Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Aruba #6
Sunday morning, we set off to find the church of the folks we had met the previous week. With a lot of circling, direction asking, and backtracking, we finally found the church. We were happy to find it, only to be told by a fellow out front that the entire service was in Papiamento, the native language of Aruba. We were very disappointed, and getting ready to leave, when the beautiful alien girl appeared and was very glad to see us. She asked us to at least please stay for “the singing”. We agreed, and we offered to sit in the balcony so as not to disrupt the service. A very nice lady offered to translate for us, and we had a wonderful time singing praise songs, some with familiar tunes, in Papiamento. Quite an experience which also reminded us, that music is still the universal language. We left after the singing as it would be too difficult to follow the preaching through a translator. All our new friends were happy we came, and very surprised to see us. We also had the joy of discovering that our translator’s daughter was a World champion wind surfer at age 15. Later in the store downtown, we purchased a prominent windsurfing magazine with her on the cover. We have a picture of Corky with her. After church we returned to the Condo, had some lunch, napped, and later hit the pool. Vickie went back to the casino for a short time while we napped. She returned to join us at the pool excited to tell that she had yielded $230 this time. In any event, we stayed quite late at the pool lazing around the lazy river, so we decided to eat in this evening. Corky had stashed some fixings for just such an event, so we had penne rigatte, marinara sauce, and sangria. For dessert we all had ice cream cones. Monday morning, we worked on getting our dinner reservations organized for the rest of the week, and set out to go to the butterfly farm and find some CD’s to transfer pictures onto. The butterfly farm was very interesting. It is a small (about the size of a tennis court) ecosystem completely screened with 12 foot high mesh making a big cube of space. Inside this space, they grow and nurture butterflies. We had a tour by a very knowledgeable Frenchman who explained to us how the butterfly life cycle worked, and what we needed to help nurture butterflies in our own environment. All in all it was a wonderful time. In search of the CD’s we ended up at this giant mega mart sort of like a super Wally Mart with a True Value hardware store hitched to the back for good measure. The whole mess was in a rambling sort of mall with shoes, appliances, bakeries, internet café, etc. etc. We found the CD’s and also on our quest was some Pastecki which is the local portable food type indulgence. This consists of puff type pastry wrapped around stuff, and then either deep fried or baked. One of the primary items is a meat pie that looks something like a Hostess fruit pie, filled with a savory meat concoction. Also they have hot dog like things wrapped up in the pastry and baked. We also enjoyed some of their pastries for desert. We stopped off at Little Switzerland so Vickie and Judy could visit a particular vendor for some blouses, and another store where everything was $10 for something or other. We had an interesting sight when we returned to the resort. Somehow a person had managed to drive their rental car over the curb, through the shrubbery, and through the metal fence out to the sidewalk. We never got any details, but it was quite entertaining. I had not mentioned, but we had been under an ocean swimming prohibition for the last two days due to a highly unusual school of jelly fish that descended on the island. That was lifted today, so back in the ocean tomorrow. We rested up a little (naps) when we returned from the CD expedition, and then got ready for dinner. We had reservations for 6:30 at Madame Janette which Corky said is one of the best on the island. We were not disappointed; the food was great, ambience wonderful, cost not extraordinary, wine list great, and portions truck driver size. We were seated outside and it threatened rain a little, but held off and allowed us to enjoy our dinner. Corky and Judy split a pork tenderloin schnitzel with Cesar salad and blue crab lollypops for appetizer. Vickie had tournedos of beef, and I had coconut and almond crusted shrimp in Thai red chili sauce. For desert, Corky and Judy had chocolate soufflé with ice cream, and Vickie and I had rum marinated roasted pineapple with vanilla ice cream. We each had a glass of Chateau de la Coeur Grand Cru Classe, St. Emilion Bordeaux wine. Must mention, it has rained quite a bit off and on in the last week. This is quite unusual for Aruba, which only gets 3 or 4 inches of rain a year. The rain is quite interesting however. You can see the towering clouds and see the rain falling directly under them. You can also watch as they move across the island and out to sea. Tomorrow Vickie and I are going snorkeling, and Corky and Judy are headed back to the jewelry store. We have a reservation tomorrow evening at a restaurant they call Tango which has live tango dancers as a floor show.
Aruba #5
Friday was moving day. Corky owns two weeks and one is called Garden View, the other called Ocean View. Bottom line was we had to move from the 3rd floor to the 10th floor. “All we had to do” was pack everything back up, and leave it for the housekeeping staff. They told us they would move everything—including the food and stuff in the refrigerator. Also, we didn’t have to repack our hanging stuff—they moved it on the hangers. We were in need of some more drinks and such for the rest of the trip, so Corky and I went off to the grocery, and the girls stayed to pack. Finally with everything packed up we went to the pool. I played some water volleyball with a cool bunch of kids—I was like the grandpa of the group, but they accepted me pretty well. Later, we went to our new room and unpacked. We decided to do a repeat of the restaurant over at the Marriott Hotel, due to everyone being tired from the move, and the early rising required tomorrow to go fishing with Monty. We all turned in pretty early as we had to get up before 05:00 for the fishing trip. Also on Friday, we all installed our scopolamine patches to help prevent sea sickness, and these make you a little drowsy. But, this didn’t keep Vickie from heading for the casino. She was up another $88.00 last night.
Saturday morning, Vickie and I were up at 04:30 and ready to go fishing. I was pretty excited, cause I had never been deep sea fishing in my life. We packed some snacks and drinks, everyone had a light breakfast, and we were off to fish. Corky knew Monty from previous visits. His boat was anchored just off the beach in front of the Moomba Restaurant. We walked through the dark over to the next beach to meet out fishing guides, Monty and Junior (the first mate). We had to get loaded in a small rubber boat (with no motor) to get ferried out to the fishing boat. Monty’s boat is called the Pa Ra Dice. We managed the boarding, with a lot of grunting and help from first mate, Junior. Pa Ra Dice is a 32 foot twin Yanmar diesel fishing boat. We headed out just prior to sunrise, and got to see it rising as we made our way to the good fishing grounds. The scenery was really beautiful, because it was an unusual cloudy day. We saw the island from a good distance off shore, and we could see the towering clouds and the rain falling in Oranjestad, the sight was unbelievable. As we moved toward the fishing grounds, Junior started rigging up the various lines and out/down riggers we would use to fish. No sooner had he got everything set than we had a strike. Corky was first up in the Port fighting chair, so he got the nod. He pulled in a 60-65 # what they call Wahoo here. It is a big scaleless fish, probably first cousin to a tuna. We went on to catch 3 60-65 # Wahoo, by Vickie, Judy and Corkey. At one time, we had two fish on the hook with Corky and Judy in the fighting chairs. (quite exciting) I caught 2 small barracudas. Vickie kept Junior and Monty entertained with her squealing and non stop dialogue while hauling in her fish. After 4 plus hours of fishing, (and no sea sickness) it was time to go back. Junior cleaned our fish enroute and we had a large flock of pilot birds following us for the bait and entrail scraps. Monty stopped the boat, so we could pose for pictures with “our fish”. We wanted some fish to eat, so the mate took off 1 whole filet from a Wahoo. It turned out to be about 25# of fish. He cut it in half so we could get it in a bag to carry with us. Corky knew the drill at the Moomba Restaurant, so we took the newly caught fish there. Head guy (who looked a lot like Richard Gere) was delighted to take our fish for later preparation, (try that in the US) and we reserved a table on the beach, to eat our hand caught fish later. For $10.00 a head, they are going to serve us our fish, pan fried, with salad and french fries on the beach at an ocean side table under a palm tree. We then journeyed back to the room to rest up and do some laundry. Our fish awaits us for dinner at 7:30 this evening. Corky and Judy have gone off to do some jewelry shopping, and Vickie and I are hanging around doing some laundry. Currently sleeping is attractive as well due to the after effects of the scopolamine. Vickie slipped off to the casino and came back with $131.05 more than she left with.
