3: out of direction ten or fifteen minutes. So it was
Speaker 3: like super easy to get around, which was really nice.
Speaker 2: Also, they have a lot of healthy options, which I loved,
Speaker 2: and the tourism board made sure to tell us They're like,
Speaker 2: don't get plastic water bottles because the top water is
Speaker 2: drinkable here, which I feel like a lot of people
Speaker 2: are cautious when traveling about drinking top water. But our
Speaker 2: guide even told us that he showed us how what
Speaker 2: is it desalinating? Desalinating the water? It's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to ask the tour guide about how
Speaker 3: the indigenous people lived on the island without desalination processes.
Speaker 3: Because there's no fresh water, there's no lakes, no rivers.
Speaker 1: What did they drink?
Speaker 2: It's a good question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I actually just recently learned this is kind off topic,
Speaker 3: but sort of similar to this situation. When the Forefathers
Speaker 3: left England to come to America to settle it, the
Speaker 3: water in England was so bad that it was safer
Speaker 3: for them to drink beer because of this fermentation like
Speaker 3: kind of killed all the bacteria and stuff. So when
Speaker 3: they got to the US, they eventually ran out of
Speaker 3: their supply of beer, and they didn't realize how safe
Speaker 3: the water in North America was to drink, and so
Speaker 3: they just started fermenting beer right away and started drinking that. Again,
Speaker 3: isn't that so interesting? I don't know how accurate that is,
Speaker 3: but that's just a recent fun fact that I had heard.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's how they survived in Aruba just drinking beer.
Speaker 3: I was surprised by. You know, you go to these
Speaker 3: Caribbean islands. Again, we haven't really been to many, but
Speaker 3: a lot of these like tropical places that you go,
Speaker 3: there's kind of like a big like drinking culture, like
Speaker 3: in Saint Lucia for instance.
Speaker 1: The rum here.
Speaker 2: It's what is.
Speaker 3: But it didn't really seem like it was a big
Speaker 3: part of their culture, which I really respect that, you know,
Speaker 3: like they didn't make it out to be a big thing,
Speaker 3: which I don't even know why I respect that, but
Speaker 3: it was it didn't seem like it was such an
Speaker 3: important part of their culture, whereas a lot of places
Speaker 3: that you go to it is a big part of
Speaker 3: their culture.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like let's go to the rum tasting. Let's yeah.
Speaker 3: I agree, And maybe I'm missing that. Maybe we just
Speaker 3: didn't get to experience that part of it. But I'm
Speaker 3: kind of referring to it as a complimentary thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, yeah, because we're not big drinkers, so
Speaker 2: it was kind of nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we only really drank that one night. We went
Speaker 1: to Olivia.
Speaker 3: And you were still in bed by nine, which is great,
Speaker 3: great for you. And then we woke up the next
Speaker 3: morning and we went on a boat, which is amazing.
Speaker 3: We went with Delfi water Sports up in the high
Speaker 3: rise area, so again it was like a ten minute drive.
Speaker 3: I stayed up earlier or later that night prior because
Speaker 3: there's a casino near the hotel that I just just
Speaker 3: wanted to hang out at for.
Speaker 1: A little bit. Miss in Vegas, Yeah, just missing Vegas.
Speaker 3: I'm just a sucker for a good blackjack table. And
Speaker 3: I got to say it was a small casino, and
Speaker 3: I'm sure that like no one's going to go to
Speaker 3: a roub for the casinos, but it's a fun little
Speaker 3: thing to do at night, like we're not going to
Speaker 3: be going to the clubs or anything like that. We
Speaker 3: went to see the movie Dune too, which I want
Speaker 3: to talk about in a second, but I was it
Speaker 3: was just nice to like, if I don't want to
Speaker 3: go to the clubs and like just drink a beer
Speaker 3: and like be around a bunch of people, I can
Speaker 3: at least go to the casino and do something like
Speaker 3: I need to fidget, and so if I have like
Speaker 3: poker chips in front of me and I can play blackjack,
Speaker 3: that I love that personally. And I was surprised by
Speaker 3: how like a legitimate of a casino it was. You know,
Speaker 3: you go to certain places and there's like these offshore
Speaker 3: casinos that are maybe a little sketchy, but this was
Speaker 3: like super legit. It felt like I was just like
Speaker 3: literally inside of a tiny Las Vegas casino. I loved it.
Speaker 3: I know you didn't go in, but it was a
Speaker 3: great experience for me. Made some friends, you know, that
Speaker 3: kind of thing. But we did see Dune too one
Speaker 3: night because we don't have an Imax near us here,
Speaker 3: and so we wanted to see that movie obviously in
Speaker 3: Imax because we've heard such great things.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for us, the non.
