One of the reasons I decided not to
post this blog day by day as I have in the past is because I didn't
actually do much more than sit on my butt and swim in the ocean. As
was my plan. I was in the water every day but Tuesday and loved
every minute of it. The area of ocean
directly behind the hotel is cordoned off for swimmers and goes to a
depth of about 5 feet. The water's calm though the weather was always windy. The temp stayed at a balmy 85 degrees everyday and only rained for about a minute on one day. Regardless of how the rest of the vacation went, this part could not
be beat.
Overpriced or not, the Marriott
Stellaris is quite lovely. It’s a big high-rise hotel with eight floors (I was on the 6th so I had a nice sideways view of the beach), several shops, a Ruth Chris Steakhouse, some high end jewelry stores,
and a nice medium priced restaurant. There’s a hot tub, a pool
with a swim up bar, plenty of cabanas on the beach, and access to
numerous water sports. I ate most meals at La Frite, the mid-priced
restaurant that put on a very nice breakfast buffet. And since they offered me drinks upon coming to my table in
the evenings, I did partake in some lovely tropical adult beverages.
The bartender makes a mean Cosmo.
Monday, 4/13/15, was my 44th
birthday. Wow. I don’t feel middle-aged. It’s not like I feel
like a teenager or anything but certainly not middle-aged.
Regardless of how I feel, my skin is definitely aging. I never got
sunburned as a child – tans, sure, but no burns. Then I got
horribly burned in San Juan a couple of years ago. With that
experience still fresh in my mind, I brought plenty of sunscreen for
this trip and made sure to reapply often. Didn't help; nor did my
unexpected trek through the Aruban barrio on Sunday. Still burned
the crap out of my forehead and nose and spent the next few days
peeling. Huge strips of skin sloughing off, leaving distinctly paler
skin behind … you know that’s just gross. I hate the peeling.
This time wasn't as bad as San Juan but still yuck.
I rented a car for the day on Tuesday
only to realize that I needn't have bothered. I mainly wanted the
car to go to the Hard Rock for a t-shirt but found that I could have
just walked along the shore to get there. The Hard Rock was part of a strip of stores and restaurants that led to a separate mall.
Downtown Oranjestad is mostly high end stores that didn't interest
me and further south of that was just more neighborhoods. Though the
map the rental lady gave me showed points of interest around the
island, I really didn't care. I meant what I said at the beginning
of this trip. I didn't want to do much of anything except chill on
the beach so I mainly just drove around aimlessly. At the very least
the driving gave my skin a rest and I did manage to find that rarest
of beasts; a hat that would fit my ginomous noggin. I wore the
wide-brimmed straw hat for the rest of the vacation and that sucker
really did its job. I didn't burn again for the rest of the trip and the
hat managed to stay on my head despite the heavy winds.
I did a lot of walking along the beach.
Going to the left after exiting the hotel led to a bunch of other
hotels including one called the RIU that actually had two buildings,
one that looked like a castle and one that was an adults only hotel.
Great idea but considering how expensive my hotel was I don’t even
want to imagine how much that one cost. There were numerous
piers that housed boats, restaurants, and stores. There were also
stands for water sports including two I had never heard of before;
surf-biking and fly-boarding. Yeah, surf-biking is exactly what it
sounds like; a bike mounted on a surf board. I saw a couple of kids
who seemed to be naturals at it but when one father tried to do it he
couldn't even stay on the board. The fly-boarding was interesting.
You have two people on a jet ski with a hose attached to the back.
Boots attached to the hose hold a third person in place and allows
them to ‘fly’ using the expelled water from the jet ski. It
looked really cool when it worked though I couldn't help but think
that people will come up with the strangest things to do on the water. I
would have just been happy riding on the jet ski.
Going to the right on the beach took me
past the Ritz-Carlton, a big yellow hotel, and to some rough wooden
shacks on bare beach. Locals were offering lessons on windsurfing
and kite-surfing. The folks soaring over the water using the brightly
colored kites just fascinated me. I went to this part of the beach
everyday just to watch them. The students came by in the morning and
spent most of their time just trying to stay on their boards and out
of the water. I was rooting for this one chick who was having some
trouble holding onto the kite while keeping her board beneath her.
The instructor kept shouting instructions at her while she
unfortunately face-planted. Twice. That can’t have felt good.
In
the evening the pros came out and they were amazing. They made it
look easy as they followed the breeze, coming in close to the shore
only to catch some wicked air as they turned around and went back out
to sea. Since I knew I’d be a face-planting fool, I didn't even
think about trying. It would take several hours on the water to
become even remotely proficient and I knew I didn't have the time
or the patience. Maybe some other time. When I’m older and even
less spry. Yeah. Good plan.
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