Monday, May 29, 1995 - Aruba

Roy plans on leaving for California this Thursday, so we walked over to the Immigration office, which we finally found in back of the Police Station. They told Roy to buy his ticket and then return. I had read that to stay on the island longer than three months required special permission, so I asked about that. The man I talked with said I'd have to leave Aruba for at least two weeks and then return. We went to the Marina office and showed them our Aruba courtesy flag. They agreed it was not the right one and sold us a proper flag for $15. We also asked about a sail-maker, a place to get our fire-extinguishers recertified, and for further information about my staying here more than three months. They're going to find out and let me know next week. Roy went to a travel agency and bought his ticket to Miami. He'll leave here Thursday at 9:30. From Miami he'll go stand-by to California. He'll return here July 31st. We went back to Immigration, but they were out to lunch or something, so we ate a yummy lunch at Wendy's and then returned. This time the official was there. He filled out a form. Roy still has to go to Immigration at the airport the morning he leaves. I asked him about staying longer than three months, and he said that since we came on our own boat he thought I could get an extension two weeks at a time, but I'd have to come back just before the three months are up. There's a free trolley bus here that we thought would take us all over the downtown area, so we went for a ride on it. To our surprise and disappointment, the bus just shuttles between Sonesta Suites and Sonesta Hotel, a distance of about one block! What a waste! No wonder no one bothers to ride it. You'd think they'd use a small car or van instead of a 30-passenger bus. Roy returned to Jofian and took a bunch of pictures to send to Frank. I went to the post office to mail a card to Linda and to see if there was any mail for me. There wasn't, but I hadn't really expected it this soon anyway. On the way back, I bought a few groceries, had some copies made, and located Radio Shack, which didn't have any computer or printer supplies, just electronic junk. They told me to try a computer place next door, which I did, but they didn't carry the ribbon for my printer. After taking the groceries back to the boat, I went to an art show that Roy wasn't interested in. Then I relaxed by the pool for a while. Roy got his pictures developed. Some of them were quite good.