Speaker 3: English parts of the movie were translated to Spanish, and
Speaker 3: so we didn't really get to pick up on a
Speaker 3: lot of like the Iraqian stuff.
Speaker 2: My brain was working over time trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what they were saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there would be like subtitles, and you know, I
Speaker 3: speak very little Spanish, Kalin speaks even less, and so
Speaker 3: anytime I would catch a word that I understood, I'd
Speaker 3: be like, oh, they're talking about water. I'd like, Okay,
Speaker 3: make so much sense. But I wonder what else they're saying.
Speaker 3: So we are going to see it again. But it
Speaker 3: was cool, Like you know, it's it's kind of developed
Speaker 3: to the sense where you're you know, you're away from home,
Speaker 3: and it feels like you're away from home, especially if
Speaker 3: you're from the US, but you're you still have a
Speaker 3: lot of like the comforts and luxuries that you're you're
Speaker 3: afforded here.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was because we didn't drink
Speaker 2: or what, but I feel like when we come back
Speaker 2: from vacation, I'm usually so exhausted and drained, but I
Speaker 2: feel pretty refreshed after this one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it was just like it was very relaxing,
Speaker 2: And I think part of what you're saying, like having
Speaker 2: the comforts that you went at home, made it not
Speaker 2: feel as draining.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree with you.
Speaker 3: I normally get stir crazy when I sit on the beach,
Speaker 3: even like Saint Lucia and Maldives, these beautiful places that
Speaker 3: we've been to a couple of days, until I'm like
Speaker 3: all right, I'm kind of ready to go home now.
Speaker 3: But with a Ruba when we were leaving, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I could probably stay here for at least another half
Speaker 3: a week week, Yeah.
Speaker 1: However long.
Speaker 3: And you see a lot of people come from the US,
Speaker 3: specifically from like Florida and like that kind of whole
Speaker 3: Eastern seaboard there because it's so easy to get to,
Speaker 3: like so many direct flights from Florida and Charlotte and
Speaker 3: New York and Boston and all these places. So there's
Speaker 3: a lot of like a lot of people from that area.
Speaker 3: Maybe excuse a little bit older, but I do kind
Speaker 3: of think that it's kind of starting to catch on
Speaker 3: with the younger generation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, starting to like I think years prior in our
Speaker 2: tour guide even said this, it was an older crowd,
Speaker 2: and it's becoming a bit younger.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, one thing that I highly highly suggest is there's
Speaker 2: an option when you book your flight to have like
Speaker 2: a private security escort you when you're when you're leaving Aruba.
Speaker 2: I would one hundred percent recommend doing that. I don't
Speaker 2: know how much it is. We didn't do it, and
Speaker 2: we are notorious for getting to the airport like thirty
Speaker 2: minutes before our flight. We got there an hour and
Speaker 2: a half before our flight this time, which was good
Speaker 2: for us. But sometimes like I feel like in Mexico
Speaker 2: they have pre check. In my mind, I was like,
Speaker 2: they'll have pre check, and they don't have pre check,
Speaker 2: and it's all one lines and there's like three different
Speaker 2: security checkpoints you have to go through they also and
Speaker 2: the lines are super long, So get to the airport
Speaker 2: plenty of time, or get the private security that will
Speaker 2: just escort you and bypass all of the lines. But
Speaker 2: something that's really nice about Aruba the airport there is
Speaker 2: that you get to do global entry and what is
Speaker 2: it customs in Aruba, so then you land We landed
Speaker 2: in Charlotte and we didn't have to do it when
Speaker 2: we landed.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was nice for you because you hat global
Speaker 3: untry so you could just bypass everyone. And then she
Speaker 3: was waiting at the gate, like banking the gate officers
Speaker 3: to keep it open for just a couple extra seconds
Speaker 3: so I could get through it.
Speaker 2: It's like two minutes, where is he? Two minutes do
Speaker 2: you know where your husband is? One minute? Where's your husband?
Speaker 2: And I'm like I don't know. I don't know, and
Speaker 2: then Dean comes running barefoot's.
Speaker 1: Yeah I was, but I didn't have time have put
Speaker 1: my shoes on.
Speaker 3: That's the only non positively glowing thing I have to
Speaker 3: say about Aruba was the airport security just took a
Speaker 3: little bit longer than I.
Speaker 2: Would have liked, way longer, but they do, you know,
Speaker 2: give you an option to bypass it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, there were so many checkpoints and I
Speaker 3: got so lucky, like you were like, Okay, I'm at
Speaker 3: the gate, they're about to close it, and I was.