Laundry is done, and our hosts are back from shopping. Corky bought Judy a really cool pearl and black pearl necklace along with some black pearl earrings. Judy brought Vickie a surprise back. It’s a red island type decorated gauze dress, and she bought a blue one for herself. They are going to wear them to dinner tonight. With everyone clean and dressed, it was off to the Moomba for dinner. They had one of the best tables reserved for us, in the sand, right on the beach—front row toward the water. The ambience at the Moomba is just out of sight with Christmas type colored lights strung between the palms and indigenous trees, white sand, nice music, and waves lapping the shore. It was a clear night, allowing us vistas of the moon and stars. Off in the distance you could see lights of boats out on the water, and occasionally a late returning catamaran would motor by. We got right to it and ordered our dinner course of freshly caught (by us) Wahoo. We picked out a good bottle of Chilean Chardonnay to accompany the fish, and settled back to suck up the surroundings. The two man combo kept the music coming (even if slightly off key) with a little Jimmie Buffet, Elvis, and the ubiquitous Caribbean music that makes you want to dance and rock you shoulders. Dinner arrived, and it was more than expected. There is something primal for us hunter/gatherers when it involves eating what you caught today. Of course we didn’t catch the salad stuff, rice or french fries, but the feeling was there. And I forgot to mention—the fish was superb, pan fried, served with a garlic lemon cream sauce on the side. All in all it was one lovely evening. Tomorrow we are planning to try and find the Church where our new friends from last weekend invited us. Directions go something like left at the first roundabout then straight ahead for 5 more roundabouts. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and find it.
Saturday morning, Vickie and I were up at 04:30 and ready to go fishing. I was pretty excited, cause I had never been deep sea fishing in my life. We packed some snacks and drinks, everyone had a light breakfast, and we were off to fish. Corky knew Monty from previous visits. His boat was anchored just off the beach in front of the Moomba Restaurant. We walked through the dark over to the next beach to meet out fishing guides, Monty and Junior (the first mate). We had to get loaded in a small rubber boat (with no motor) to get ferried out to the fishing boat. Monty’s boat is called the Pa Ra Dice. We managed the boarding, with a lot of grunting and help from first mate, Junior. Pa Ra Dice is a 32 foot twin Yanmar diesel fishing boat. We headed out just prior to sunrise, and got to see it rising as we made our way to the good fishing grounds. The scenery was really beautiful, because it was an unusual cloudy day. We saw the island from a good distance off shore, and we could see the towering clouds and the rain falling in Oranjestad, the sight was unbelievable. As we moved toward the fishing grounds, Junior started rigging up the various lines and out/down riggers we would use to fish. No sooner had he got everything set than we had a strike. Corky was first up in the Port fighting chair, so he got the nod. He pulled in a 60-65 # what they call Wahoo here. It is a big scaleless fish, probably first cousin to a tuna. We went on to catch 3 60-65 # Wahoo, by Vickie, Judy and Corkey. At one time, we had two fish on the hook with Corky and Judy in the fighting chairs. (quite exciting) I caught 2 small barracudas. Vickie kept Junior and Monty entertained with her squealing and non stop dialogue while hauling in her fish. After 4 plus hours of fishing, (and no sea sickness) it was time to go back. Junior cleaned our fish enroute and we had a large flock of pilot birds following us for the bait and entrail scraps. Monty stopped the boat, so we could pose for pictures with “our fish”. We wanted some fish to eat, so the mate took off 1 whole filet from a Wahoo. It turned out to be about 25# of fish. He cut it in half so we could get it in a bag to carry with us. Corky knew the drill at the Moomba Restaurant, so we took the newly caught fish there. Head guy (who looked a lot like Richard Gere) was delighted to take our fish for later preparation, (try that in the US) and we reserved a table on the beach, to eat our hand caught fish later. For $10.00 a head, they are going to serve us our fish, pan fried, with salad and french fries on the beach at an ocean side table under a palm tree. We then journeyed back to the room to rest up and do some laundry. Our fish awaits us for dinner at 7:30 this evening. Corky and Judy have gone off to do some jewelry shopping, and Vickie and I are hanging around doing some laundry. Currently sleeping is attractive as well due to the after effects of the scopolamine. Vickie slipped off to the casino and came back with $131.05 more than she left with.
Laundry is done, and our hosts are back from shopping. Corky bought Judy a really cool pearl and black pearl necklace along with some black pearl earrings. Judy brought Vickie a surprise back. It’s a red island type decorated gauze dress, and she bought a blue one for herself. They are going to wear them to dinner tonight. With everyone clean and dressed, it was off to the Moomba for dinner. They had one of the best tables reserved for us, in the sand, right on the beach—front row toward the water. The ambience at the Moomba is just out of sight with Christmas type colored lights strung between the palms and indigenous trees, white sand, nice music, and waves lapping the shore. It was a clear night, allowing us vistas of the moon and stars. Off in the distance you could see lights of boats out on the water, and occasionally a late returning catamaran would motor by. We got right to it and ordered our dinner course of freshly caught (by us) Wahoo. We picked out a good bottle of Chilean Chardonnay to accompany the fish, and settled back to suck up the surroundings. The two man combo kept the music coming (even if slightly off key) with a little Jimmie Buffet, Elvis, and the ubiquitous Caribbean music that makes you want to dance and rock you shoulders. Dinner arrived, and it was more than expected. There is something primal for us hunter/gatherers when it involves eating what you caught today. Of course we didn’t catch the salad stuff, rice or french fries, but the feeling was there. And I forgot to mention—the fish was superb, pan fried, served with a garlic lemon cream sauce on the side. All in all it was one lovely evening. Tomorrow we are planning to try and find the Church where our new friends from last weekend invited us. Directions go something like left at the first roundabout then straight ahead for 5 more roundabouts. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and find it.
Aruba #4
Most of the day yesterday, we spent either at the pool or the beach. We watched the Bush live news conference from the Rose Garden, at lunch, and then back to the outdoor activities. Everyone played poolside bingo, and then Vickie entered the beer drinking contest. She has a method which is guaranteed to never win. First, she doesn’t really even like beer, and second, when they say go she sips the cup and talks about how southern ladies don’t gulp anything. Later Vickie and I walked up the beach to see them pulling in the activity boats for the day. She met a new friend Angel who works on a parasailing boat, and is going to personally look after her when she goes Friday (we think). On the way back, we heard some great music from the vicinity of the beach bar, so investigated. Well it was happy hour(s) and they had a small band playing Caribbean music along with other stuff. The rum punch was 2 for 1 and pretty good, so we stayed. The band later played Under the Boardwalk and Vickie and I shagged in the area in front of the band. You would have thought we were the king and queen of shag, not a Myrtle Beach original and a Yankee gimp. We had quite an appreciative audience. Things progressed from there, and we ended up getting a little “partied up”. On the way back from the beach, they had a fellow cutting up fresh coconuts. He would remove the top with a machete and stick a straw in the top. It was tasty and quite refreshing. I have the coconut in the refrigerator now, and intend to see if I can get to the meat. With Vickie and I well partied, and 2 cruise ships were in town, so we opted to stay up on this end of the island for dinner. We went to the strip down near the other hotels toward Oranjestad (not very far) to a Brick Oven Pizza place Corky knew about. Had beer and some of the best pizza I have tasted in a while. We like our pizza extra thin and crispy, and that’s how they fixed it here. Cooked in a brick oven, it was toasty and good. For dessert we had a most interesting plate of cream puffs (but ice cream was substituted for the cream) drizzled with what else….chocolate. It was delicious. After dinner we wandered around the little shops that are in this strip, and found an Aruba ornament for our Christmas tree. One of the shops had a most magical do dad. It looked like a 3 inch diameter piece of bamboo, sealed on both ends, and about 18 inches long. When you turned it over it made a sound like a rain storm. Too big to get in luggage to carry home, but amazing. Later we watched a little tube and crashed. Needed sleep to prepare for our trip with Vader tomorrow. (Little did we know how much we did need to rest up)
