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.