Speaker 3: There was still probably good eight hundred people in front
Speaker 3: of me to go through that last security where you
Speaker 3: have to like take your backpack off and everything. And
Speaker 3: I went up to someone and I was like, hey
Speaker 3: can I'm like, my flight is literally on the last
Speaker 3: call right now.
Speaker 1: I need to go.
Speaker 3: And the guy was like no, sorry, like you just
Speaker 3: can't do that. And I kind of walked back to
Speaker 3: the line with my tail between my legs and a
Speaker 3: girl that was working who like does the like the
Speaker 3: wheelchair and like you know, the wheelchair bypass and stuff,
Speaker 3: she was like, hey, just come with me real quick,
Speaker 3: and she like lift it up the gate.
Speaker 1: She goes get to the front of line now.
Speaker 3: And so I go to the front of the line
Speaker 3: and I'm insecurity, like in the line to put your
Speaker 3: stuff on the turnstile whatever it is. And there was
Speaker 3: like still ten people in front of me there, and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, I'm close, closer, but
Speaker 3: I'm still pretty far away. And she goes, just take
Speaker 3: all your stuff off and put it in front of
Speaker 3: everyone now, And I could tell everyone was kind of
Speaker 3: like mad at me for doing it, but I literally
Speaker 3: take it off, put it through, grab everything, don't put
Speaker 3: anything back in my backpack, don't even put my shoes on,
Speaker 3: and just start sprinting to the gate.
Speaker 1: And that's why my shoes.
Speaker 3: Were off, because I was like, like, this angel, this
Speaker 3: heaven sent woman was like, just trust me, just do this.
Speaker 3: I know you're in a USh, you need to do
Speaker 3: it now. And much of the credit of the other travelers,
Speaker 3: they were all there like three hours early before the.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we had There were two separate couples.
Speaker 2: They're like, did you say you have forty minutes till
Speaker 2: your flight takes off? And we're like, yeah, but I
Speaker 2: think we'll be fine. We didn't realize there were three
Speaker 2: security checkpoints and they're like, no, no, we're here three
Speaker 2: hours early, please take our spot. And then it happened twice,
Speaker 2: so they were very kind. But yeah, everyone got there
Speaker 2: early and knew better than we did. But I feel
Speaker 2: like these people too. They even said they're like, we've
Speaker 2: been here like dozens of times.
Speaker 3: That does feel like something that you learn the first
Speaker 3: time and then you'll never make the same mistake again,
Speaker 3: specifically at Aruba, like you other once and then you'll
Speaker 3: know next time you come back that you kind of
Speaker 3: have to get there a certain amount early to feel
Speaker 3: comfortable getting to your gate on time. So that was
Speaker 3: the only like messy situation for us. But the second
Speaker 3: last day we did do that. I want to talk
Speaker 3: about Delpy water sports for a second. So we went
Speaker 3: out on the boat, and again it was a private
Speaker 3: boat for us, which is it's just great to be
Speaker 3: on our private but we've done a couple group tours on.
Speaker 2: Boats before and we were miserable.
Speaker 3: We just don't like the group stuff, especially on a
Speaker 3: boat like it's tight quarters.
Speaker 2: We were in Hawaii once on a group boat tour
Speaker 2: and the people on that boat were so incredibly rude.
Speaker 2: It was like, we are going to take the best spot.
Speaker 2: This is all about us, it's our time. It's like
Speaker 2: we are the most important people here. And just like
Speaker 2: didn't care that this is a group tour and I
Speaker 2: don't just being so rude and disrespecting everyone. And they
Speaker 2: made it clear like you can't touch the turtles. They
Speaker 2: were touching turtles. It was just not great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they treated a group tour like a private tour, ye,
Speaker 3: And if you're going to do that, just get the
Speaker 3: private tour.
Speaker 1: And we don't.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't like to think that we would
Speaker 3: ever do that, but we were just lucky enough, I guess,
Speaker 3: to get the private tour.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 3: We went to a little beach spot or like a
Speaker 3: lagoon area and just kind of did they have like
Speaker 3: a rope swing off the side of the boat, which
Speaker 3: is really fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 2: In my head, okay, I've seen these swings that like
Speaker 2: extend really far.
Speaker 3: I know what you're talking about, where you can like
Speaker 3: swing from the back all the way to the front
Speaker 3: like around a little bit.
Speaker 2: And in my head, I saw you do it. But
Speaker 2: I'm like I can swing back and forth figure out
Speaker 2: when I want to go, but no, you swing out
Speaker 2: once and if you don't let go, then you smack
Speaker 2: into the side of the boat and I got a
Speaker 2: big bruise to show off from it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that if you maybe spend a little
Speaker 3: bit of extra time looking around and seeing like where
Speaker 3: the anchor, where the rope was.