Thursday AM, Corky and I were off to the More 4 Less rental place to get a Jeep. This is the place Vader had recommended and was supposed to have good Jeeps. While standing in the office, discovered the other couple that was there was also going with Vader, and had in the past. Meanwhile, the girls were back at the condo getting things ready. Judy and Vickie made some great sandwiches. We got back to the place, and picked them up with 10 minutes to spare. We headed to the Occidental Hotel where we were supposed to meet Vader and the other couple. Things started to appear a little curious when we got to the hotel and no one was there and no one knew anything about Vader and a Jeep trip. We were just beginning to wonder what was up when he appeared and soon after the other couple. Guess this is the time to say, Vader is this quite an interesting (Dutch lunatic with dog named Cheech) tour guide. Apparently he does many of his operations under the radar of the syndicate that controls much of the tour activity in Aruba. We understood this when he said “if we get stopped, you are just some folks I met on the beach who asked me to show you around”. Meanwhile Cheech had jumped in Judy’s lap, and appeared if he was going to make the trip right there. Vader has been in Aruba for 32 years and has seen the evolution of the tourism industry here. He makes a living doing water sports, snorkeling catamaran trips, and the occasional jeep tour. (he seems to really care about the island, but is also about 50% full of BS) First stop on the tour was the grocery store. Vader gave us each a cooler, and suggested we fix it up with water food and drinks. We got all packed up with some good stuff, and got on the road again. Then it was off to the Texaco station to gas up the Jeeps. I had already done ours. Worth mentioning was how Vader made an appearance at each of the establishments we stopped at. We were guessing he got kick backs from them all for bringing us. After that we were off to the lighthouse end of the island. We did the typical tourist tour stuff at that end of the island, and then skipped on, on paved road, further down the island. Vader said the lighthouse end of the island was nothing but red dust, and nothing to see. We turned off and went to the top of a hill with a big water tower and great view. Then we went on to the little chapel and more great views. Then it was on to the natural bridge (which has fallen down—rumor was it fell from all the traffic vibration during the Natalie Holloway mess). So far we had been on pavement and dirt roads, didn’t even need 4 wheel drive. All the attractions so far were typical tourist stuff. But then when we left the “Thirst Aid Station” (Corky treated us to ice cream bars), instead of going back the road we came on (with the giant tour busses) we turned left. I had noticed some 4 wheelers coming down the side of the big hill across from us on what appeared to be a goat path. That’s where we headed. We were soon in 4 wheel low crawling up the rocks. I soon understood why Vader had hollered “the trip starts here” when we left Thirst Aid. I had seen rock crawling, and the Rubicon type stuff on TV, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it, especially in a basically stock Jeep Wrangler. I was really glad I opted for the manual transmission, because it gives you much better control on the accents and descents. The women were somewhat panic strickened, but after we didn’t rollover on the long rocky side hill accent (Vader congratulated me on my performance), they settled down and were just scared. Of course, they were continually fighting cooler burn (from having the cooler between them in the back seat of a CJ), and trying to juggle drinks, cameras and flying out of the truck. I couldn’t let on to them, but using a Jeep for it’s intended purpose, and actually tackling obstacles that required some driving skill, brains and _alls, was me serving my intended purpose. From that point on, we didn’t see anything but rocky trails and incredible scenery for the rest of the day. I’m sure we saw sights that 90% of the tourists to Aruba never see. We stopped for lunch and a swim at the natural pool. It was quite a hike, down 72 “stairs” from the Jeeps to the pool. Vickie was the only one who thought they could make the climb over the rocks to get in the natural pool. She made it, with the help of one of the young girls in the other Jeep. Coming out, she had to climb, and Vader got behind her and pushed. We climbed back up the “stairs” and remounted our trusty steed. We continued onward for the balance of the afternoon, and ended up at the other end of the island near Baby Beach. At one point Corky commented he thought he had lost at least 20 pounds from all the jigging (like one of those old belt exercise machines). Another time he said all he needed was some milk and ice cream in his stomach, and he could have a milkshake. By that point, we were all covered in dust, and worn slap out. Vader took us on a quick trip through the red light district in San Nicolas. (San Nicolas is a town on the end of the island near the refinery, which consists mostly of bars and brothels). We made our way back to our end of the island, bid Vader farewell, hit the Wendy’s for grub, and back to the condo. Everyone was beat, hungry and dirty. After some showers and grub, the beds looked pretty good. Watched some tube and crashed.
Thursday AM, Corky and I were off to the More 4 Less rental place to get a Jeep. This is the place Vader had recommended and was supposed to have good Jeeps. While standing in the office, discovered the other couple that was there was also going with Vader, and had in the past. Meanwhile, the girls were back at the condo getting things ready. Judy and Vickie made some great sandwiches. We got back to the place, and picked them up with 10 minutes to spare. We headed to the Occidental Hotel where we were supposed to meet Vader and the other couple. Things started to appear a little curious when we got to the hotel and no one was there and no one knew anything about Vader and a Jeep trip. We were just beginning to wonder what was up when he appeared and soon after the other couple. Guess this is the time to say, Vader is this quite an interesting (Dutch lunatic with dog named Cheech) tour guide. Apparently he does many of his operations under the radar of the syndicate that controls much of the tour activity in Aruba. We understood this when he said “if we get stopped, you are just some folks I met on the beach who asked me to show you around”. Meanwhile Cheech had jumped in Judy’s lap, and appeared if he was going to make the trip right there. Vader has been in Aruba for 32 years and has seen the evolution of the tourism industry here. He makes a living doing water sports, snorkeling catamaran trips, and the occasional jeep tour. (he seems to really care about the island, but is also about 50% full of BS) First stop on the tour was the grocery store. Vader gave us each a cooler, and suggested we fix it up with water food and drinks. We got all packed up with some good stuff, and got on the road again. Then it was off to the Texaco station to gas up the Jeeps. I had already done ours. Worth mentioning was how Vader made an appearance at each of the establishments we stopped at. We were guessing he got kick backs from them all for bringing us. After that we were off to the lighthouse end of the island. We did the typical tourist tour stuff at that end of the island, and then skipped on, on paved road, further down the island. Vader said the lighthouse end of the island was nothing but red dust, and nothing to see. We turned off and went to the top of a hill with a big water tower and great view. Then we went on to the little chapel and more great views. Then it was on to the natural bridge (which has fallen down—rumor was it fell from all the traffic vibration during the Natalie Holloway mess). So far we had been on pavement and dirt roads, didn’t even need 4 wheel drive. All the attractions so far were typical tourist stuff. But then when we left the “Thirst Aid Station” (Corky treated us to ice cream bars), instead of going back the road we came on (with the giant tour busses) we turned left. I had noticed some 4 wheelers coming down the side of the big hill across from us on what appeared to be a goat path. That’s where we headed. We were soon in 4 wheel low crawling up the rocks. I soon understood why Vader had hollered “the trip starts here” when we left Thirst Aid. I had seen rock crawling, and the Rubicon type stuff on TV, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it, especially in a basically stock Jeep Wrangler. I was really glad I opted for the manual transmission, because it gives you much better control on the accents and descents. The women were somewhat panic strickened, but after we didn’t rollover on the long rocky side hill accent (Vader congratulated me on my performance), they settled down and were just scared. Of course, they were continually fighting cooler burn (from having the cooler between them in the back seat of a CJ), and trying to juggle drinks, cameras and flying out of the truck. I couldn’t let on to them, but using a Jeep for it’s intended purpose, and actually tackling obstacles that required some driving skill, brains and _alls, was me serving my intended purpose. From that point on, we didn’t see anything but rocky trails and incredible scenery for the rest of the day. I’m sure we saw sights that 90% of the tourists to Aruba never see. We stopped for lunch and a swim at the natural pool. It was quite a hike, down 72 “stairs” from the Jeeps to the pool. Vickie was the only one who thought they could make the climb over the rocks to get in the natural pool. She made it, with the help of one of the young girls in the other Jeep. Coming out, she had to climb, and Vader got behind her and pushed. We climbed back up the “stairs” and remounted our trusty steed. We continued onward for the balance of the afternoon, and ended up at the other end of the island near Baby Beach. At one point Corky commented he thought he had lost at least 20 pounds from all the jigging (like one of those old belt exercise machines). Another time he said all he needed was some milk and ice cream in his stomach, and he could have a milkshake. By that point, we were all covered in dust, and worn slap out. Vader took us on a quick trip through the red light district in San Nicolas. (San Nicolas is a town on the end of the island near the refinery, which consists mostly of bars and brothels). We made our way back to our end of the island, bid Vader farewell, hit the Wendy’s for grub, and back to the condo. Everyone was beat, hungry and dirty. After some showers and grub, the beds looked pretty good. Watched some tube and crashed.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Aruba #2
Aruba trip #2
First document ended up with our trip to the Dutch Pancake House and meeting the cool bunch of kids. Monday morning, we headed out to the grocery store, but on the way made a side trip to the tip of the island. (it is very close to us) We saw the area quite near us where we can go snorkeling and all kinds of wild goats near the lighthouse on the tip of the island. Also saw some beautiful Aruban residences, overlooking the water, big $$$$. We went off to the local IGA (via a stop at McDonalds for breakfast) to shop for some “stuff” for our 2 week stay here. The grocery store called XXXXX was quite interesting. Was a large store, but was slam full of folks shopping. Also, it seems like Monday is the day they stock every shelf in the store. So in addition to the 38 million shoppers, every isle was clogged with carts of material waiting to be restocked. Seems like the Aruban grocery store clerks union has negotiated some interesting work rules for them. Most of the restockers were standing around dividing their time between chatting vigorously in the native language, and restocking the shelves. (about 70-30% 70 chatting, and 30 restocking) Some of those who didn’t have someone close by to chat with were talking on their cell phones with one hand while restocking with the other. All the prices in the store were in Aruban Florins. Conversion involves dividing by 2 and adding 10% so 2 Florins comes out to be about $1.10 US. Still the prices are quite high on many items. This is due to the fact that everything in Aruba must be imported. Only thing they grow much of here are Aloe Vera plants and Iguanas, neither of which is immediately edible. It