Tuesday, May 23, 1995 - Aruba

After breakfast, we walked to the marina office and paid $468 for the month. We're quite disappointed by the marina facilities. Nearly every marina, even in third world countries, has a restroom and some sort of shower, but not here. We have to use the public restroom at Sonesta Suites or Seaport Mall. The dockmaster told us there was a shower we could use at the Sonesta Suites, but when we went over there, the desk clerk told us to use the employees' showers. We felt very uncomfortable doing so, because the sign says, "Employees Only," and employees kept coming in, giving us Who-Are-You-and-What-Are-You- Doing-Here looks. It was a nice shower, but I resolved never to use it again. We'll take the hotel's boat to the island and shower there. Walked over to the post office and mailed a bunch of postcards and letters. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for mail to get back and forth between here and the states. Roy saw a notice at the hotel that there would be a Papiamento lesson at 11:30, so he came back to the boat and got me. He knew I'd be interested, and I was, but the lesson didn't amount to much. The "teacher" was very pleasant, but she wasn't really a teacher; she was a member of the Activities Staff. The lesson only lasted 15 minutes. It consisted of her handing out sheets with a couple dozen phrases in Papiamento, English, Spanish, and Dutch. She went over the phrases with us and had us say some of them. That was it. Here are some samples of Papiamento: "Bon bini" ("Welcome") "Bon dia" ("Good morning") "Bon tardi" ("Good afternoon") "Bon nochi" ("Good evening") "Con ta bai?" ("How are you?) "Ami ta bon" ("I am fine") "Masha danki" ("Thank you") As you can see, it's a lot like Spanish. The language was devised in the 1700's by slaves from various African tribes, so they could communicate with each other and with their Dutch and Spanish "owners". The best thing here is the laundry. I pulled a wagon-load of grimy, salt-soaked clothes over to the laundromat at the Sonesta Suites. While the washer and dryer did their thing, I relaxed in the pleasant breeze by the pool and read "Du Cote de Chez Swann". It's sure good to have clean clothes and sheets and towels again. Anchoring out is fun for a while, but eventually you have to come ashore and scrape off the salt. In the evening after supper, we went for a little stroll. We feel perfectly safe here at night. This is a prosperous, happy, easy-going island. There are plenty of jobs, and no homeless sleeping on the sidewalk, no beggars devising ingenious ways to ask for money, no muggers lurking in dark alleys. We strolled around the three pools at Sonesta Suites, past Wilhelmina Park, and across the street to the hotel, where we watched the fish swimming in the little indoor pool. Then we emerged on the other side of the mall, crossed the street to Baskin Robbins, and treated ourselves to delicious ice cream. When we got back to the boat, Jean-Baptiste was still singing, so we sat on the deck for a while, listening to him. What a delightful evening!