Speaker 2: I am so aware, but in my brain I couldn't
Speaker 2: comprehend that. And I think it was pretty amazing of
Speaker 2: me to be able to swing through the window so talented.
Speaker 3: I was truly so talented. I was even surprised you
Speaker 3: did it, So props to you for doing that. We
Speaker 3: just kind of swim around that little.
Speaker 1: Area for a little bit and kicked an ancient boat well.
Speaker 3: And then I was gonna say, and then we went
Speaker 3: to this next spot. There's a sunken battleship from World
Speaker 3: War Two. The Germans had a boat there in Aruba,
Speaker 3: and once the Dutch I think realized because the Dutch
Speaker 3: had to occupied the island at the time, once they
Speaker 3: realized it was a German warship, they said, give us
Speaker 3: the boat or we're going to open fire on you.
Speaker 3: And so they the boat like surrendered all of their
Speaker 3: personnel over to the island. But the captain of the
Speaker 3: boat being a boat captain, as you know, the legacy
Speaker 3: goes with those boat captains. He's like, I'm going down
Speaker 3: with the ship. And so I think he like opened
Speaker 3: up the flood chambers and sunk the ship. And it's
Speaker 3: like right, it's like, you know, a couple hundred yards
Speaker 3: off the coast, so it's sunk in pretty shallow water.
Speaker 3: And so there's just like this, the boat sunk in
Speaker 3: nineteen forty, so it would that be eighty four years
Speaker 3: ago this boat sunk. And so it's just been sitting
Speaker 3: there and you can you can snorkel right above it.
Speaker 3: Not ancient, it's pretty ancient in it's more old than
Speaker 3: we are, yeah, and so you can like snorkel and
Speaker 3: scuba around it. And so I was like new snoop
Speaker 3: snorkeling down, and I like, you know, I want to
Speaker 3: like go down, Like it's so cool to see it
Speaker 3: from above, but I want to like get down at
Speaker 3: eye level with it.
Speaker 1: So I'm swimming around.
Speaker 3: I'm deep, and I'm diving deep and trying to get
Speaker 3: as deep as I can, and I don't really have
Speaker 3: that much lung capacity. Just for whatever reason, I was
Speaker 3: never granted that ability in life and so I like
Speaker 3: go down and I like the second I get to
Speaker 3: the bottom, I kind of had to come back up
Speaker 3: for air. But I at this time I wanted to
Speaker 3: like to really push it and see how far I
Speaker 3: could get. So I started swimming down below these these
Speaker 3: handrails that are you know, basically horizontal, Like this ship
Speaker 3: kind of sunk on its side, so these handrails are
Speaker 3: are kind of like a floor in a sense. So
Speaker 3: I go under these handrails, not realizing how close I
Speaker 3: am to them, and I kick one of them with
Speaker 3: the back of my leg and it just, I think,
Speaker 3: like the coral had overgrown it so much that it
Speaker 3: was like kind of sharp and rigid, and it just
Speaker 3: opened up this humongous cut on my leg.
Speaker 2: Wait, did you get coral or the ship?
Speaker 3: Well, it was like the coral had overrun the steel
Speaker 3: on the ship, and so it was like, you know,
Speaker 3: like like the water, you know, how like rocks getting water. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was like that, and it was like all corroda
Speaker 3: and stuff. And so I don't know if I'll be what.
Speaker 3: I texted my friend that I did that, and he goes,
Speaker 3: you know, you're going to turn into a zombie now,
Speaker 3: per Pirates of the Caribbean. True, And I was like, well,
Speaker 3: I hope not because those are Nazi zombies.
Speaker 1: Oh no, because it's.
Speaker 3: The Germans from nineteen four. Oh so it's kind of
Speaker 3: like the worst zombie to be. But all that to
Speaker 3: be said, it's totally fine. It's not in fact or
Speaker 3: anything like that. It was just a kind of a
Speaker 3: silly mistake on my part. But it was just so
Speaker 3: cool to see a sunken ship there. I don't think
Speaker 3: I've ever I've seen a couple sunken boats, but this
Speaker 3: one is like massive, and it's just so cool to
Speaker 3: be able to swim around it.