was, however, great fun looking through the very different offerings in the store. Because Aruba was in the past a Dutch colony, they still have very close ties with Holland. Because of that, this is cheese heaven. The deli section had a great selection of meats and cheeses with a Dutch flair. Bought some incredible Edam, goat cheese, and unfamiliar, but interesting lunch meats. Also had fun substituting European products for our normal brands. Bought mustard, mayo, and other condiments, passing up the standard American products, and going for the stuff I couldn’t read the labels on. After checkout, we loaded everything in the Suzuki something or other we have for a rental car, and carried back to the resort. One of the bell guys was more than glad (for a fiver) to help us upstairs with our purchases. After stowing stuff, it was off to the pool and lazy river for an afternoon of exquisite indolence. For dinner, we got reservations at La Fondue D'Aruba. Corky and Judy had been there before and also were familiar with fondue in general. Enroute to La Fondue, we once again saw all sorts of back street sights in Orangestad (lost again but having a big time). I hate to say it, but I sold my 6 or 8 fondue sets received for wedding gifts back in the 80’s. Fondue has been making a big comeback of late. Vickie and I just have not been on the cutting edge of this gastronomic experience (never had fondue). With the able tutelage of our food mentors, we sailed through our first fondue experience, and enjoyed the trip. Of special note is the desert fondue (which it seems is why folks eat fondue in the first place) that was wonderful. We ordered the large desert for four, and the 50/50% dark and white chocolate. The owner offered us serving the white and dark separately (usually swirled in one pot), and each couple got a plate of fruit, pound cake, brownies, marshmallows, etc for dipping. Suffice it to say that it was some of the best chocolate we’d ever tasted. (hum Dutch chocolate—just made the connection, duh) Tuesday morning, Vickie and I had an appointment with the Marriott dude, to talk about joining the “Marriott Family”. Guy was very interesting, before working for Marriott, was a photographer for Wind Surfing Magazine and spent his time shuttling around the world in the windsurfing scene. (he was pretty cute—I think Vickie wanted to have his children) In any event, to make a long story short, we realized the merits of joining the Marriott family, and are now the proud owners of a week at a two bedroom condo in Aruba every year. It has a lot of advantages for Vickie and I planning to travel a lot. Also, as one of the perks, we essentially got a trip, including airfare and lodging, to anywhere in the world. After our morning with the Marriott folks, we adjourned to the beach this time instead of the pool, and parked ourselves under a palapa (Vickie and I call it a tiki hut--one of those ubiquitous thatched thingies you see at most tropical resorts). Spent some time swimming in the ocean, and watching the sun go down into the water. Corky struck up a conversation with some local fishermen looking for a past acquaintance that had taken him fishing quite successfully. (I believe he and Vickie were cut from similar cloth in the “they never met a stranger department”) Spent some idyllic time on the dock watching the local guy throw fish guts to the birds, and chatting. As we departed the dock, I struck up a conversation with a couple who had a late 70’s Toyota land cruiser (when it comes to vehicles, even I can meet folks). Turns out the guy’s name is Vader (not Darth), and he runs a jeep outing on Thursdays. (among other offerings like deep sea fishing and iguana wrestling) This sounds like it is not your run of the mill structured tour. Told us to contact this specific Jeep rental place and “tell them you are going with Vader so give you one with good tires”. He supplies the coolers and does the guiding. You supply your own supplies and the rental jeep. We think this might be in our future. For dinner we went just down the road to the Radisson that has a dinner buffet. This night was Italian night, and the food was great. There was a musician performing guitar with a drum machine. I sensed there might be more to him than what he was doing to pay the bills. Corky struck up a conversation with him, and as it turns out, he was a heavy metal rock n roller who did what he had to do to pay the bills. Also turned out his father was an Italian violin maker, and he had recently constructed his own electric guitar that as he said, was just right. Such an interesting assortment of people on this island. Finally off to bed and Vickie to the casino.
First document ended up with our trip to the Dutch Pancake House and meeting the cool bunch of kids. Monday morning, we headed out to the grocery store, but on the way made a side trip to the tip of the island. (it is very close to us) We saw the area quite near us where we can go snorkeling and all kinds of wild goats near the lighthouse on the tip of the island. Also saw some beautiful Aruban residences, overlooking the water, big $$$$. We went off to the local IGA (via a stop at McDonalds for breakfast) to shop for some “stuff” for our 2 week stay here. The grocery store called XXXXX was quite interesting. Was a large store, but was slam full of folks shopping. Also, it seems like Monday is the day they stock every shelf in the store. So in addition to the 38 million shoppers, every isle was clogged with carts of material waiting to be restocked. Seems like the Aruban grocery store clerks union has negotiated some interesting work rules for them. Most of the restockers were standing around dividing their time between chatting vigorously in the native language, and restocking the shelves. (about 70-30% 70 chatting, and 30 restocking) Some of those who didn’t have someone close by to chat with were talking on their cell phones with one hand while restocking with the other. All the prices in the store were in Aruban Florins. Conversion involves dividing by 2 and adding 10% so 2 Florins comes out to be about $1.10 US. Still the prices are quite high on many items. This is due to the fact that everything in Aruba must be imported. Only thing they grow much of here are Aloe Vera plants and Iguanas, neither of which is immediately edible. It was, however, great fun looking through the very different offerings in the store. Because Aruba was in the past a Dutch colony, they still have very close ties with Holland. Because of that, this is cheese heaven. The deli section had a great selection of meats and cheeses with a Dutch flair. Bought some incredible Edam, goat cheese, and unfamiliar, but interesting lunch meats. Also had fun substituting European products for our normal brands. Bought mustard, mayo, and other condiments, passing up the standard American products, and going for the stuff I couldn’t read the labels on. After checkout, we loaded everything in the Suzuki something or other we have for a rental car, and carried back to the resort. One of the bell guys was more than glad (for a fiver) to help us upstairs with our purchases. After stowing stuff, it was off to the pool and lazy river for an afternoon of exquisite indolence. For dinner, we got reservations at La Fondue D'Aruba. Corky and Judy had been there before and also were familiar with fondue in general. Enroute to La Fondue, we once again saw all sorts of back street sights in Orangestad (lost again but having a big time). I hate to say it, but I sold my 6 or 8 fondue sets received for wedding gifts back in the 80’s. Fondue has been making a big comeback of late. Vickie and I just have not been on the cutting edge of this gastronomic experience (never had fondue). With the able tutelage of our food mentors, we sailed through our first fondue experience, and enjoyed the trip. Of special note is the desert fondue (which it seems is why folks eat fondue in the first place) that was wonderful. We ordered the large desert for four, and the 50/50% dark and white chocolate. The owner offered us serving the white and dark separately (usually swirled in one pot), and each couple got a plate of fruit, pound cake, brownies, marshmallows, etc for dipping. Suffice it to say that it was some of the best chocolate we’d ever tasted. (hum Dutch chocolate—just made the connection, duh) Tuesday morning, Vickie and I had an appointment with the Marriott dude, to talk about joining the “Marriott Family”. Guy was very interesting, before working for Marriott, was a photographer for Wind Surfing Magazine and spent his time shuttling around the world in the windsurfing scene. (he was pretty cute—I think Vickie wanted to have his children) In any event, to make a long story short, we realized the merits of joining the Marriott family, and are now the proud owners of a week at a two bedroom condo in Aruba every year. It has a lot of advantages for Vickie and I planning to travel a lot. Also, as one of the perks, we essentially got a trip, including airfare and lodging, to anywhere in the world. After our morning with the Marriott folks, we adjourned to the beach this time instead of the pool, and parked ourselves under a palapa (Vickie and I call it a tiki hut--one of those ubiquitous thatched thingies you see at most tropical resorts). Spent some time swimming in the ocean, and watching the sun go down into the water. Corky struck up a conversation with some local fishermen looking for a past acquaintance that had taken him fishing quite successfully. (I believe he and Vickie were cut from similar cloth in the “they never met a stranger department”) Spent some idyllic time on the dock watching the local guy throw fish guts to the birds, and chatting. As we departed the dock, I struck up a conversation with a couple who had a late 70’s Toyota land cruiser (when it comes to vehicles, even I can meet folks). Turns out the guy’s name is Vader (not Darth), and he runs a jeep outing on Thursdays. (among other offerings like deep sea fishing and iguana wrestling) This sounds like it is not your run of the mill structured tour. Told us to contact this specific Jeep rental place and “tell them you are going with Vader so give you one with good tires”. He supplies the coolers and does the guiding. You supply your own supplies and the rental jeep. We think this might be in our future. For dinner we went just down the road to the Radisson that has a dinner buffet. This night was Italian night, and the food was great. There was a musician performing guitar with a drum machine. I sensed there might be more to him than what he was doing to pay the bills. Corky struck up a conversation with him, and as it turns out, he was a heavy metal rock n roller who did what he had to do to pay the bills. Also turned out his father was an Italian violin maker, and he had recently constructed his own electric guitar that as he said, was just right. Such an interesting assortment of people on this island. Finally off to bed and Vickie to the casino.
