By the time we had awoken we had already up at the dock in Oranjestad and town on the coast of Aruba. We did visit here in January 2015 on our P & O cruise from Southampton via the Panama Canal to San Francisco and so we new a little about the island before we landed..
The previous evening our table steward mentioned that there was going to be a parade today and most shops will shut by lunchtime to allow the Parade to take place and we thought that would be a fun thing to watch but of course we had no information on it. We were both bity slow this morning for different reasons and in Noels case it looks like there was Garlic in the César salad mix which produced some unexpected overnight, Damn.. Anyway Jen was a little slow as we had both had a hard walking couple of days in the heat which we are not used to, so we decided to take it a little easier today. For a change we went to the buffet for breakfast which is fast and efficient and the toast is not soggy like when it arrives nicely wrapped via room service.
Anyway we left the Ship around 11.15 and walked in to town and many of the bigger shops had already closed but our plan was to go to Iguana Joe’s restaurant just across the road for the cruise port entrance and as it is on the first level we could watch the parade from there only to find it also was closed for some reason. Well that's great we thought but its it is not a problem as the parade was due to start just after midday they said on the ships announcement just before we disembarked and walking down the road we found a comfortable wood chair under an umbrella and we thought ,that great, and so we sat there waiting for the parade to begin. In the meantime more and more people were beginning to arrive and setting up gazebo’s to protect them for the sun and carrying large Igloos of beer, it looked like. One large industrious family arrived with scaffolding and a large sheet of tarpaulin and together with chairs and tables there were well prepared until we realised they were also building a small room in which to house a toilet, gosh that is organisation.It was getting warmer and warmer and the sun was beginning to burn our legs and the time went by and we kept thinking it must start soon until we asked somebody who said it could be 2.30 or 3.30 or even later??? So at about 13.30 after sitting since 11.30 we said this is B stupid and Jennifer needed the little girls room and then we found the Hotel had been boarded up and so had the casino and all the shop fronts were down with metal grating ort solid steel shutters and also two large trucks of armed soldiers turned up, Uhmmm, Time to leave. This is a you tube video of last years parade
So we were back on board the ship around 14.00 and went to the Lido and had one of their excellent burger and chips and came back down to the room to sit on the balcony to see if we can see the parade from there. Well to cut a long story short the ship left at 17.00 hrs and still no parade although further along the road was a large group of gazebos with a cacophonous emanating from it and we assumed this was the parade getting warmed up, or drunk, before they head on down the main road. Now we understand the reasons for the boarded up shops and Hotels etc.
So we sailed off in to the sunset heading back towards Fort Lauderdale and it will be full steam ahead for two days uninterrupted by Islands until we reach the home Port at 07.00.
‘Orajestad’ is an eclectic smallish town with many colourful buildings and some large Hotels and again is a Dutch territory and so it works unlike some of the other islands we have visited, This Island like the previous one yesterday appear to haver a large oil production business and perhaps live off the oil fields which Venezuela is famous for as we are not far away from there.
Tonight I will stay away from the Cesar salad as the mix is containing garlic, as mentioned earlier, will have to see what they have and remind them that NO Garlic means exactly that.
It has been a warm day again today of around 31 C but with a strong wind and so perhaps we got a little burnt. Tonight's food was fine and we got to meet one of the Chef’s as I complained about the garlic in the Cesar salad dressing, and why does every dish have to have garlic built in rather than on the side as its very annoying for somebody like me who has to avoid it like the plague, he apologised and took my complaint on board, I think.
We retruned the cabin after a short while sitting in the empty lounge so that we could put on Jami’s and relax.