Speaker 2: I'm personally not a snorkeler. I am just not a
Speaker 2: strong swimmer, and I get embarrassed having to have a
Speaker 2: floaty and I just I just don't love snorkeling. But
Speaker 2: there were also a ton of jellyfish in the Our
Speaker 2: tour guide was like, there's a bunch of jellyfish, you'll
Speaker 2: see And as we were like floating around in their boat,
Speaker 2: I saw a ton of them. And I have a
Speaker 2: big fear of jellyfish. I didn't get in the water,
Speaker 2: but he did say they were harmless, and I saw
Speaker 2: a bunch of people just touching their heads and stuff.
Speaker 1: Didn't someone like pick one up and throw it at someone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were playing with it like a ball, and
Speaker 2: it made me really sad. These are the big group people.
Speaker 3: They were cute jellies. They didn't have tentacles and so
Speaker 3: they're not really They didn't.
Speaker 2: Have long tentacles, but they could say you if you
Speaker 2: touched the bottom, but like little zaps, he said.
Speaker 3: And he also said that this is like a phenomenon
Speaker 3: that never happened really before.
Speaker 1: It just happened like a couple weeks prior to us
Speaker 1: getting there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he said, two weeks ago there were thousands
Speaker 2: and thousands of jellyfish and now they've dispersed a bit,
Speaker 2: but there's still quite a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But like I said, I swim around, didn't really wasn't
Speaker 3: really bothered by them.
Speaker 1: But I could see why you would be apprehensive to
Speaker 1: get in there with that. I don't know, Yeah that
Speaker 1: makes sense.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the was snorkling was awesome. Delfy water Sports.
Speaker 3: If you're there, check them out. They're great. And then
Speaker 3: what else did we do? We just kind of kept
Speaker 3: eating and sitting by the beach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean, and the food is just so
Speaker 2: good and they've got again so many healthy options that
Speaker 2: I came back, I don't feel bloated, I don't feel gross.
Speaker 2: I feel refreshed and rejuvenated.
Speaker 3: I think that's that we take to Japan kind of
Speaker 3: set the good precedent for us where it's like, if
Speaker 3: we're going to go on a trip, especially to a
Speaker 3: place like this, it's so much better to, especially at
Speaker 3: least in the beginning of the trip, don't drink because
Speaker 3: you're gonna want to enjoy more, Like you can eat more.
Speaker 3: You'll feel better if you got to do more stuff
Speaker 3: and like wait, yeah, and that's kind of the same
Speaker 3: method we took with this.
Speaker 2: Yeah we had we had like two drinks.
Speaker 1: There last night, and I had a few drinks at
Speaker 1: the casino the night before. But yeah, you know, but.
Speaker 2: It was good. I highly recommend a Ruba.
Speaker 1: Highly recommend it.
Speaker 3: I am I you know listening to this podcast if
Speaker 3: you have been listening up until now, I know we're
Speaker 3: still pretty early on in the process, but I've never
Speaker 3: I don't really have many positive things to say about
Speaker 3: beach destinations. I think I think Aruba probably is my
Speaker 3: favorite beach, like beach tropical trip.
Speaker 1: That I've ever taken.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, just something about it. You know, I
Speaker 3: didn't feel stuck. I didn't feel stagnant. I felt like
Speaker 3: we were always kind of occupied with things that I
Speaker 3: thought were interesting, and so I really had a good time.
Speaker 2: Me too.
Speaker 1: You did you prom promise? That's great? Is anything else
Speaker 1: you want to talk about her before we say goodbye?
Speaker 2: That's it. I kind of jumped the gun on the
Speaker 2: airport thing, but I just want to want to make
Speaker 2: sure everyone knew.
Speaker 3: Yeah, small, small, little thing to consider, but definitely important
Speaker 3: and worth you know, remembering next time, next time we go,
Speaker 3: or if you the listener decides to go at some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thirty seconds longer and we'd still be in Charlotte
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 3: Well, our flights out of Charlotte got massively delayed, which
Speaker 3: is very frustrating.
Speaker 2: Not not any but we would have had to catch
Speaker 2: a new flight out of Aruba the next day. Would
Speaker 2: have still been in a rubo last night.
Speaker 3: But I'm just saying the worst part about it wasn't
Speaker 3: anything to do with the Ruba.
Speaker 1: We had to do with Charlotte. That darn Queen City
Speaker 1: Dean calls it.
Speaker 2: That what did you call it the state I used
Speaker 2: to rule over.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Charlotte, South Carolina North Yeah, she was the
Speaker 3: former queen of that state. So they treated you pretty
Speaker 3: well out there, No, they didn't. They still couldn't get
Speaker 3: you out on time though.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Anyways, that's gonna do it for this week's episode. Have
Speaker 3: been there, Dean that thank you so much for coming
Speaker 3: to Aruba with us. Please be sure to see it
Speaker 3: next week, where maybe we suck just a little bit
Speaker 3: less