Aruba #1
Aruba trip so far:
Plane travel was exactly as it always is with the exception of being lucky enough to be on 2 COMPLETELY FULL planes. Flight from Charlotte to Aruba is 4 plus hrs, and boy were we ready to get off that plane. Aruba immigration was easy as they wheeled me right through in my chair. Caught a cab right away to the Marriott and driver was very nice and interesting. Marriott is very deluxe. Corky was waiting on us in the lobby, and after we were settled a little, he and Judy showed us around. After our tour we spent some time unpacking, and went to dinner at one of the restaurants here at the Marriott complex. (There are three separate Marriott entities all in one giant complex) We had one of the best plates of Mahi Mahi I had ever tasted. It was situated on a bed of roasted vegetables with mashed potatoes, and some type of sauce. (and cream brûlé for desert) Washed it down with a couple of Balashi beers, which is the only beer brewed here in Aruba. Probably one of the only beers in the world brewed with de-salinated sea water. (95% of the water in Aruba comes from the world’s second largest desalinization plant) Saturday, it was up early and stake out four good chairs around the pool. Can’t reserve your chairs until 07:30, but then you put your big towels on them and claim them for the day. After I claimed the chairs, I shared my granola bar with a pretty little blue lizard then got in the pool and started walking laps. Bet I walked 20 or 30 laps around this pretty good sized pool. Then I found a cool water seat under a palm tree and it allowed me to work my legs against water resistance and work on the range of motion. Alternated between reading a book and cooling off in the water for a large part of the day while Vickie was off at the Casino playing bingo. Later Vickie bought us some tube type blow up things and we spent some time floating around the big lazy river they have in the huge wandering pool here. Went to dinner Saturday night at Hostaria Da Vittorio and had some really great authentic Italian food (Vickie had some amazing vegetable and wild mushroom risotto and I had some veal medallions in a killer butter sauce with wild mushrooms) and shared a bottle of GOOD Italian wine. Corky and Judy have been coming here for quite a while, so they know a lot about the places to dine. Also, Corky is quite an aficionado of both food and wine, so we have our own gastronomic guide to the island. Vickie and I don’t often go out to eat, let alone at restaurants of this caliber. Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of Saturday, except Vickie and I took some bagels and coffee out by the pool and had a morning picnic. Tried something new, and walked laps against the current in the lazy river. Vickie walked with me and we went and explored another part of the pool that has a water fall, spray jets on a wall, and a water slide. Then we walked back through the other side of the lazy river against the current. Read a book again for a while, (Vickie went to the casino) then grabbed a snack and went to the room to watch the Talladega race. Tonight we went to dinner down in Oranjestead at the Dutch Pancake House and in the process, we got to se a lot of the little back streets etc of the city. The pancakes were totally different than what we were accustomed to. Corky and Judy suggested we order 1 savory pancake and one desert pancake and share. So Vickie and I ordered a Dutch which had ham, cheese, and leeks in it, and a Pear Flambé. (with rum) The food was once again wonderful, unlike anything we had ever tasted. All the while we were eating, we were in an open air café overlooking a park. It was cool and a breeze was blowing in off the ocean. Just across from us some musicians were set up on a little open air stand, and kept us entertained with all types of music. Meanwhile Corky kept us enthralled with stories of his past adventures. It is totally amazing, if you didn’t know him, you would think he was trying to impress someone with name dropping. But the truth of the matter is, he’s not. He really did perform for all those Presidents, and really did work with and spend time with many famous people. And of course my personal favorite he really did perform a duet of God Bless America at a Presidential reception with Kate Smith. After dinner, once again the “Vickie never met a stranger” show was on the air. A tall young boy was sitting on a bench listening to the musicians. He waved to Vickie, and somehow pretty soon they were dancing (the only ones dancing) on the sidewalk in front of the band. Turns out the guy, was a young (23 tomorrow) evangelist from Holland. He came to Aruba with just a suitcase, and has since become somewhat of a phenomenon. He was totally amazed by how things had just happened in a good way, that he never planned. We had an interesting time talking to him and his entourage. (All young kids but good kids) In the fiction can’t be this strange department: one of his group was a beautiful young girl with strange gifts. She was a twin whose twin died in the first trimester (before birth) and somehow, she ended up with some extra bones and sort of a dual circuited nervous system. She was able to move parts of her body independent of others, especially appendages of the hands and feet. She also had some strange bone structure in her hips that allowed her to dislocate them at will without any pain. She said her friends thought she was an alien. All I know was she was the prettiest young alien I had ever seen. Well finally it was back to the Marriott and I’m writing this while Vickie has gone back to the casino. She says there is a dolphin machine she really loves from past experiences at Vegas. Can’t fault her though, she plays for hours, and usually ends up money ahead. Bye for now.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Welcome, Why these writings?
This Blog conveys the travels and adventures of Wes and Vickie George (et-al). It will also present periodic musings that seem to have a habit of flowing from my avid curiosity and often fertile imagination. I hope you will find these writings informative, entertaining, and perhaps even mentally stimulating. There may be opinions as things proceed, but as I age, my opinions seem to be tempered with knowledge and wisdom.
My actual writings started several years ago, as I introduced Vickie to the art of "The Road Trip". Over the recent years we have visited a bunch of great places with great friends utilizing all manner of transportation. My wonderful son promises to round up all the old writings and archive them to this blog. As they appear and you have the time look back, I've really tried to communicate the flavor of the people we met and places we visited.
More later,
Wes
My actual writings started several years ago, as I introduced Vickie to the art of "The Road Trip". Over the recent years we have visited a bunch of great places with great friends utilizing all manner of transportation. My wonderful son promises to round up all the old writings and archive them to this blog. As they appear and you have the time look back, I've really tried to communicate the flavor of the people we met and places we visited.
More later,
Wes
Monday, March 06, 2006
El Dorado Ranch #7
Well it’s Saturday morning about 10:30, and we are sort of preparing to return home. We’ll leave here tomorrow (Sunday about 9:45 am. PST, and catch a plane in San Diego at 6:45 pm. We get back to Raleigh sometime Monday morning. Yesterday, we went down to San Felipe and spent several hours shopping and bartering with the locals. We also dropped by The Taco Factory for a little food and some more giant margaritas. Last night we cooked the clams we had harvested the other day, and dipped them in a little garlic butter. They were great and we had all we could eat. This morning we went to the weekly Flea Market. It happens every Saturday on the Ranch, and there are vendors there with all sorts of things. Two different fellows had some of the most beautiful produce I have seen in a long time. There were stands selling all sorts of Mexican and American breakfast items. There were local artists selling all manner of art, painted roof tiles, water colors, hand blown glass, hand made furniture, various ceramic stuff, and even a velvet Elvis. Local fishing guys had giant shrimp and clams. There were dune buggies for sale, pastries and canned goods from some of the Ranch residents, and an old guy from New York playing the electric piano and singing for tips. All in all your basic mish mash of folks, Mexican, Anglo, Locals, and Tourists. Noticed that many of the folks that now call this place home are a little on the eccentric side. (Plenty of long white hair and beards) Now for the news: as of 9:45 PST today (03/04/06) we are now the proud owners of Vista del Sol, Section 7750, Lot 90-3. It is 4.6 miles back in the desert from Mexico Route 5 and 5.8 miles from the beach. We are not certain if we will eventually build a winter home down here or just hold the land for speculation, but we are leaning toward eventually building and becoming eccentric old Mexicans-part of the year living in Mexico and the other part of the year in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A great piece of the whole thing is, with the new Mexican Laws, we can renew the trust that holds the land every 50 years in perpetuity. This means, the place can stay in the family as our legacy if we choose to build. Now all we have to do is come up with a catchy name like, Casa de Jorge (pronounced or’hey) or Baja del Elvis. We are going out with our new friends from California this afternoon to see their construction. They told us their builder has been great to work with. They also have been very helpful pointing out the plusses and minuses of this place. I know one thing, before we try to build here or live here, Spanish fluency is a must. Bickie and I will probably be signing up for a Spanish class somewhere. And finally, since we are now land owners, we have the option to come here and stay at their newly remodeled hotel in San Felipe, or rent a house somewhere on the ranch at much lower member rates. They plan to have service from one of the feeder airlines directly to San Felipe in the next year or so. But even now you can fly to El Centro California, and it’s only about a 2 hr trip down here.
Bye for now,
Wes and Bickie
Bye for now,
Wes and Bickie
El Dorado Ranch #6
Thursday at the Baja….
After a fine breakfast of Mexican bacon (which comes from the butcher in a handful in a plastic bag), eggs with bright orange yolks, and toast from the finest Bimbo Bread (which is probably the Mexican equivalent of Wonder Bread) Bickie left to exchange dirty towels for clean ones and came back with new friends and a clam rake. We then set out on a clamming expedition. At low tide there are 300 to 400 yds of a cross between mud and sand. Basically what you do (we finally figured out) is rake on the sandiest portions of the mud flat nearest the remaining rivulets of water. The clams are 1-2 inches below the surface in the ooze. A distinctive clink transmitted through the rake handle lets you know you have struck clam. What we discovered is that clamming requires extensive manual labor (a lot of bending and digging). But we persevered and improved our technique to the point where we managed to capture approximately 12 dozen of the wily little critters. They are currently in their new home which is the bathroom trashcan converted to a clam bucket. They are immersed in a solution of water and surplus pancake mix which theoretically should cause them to ingest the pancake flour and expel their unpalatable sand. According to local experts several changes of this water over the next 24 hrs will yield fine and tasty morsels of clams when steamed in beer. We’ll see tomorrow….. After our expedition of clamming it was necessary to wash the sand and mud combination off me, Bickie, our clothes, the rake, the car, the porch, and the clams. The clams we uncovered are similar to cherry stone clams in the states. The majority are about a big as a fifty cent piece. Some are larger and we call them prize winners. Tomorrow we will utilize our creativity to steam them with our limited culinary equipment (a small Teflon skillet and a pot).
This afternoon Bickie’s new friends (with the clam rake) turned out to be lot owners with a house three weeks away from completion on their lot here at El Dorado Ranch. We spent a lot of time chatting with them about traveling and also all the details about purchasing and owning land at El Dorado. Tomorrow morning we are going to go to see their land and house. They are a very interesting couple from California.
At sunset the Sea of Cortez looked bright blue with a large pink band between the sea and the sky. Just cannot begin to describe how beautiful it was. Took many many pictures but as you know pictures just can’t capture the true beauty of it all.
Wes & Bickie
After a fine breakfast of Mexican bacon (which comes from the butcher in a handful in a plastic bag), eggs with bright orange yolks, and toast from the finest Bimbo Bread (which is probably the Mexican equivalent of Wonder Bread) Bickie left to exchange dirty towels for clean ones and came back with new friends and a clam rake. We then set out on a clamming expedition. At low tide there are 300 to 400 yds of a cross between mud and sand. Basically what you do (we finally figured out) is rake on the sandiest portions of the mud flat nearest the remaining rivulets of water. The clams are 1-2 inches below the surface in the ooze. A distinctive clink transmitted through the rake handle lets you know you have struck clam. What we discovered is that clamming requires extensive manual labor (a lot of bending and digging). But we persevered and improved our technique to the point where we managed to capture approximately 12 dozen of the wily little critters. They are currently in their new home which is the bathroom trashcan converted to a clam bucket. They are immersed in a solution of water and surplus pancake mix which theoretically should cause them to ingest the pancake flour and expel their unpalatable sand. According to local experts several changes of this water over the next 24 hrs will yield fine and tasty morsels of clams when steamed in beer. We’ll see tomorrow….. After our expedition of clamming it was necessary to wash the sand and mud combination off me, Bickie, our clothes, the rake, the car, the porch, and the clams. The clams we uncovered are similar to cherry stone clams in the states. The majority are about a big as a fifty cent piece. Some are larger and we call them prize winners. Tomorrow we will utilize our creativity to steam them with our limited culinary equipment (a small Teflon skillet and a pot).
This afternoon Bickie’s new friends (with the clam rake) turned out to be lot owners with a house three weeks away from completion on their lot here at El Dorado Ranch. We spent a lot of time chatting with them about traveling and also all the details about purchasing and owning land at El Dorado. Tomorrow morning we are going to go to see their land and house. They are a very interesting couple from California.
At sunset the Sea of Cortez looked bright blue with a large pink band between the sea and the sky. Just cannot begin to describe how beautiful it was. Took many many pictures but as you know pictures just can’t capture the true beauty of it all.
Wes & Bickie
Friday, March 03, 2006
El Dorado Ranch #5
Wednesday at the Baja.
Today was quite eventful. As you have probably already figured out, we went back to the golf club, and found out we could in fact get on the Internet. They actually have wireless, so all we had to do was sit down at a table and turn it on. We sent out all our Emails, and got back in touch with the world. After we did that, we went on a quest to find the lot we had looked at in the desert. Probably if the guy that rented us this car knew we were going exploring in the desert with his new Toyota, he wouldn’t have rented it to us. But that’s why they call them rental cars. You take them where you would never take your real car. Several times, the wheels were going way faster than the actual speed of the car. But, I used my proven method of traversing snow (or sand), as long as you keep up the momentum, it doesn’t matter if the wheels are spinning. We rode way out in the desert, and figured out, we were certainly going the wrong way. We turned around, and went back to the beginning. The second time we were much more successful. We got on a road (well sort of a road) and got headed in the right direction. Pretty soon we started seeing familiar sights, and pretty soon we found the old 90 lot 3. We spent some time taking pictures and movies, then headed back to the main road. Then we went down to San Felipe. Up to this point, we hadn’t really checked out the local scene because of the crowds associated with the local Fat Tuesday parade. Today, San Felipe was back to its normal sleepy fishing village self. We wandered around, and had a pretty good time. We stopped at the Taco Factory and had two GIANT margaritas, which improved the ambiance of the place significantly. We found Vickie a copper bracelet that almost exactly matched the one I bought 2 years ago on the mountain in Utah. We also found a good shooter glass for the souvenir case at home. They had some great go to hell hats that I may have to go back and get one of. The shooter glass was only $3.00 which is the cheapest shooter glass I have ever found for my collection. We came back to the old Casita, and got ready for dinner. Tonight the Baja Boys were playing at Juanito’s Café which is the local restaurant and watering hole). The Baja Boys are three guys about my age that have a little band and play 50’s and 60’s music. We had two free passes for dinner, and drank about 100 Margaritas. (Vickie is currently groaning on the couch). Entire bill came to $13.00. I had a piece of local fish that was beyond good. Vickie had Tostadas that came on a platter about the size of an Oldsmobile hubcap. We danced to the Baja Boys, drank Margaritas, and ate till we couldn’t move. Now we are currently planning out retreat to the bed and it’s only around 9:30. (I like to think it’s cause we are still on East Coast time, but in reality, we’ve been sleeping 8+ hours per night, which is wonderful.
Today was quite eventful. As you have probably already figured out, we went back to the golf club, and found out we could in fact get on the Internet. They actually have wireless, so all we had to do was sit down at a table and turn it on. We sent out all our Emails, and got back in touch with the world. After we did that, we went on a quest to find the lot we had looked at in the desert. Probably if the guy that rented us this car knew we were going exploring in the desert with his new Toyota, he wouldn’t have rented it to us. But that’s why they call them rental cars. You take them where you would never take your real car. Several times, the wheels were going way faster than the actual speed of the car. But, I used my proven method of traversing snow (or sand), as long as you keep up the momentum, it doesn’t matter if the wheels are spinning. We rode way out in the desert, and figured out, we were certainly going the wrong way. We turned around, and went back to the beginning. The second time we were much more successful. We got on a road (well sort of a road) and got headed in the right direction. Pretty soon we started seeing familiar sights, and pretty soon we found the old 90 lot 3. We spent some time taking pictures and movies, then headed back to the main road. Then we went down to San Felipe. Up to this point, we hadn’t really checked out the local scene because of the crowds associated with the local Fat Tuesday parade. Today, San Felipe was back to its normal sleepy fishing village self. We wandered around, and had a pretty good time. We stopped at the Taco Factory and had two GIANT margaritas, which improved the ambiance of the place significantly. We found Vickie a copper bracelet that almost exactly matched the one I bought 2 years ago on the mountain in Utah. We also found a good shooter glass for the souvenir case at home. They had some great go to hell hats that I may have to go back and get one of. The shooter glass was only $3.00 which is the cheapest shooter glass I have ever found for my collection. We came back to the old Casita, and got ready for dinner. Tonight the Baja Boys were playing at Juanito’s Café which is the local restaurant and watering hole). The Baja Boys are three guys about my age that have a little band and play 50’s and 60’s music. We had two free passes for dinner, and drank about 100 Margaritas. (Vickie is currently groaning on the couch). Entire bill came to $13.00. I had a piece of local fish that was beyond good. Vickie had Tostadas that came on a platter about the size of an Oldsmobile hubcap. We danced to the Baja Boys, drank Margaritas, and ate till we couldn’t move. Now we are currently planning out retreat to the bed and it’s only around 9:30. (I like to think it’s cause we are still on East Coast time, but in reality, we’ve been sleeping 8+ hours per night, which is wonderful.
El Dorado Ranch #4
Tuesday at the Baja.
Last night we had a great meal of Mexican hamburger, (never know exactly what might be ground up in it), baked potatoes and sliced radishes all cooked in our Casita kitchen. This morning we had eggs with Mexican cheese and toast, overlooking the beautiful Sea of Cortez. We had an appointment this morning for our tour of El Dorado with Jim. Turned out Jim was an OK guy and very low key. He filled us in on all the details of what The Ranch was all about, and then we went out for the physical tour. As we all suspected, the land I “won” 17 years ago was completely inaccessible on the side of a mountain. What the deal ended up being was, I got so much credit for my land toward the purchase of one of their parcels of land. As it turns out, this place is booming. Folks from Southern California with hundreds of thousands of equity in their homes, and fed up with the crush of city life, are buying up land in Baja like it’s going out of style. In 1993 the Mexican Constitution was amended to allow foreign ownership of land closer than 30 kilometers to the water or the border. El Dorado Ranch is one of the largest and oldest developments in this part of Baja. The ranch is 250,000+ acres stretching from the Sea of Cortez to the Mountains. They just finished selling 250 condos ranging from $250,000 to $400,000 in 7 weeks. They had a lottery of current land owners, who had the first shot at buying, and sold them all. They are well under construction. We spent from 10:00 to about 2:00 looking at various parcels of land. We were looking for the perfect combination of mountain view, desert view, and Sea view. Anyone who knows Bickie knows how difficult she can be to satisfy (which is one of the reasons I love her). She just kept looking at the map and saying “how about this one”. But working together we found a prime piece of property in one of their older developments that was a perimeter lot (nothing blocking your view of the desert, mountains, or Sea). The price was SIGNIFANTLY below what some of their newer development perimeter lots were selling for. At this writing we are contemplating whether we want to invest in “Some Desert Land in Baja”. (Sounds like an old joke) We tried to get on the Internet today, to send out our previous Emails, do some research, and to contact our CPA friend Phil. The folks at The Ranch office said “just go up to the golf club and you can do it”. We went to the golf club, laptop in hand, and were greeted by a lot of blank stares. The one set of guys told us to check in the pro shop, and the guy in the pro shop, who spoke a little English, told us “we never let customers use the company system for anything”. (Of course there was an Ethernet plug on the wall exactly where we were told to hook up) So back to the Ranch office and they then sent us to the “Little Internet Café” down the road. Of coarse it was open from 07:00 to 3:00 and we got there at 3:18. So no Internet, no research, no deal. Considering this, I think we have raised the motivation of the staff to help us get on the internet. Tomorrow we plan to see if we can find the lot again, and take some pictures. We are seriously considering buying the land strictly for speculation. We looked at lots with inferior orientation and views for $50,000 more than the one we found. Construction costs here are quite reasonable, and they have some interesting construction methods. They use some type of foam system I have seen on Discovery or Home Improvement. Basically it is interlocking foam blocks they stack around rebar and then pump full of concrete. Final result is skim coated with concrete and ends up giving you and R30-35 insulation factor wall. Most of the homes have a lot of ceramic tile in the floors and walls. Also most are built with a roof deck where you can really see the views. Weather here is really desert, has not rained in a year. All the houses use electricity and septic tanks, but water is delivered for about $10.00 a month. They have 3500 gallon cistern that supplies water for the house. The architecture is very Southwest with outdoor verandas and kitchens quite prevalent. One draw back for living here is the road conditions would not be compatible with a Vette. However, one could substitute a hot off road pick up or sand rail with a hot Chevy crate motor. Off roading down here is like a religion. Well that’s it for today. Bickie is out clamming or looking for shells, and I’m working on some nice rib eyes and asparagus we bought yesterday. Bye for now.
Wes and Vickie
Last night we had a great meal of Mexican hamburger, (never know exactly what might be ground up in it), baked potatoes and sliced radishes all cooked in our Casita kitchen. This morning we had eggs with Mexican cheese and toast, overlooking the beautiful Sea of Cortez. We had an appointment this morning for our tour of El Dorado with Jim. Turned out Jim was an OK guy and very low key. He filled us in on all the details of what The Ranch was all about, and then we went out for the physical tour. As we all suspected, the land I “won” 17 years ago was completely inaccessible on the side of a mountain. What the deal ended up being was, I got so much credit for my land toward the purchase of one of their parcels of land. As it turns out, this place is booming. Folks from Southern California with hundreds of thousands of equity in their homes, and fed up with the crush of city life, are buying up land in Baja like it’s going out of style. In 1993 the Mexican Constitution was amended to allow foreign ownership of land closer than 30 kilometers to the water or the border. El Dorado Ranch is one of the largest and oldest developments in this part of Baja. The ranch is 250,000+ acres stretching from the Sea of Cortez to the Mountains. They just finished selling 250 condos ranging from $250,000 to $400,000 in 7 weeks. They had a lottery of current land owners, who had the first shot at buying, and sold them all. They are well under construction. We spent from 10:00 to about 2:00 looking at various parcels of land. We were looking for the perfect combination of mountain view, desert view, and Sea view. Anyone who knows Bickie knows how difficult she can be to satisfy (which is one of the reasons I love her). She just kept looking at the map and saying “how about this one”. But working together we found a prime piece of property in one of their older developments that was a perimeter lot (nothing blocking your view of the desert, mountains, or Sea). The price was SIGNIFANTLY below what some of their newer development perimeter lots were selling for. At this writing we are contemplating whether we want to invest in “Some Desert Land in Baja”. (Sounds like an old joke) We tried to get on the Internet today, to send out our previous Emails, do some research, and to contact our CPA friend Phil. The folks at The Ranch office said “just go up to the golf club and you can do it”. We went to the golf club, laptop in hand, and were greeted by a lot of blank stares. The one set of guys told us to check in the pro shop, and the guy in the pro shop, who spoke a little English, told us “we never let customers use the company system for anything”. (Of course there was an Ethernet plug on the wall exactly where we were told to hook up) So back to the Ranch office and they then sent us to the “Little Internet Café” down the road. Of coarse it was open from 07:00 to 3:00 and we got there at 3:18. So no Internet, no research, no deal. Considering this, I think we have raised the motivation of the staff to help us get on the internet. Tomorrow we plan to see if we can find the lot again, and take some pictures. We are seriously considering buying the land strictly for speculation. We looked at lots with inferior orientation and views for $50,000 more than the one we found. Construction costs here are quite reasonable, and they have some interesting construction methods. They use some type of foam system I have seen on Discovery or Home Improvement. Basically it is interlocking foam blocks they stack around rebar and then pump full of concrete. Final result is skim coated with concrete and ends up giving you and R30-35 insulation factor wall. Most of the homes have a lot of ceramic tile in the floors and walls. Also most are built with a roof deck where you can really see the views. Weather here is really desert, has not rained in a year. All the houses use electricity and septic tanks, but water is delivered for about $10.00 a month. They have 3500 gallon cistern that supplies water for the house. The architecture is very Southwest with outdoor verandas and kitchens quite prevalent. One draw back for living here is the road conditions would not be compatible with a Vette. However, one could substitute a hot off road pick up or sand rail with a hot Chevy crate motor. Off roading down here is like a religion. Well that’s it for today. Bickie is out clamming or looking for shells, and I’m working on some nice rib eyes and asparagus we bought yesterday. Bye for now.
Wes and Vickie
El Dorado Ranch #3
Afternoon in Baja……
It was a most interesting afternoon at the old Casita. Watched the changing of the guard at the adjoining RV Park. Diesel pickups are king. Everyone came in with their 5th wheel trailers in tow. Little Mexican boy in his helmet on a 4 wheeler directed them as to where to park. These guys can really drive this stuff. Watched a guy slide a 50 foot motor home into a little slot (with Jimmy Buffett playing in the background). Four Tecates and three Quervos later parking trailers was extremely entertaining. Bickie was down to the beach collecting sea shells. The breeze shifted to on shore and was a little cool on our deck. (Bickie doesn’t think so) Our deck is completely shaded in the afternoon. Jimmy Buffett seems most appropriate for these surroundings. On the Sea of Cortez overlooking the view to die for it’s a glorious afternoon.
It was a most interesting afternoon at the old Casita. Watched the changing of the guard at the adjoining RV Park. Diesel pickups are king. Everyone came in with their 5th wheel trailers in tow. Little Mexican boy in his helmet on a 4 wheeler directed them as to where to park. These guys can really drive this stuff. Watched a guy slide a 50 foot motor home into a little slot (with Jimmy Buffett playing in the background). Four Tecates and three Quervos later parking trailers was extremely entertaining. Bickie was down to the beach collecting sea shells. The breeze shifted to on shore and was a little cool on our deck. (Bickie doesn’t think so) Our deck is completely shaded in the afternoon. Jimmy Buffett seems most appropriate for these surroundings. On the Sea of Cortez overlooking the view to die for it’s a glorious afternoon.
El Dorado Ranch #2
Here it is later, and Bickie and I have just returned from our latest adventure. I call it, finding the grocery store in a Mexican town where no one speaks English and we don’t speak Spanish. We went to San Felipe, seeking groceries, mixers, and beer. However after wandering around the scarier sections of town, we decided it was time to try and ask someone. First try was at an auto parts store, we thought was a grocery store. We asked the guys in front but no one spoke English. Then I came up with the bright idea of asking for pollo (which I think is Spanish for chicken). The one guy seemed to understand and pointed back toward town and indicated 4 blocks. Well that didn’t work, so we went into one of the ubiquitous PEMEX gas stations that seem to be on every corner. Bickie had an uproarious time doing Spanish charades with the attendants. They seemed to understand food, and pointed to the various food stands around. But then Bickie said Me Casa and made cooking motions with her hands. That did it. The one fellow understood, and made a drawing of a D and J in the palm of his hand. He then pointed up the street and made motions like 1 cross road. Low and behold we found the D and J Market, just up the street. Problem solved, well not exactly. Food is pretty much food everywhere, and with the exchange rate being approximately 10.5 pesos to the dollar, something that cost 23.00 was a little less than $2.30. Only problem was, all the signs for produce and meat were in Spanish, and everything was sold by the Kilo instead of Pound. Luckily I remembered my metric stuff and realized a kilo is about 2.2 pounds. However, that didn’t help me with the fact that I had no idea what the Spanish word for Onion, Potato, or Asparagus was. So all the signs said such and such was 11.56 per kilo but I had no idea what sign went with what. Finally Vickie in her infinite wisdom said, why don’t you just get what you want and quit worrying about how much a pound it is. Turns out, things were pretty cheap when we finally got to pay for it all, but it was quite a challenge figuring out what was what to buy it. So here we sit with something that looks like Squirt or Fresca, in a 2 liter bottle, that shows this cool diagram of how rain turns into mineral water on the side, and a picture of some non descript citrus fruit on the front. The label reads something like Agua Mineral de Manantial then Nuevo then the name Penafiel followed by sabor, Toronja. Hopefully one of my more bilingual friends will be able to translate this for me when I get home. One more cool thing. Turns out that at low tide, which is currently in the morning and late afternoon, you can walk miles out on the exposed sand, and dig up something called butter clams. Bickie said she is going to harvest our hor de orves for dinner one night.
More later,
Wes and Bickie
More later,
Wes and Bickie
El Dorado Ranch #1
Well here we are sitting on the deck of our Casita (which I’ve decided means very small castle with good view) overlooking the Sea of Cortez. We had a great day yesterday getting here. It was very interesting traveling down from San Diego. We also had a good time in San Diego. We went on the 2 hour harbor cruise, and saw all kinds of stuff. (The nuclear carrier Nimitz, dozens of other naval ships and submarines, the shipyard where the Exxon Valdez was built, then rebuilt after the big oil spill, one of the new largest oil tankers under construction, a nuclear fast attack sub in dry-dock, and all manner of other sights) Then we drove north along the coast, ate lunch at this cool place called The Shack, and returned down through Coronado and Imperial Beach. We got going yesterday (Sunday) pretty early, and took route 94 out of San Diego, which drops south toward the Mexican border through the mountains. The scenery was unbelievable, sort of what I’d picture seeing on an alien planet. Most of the time we were driving through literally nowhere, and hadn’t had breakfast yet. We finally came to a little crossroads that had a sign on the fence that said “Potero Diner Now Open. We turned off and went about 2 miles down the road and found the Twin Lakes Campground Diner, once again, literally in the middle of nowhere. It had an A sanitation rating, so we stopped. Food was great, friendly folks, and an owner with what Vickie called “a good shape”. She was part Indian and part Hispanic, and I’d have paid money to watch her put her jeans on. We then continued on toward our intended border crossing at Calexico CA. We had to get off 94 and onto I-8 for about 15 miles, but then we got back off onto 92 to finish our trip to Calexico. The whole route turned out to be one of the more scenic drives we have been on. We passed a fruit stand that said 10 Haas avocados for $1.50 and at home it’s a $1.69 for 1 avocado. We gassed up in Calexico (a good thing, cause there was literally nothing on our trip south) and the little Toyota got about 28 mpg which was including 85 miles of stop and go city driving the day before. (The car we have is a little 4 door 06 Corolla, with only 750 miles on it when we picked it up. Drives well, is relatively quick, speedometer only goes to 110 and will bury that, and is pretty comfortable.) We then proceeded to the border crossing with all our documentation in hand only to have the Mexican border guards cheerfully wave us through. I guess they don’t care much about Americans coming to Mexico, as long as they are bringing plenty of US Dollars. The character of the traffic changed immediately after we crossed the border. What I’d read was true—the Mexican drivers are quite aggressive, and seem to have interesting new uses for stuff we have not heard about. The horn is actually a driving tool having secret codes that I’m not yet privy to. Also to them the accelerator is used in alternation with the brake, with either one used only in a range of 90 to 100%. As we drove South through Mexicali, which is the Capital city of Baja, we were amazed at the poverty and devastation. Often it looked like pictures I have seen of a war, but there wasn’t one going on. Falling down abandoned buildings were everywhere and the trash lying around, almost universally, was unbelievable. As we left the city, abruptly we were on a road through the desert with nothing, as far as the eye could see. The scenery here was quite different than we had seen earlier that day. Most of the route travels in and out of a dry lake bed that is dead flat for miles. Also here were very jagged black mountains which looked quite young. (as mountains go) As I said before, there was nothing between leaving Mexicali and San Felipe. The side of the road was heavily littered with trash the whole way, and often the abandoned car, usually upside down and stripped. Along the way we discovered an unusual Mexican truck driver custom. The truck would move over into the left lane (two lane road) which is the indication for you to pass him on the right. Thinking about it, it is a quite practical process much safer than me trying to see around them then flying by. When we got to Eldorado Ranch, we were pleasantly surprised. It is a cool place. We were a little early for check in so we asked for directions to the closest bar. After an hour or so of “attitude adjustment” we were ready to check in. Once again we were pleasantly surprised. Our little Casita was the best of the lot, and has everything we need. We have a deck overlooking the beach, and facing the sunrise. We watched it this morning, and it was really great. Don’t know when I’ll be able to send this—not sure about where there might be Internet service here. But, got it down and will send it when I can.
Wes and Vickie (or Bickie as the Mexicans call her)
Wes and Vickie (or Bickie as the Mexicans call her)
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