Day 519 - Aruba

You know when you’re sleeping & you’ve fallen asleep in a funny position & your arm or hand falls asleep? Well, that happened to me this morning & as my alarm would ring & I would try to hit snooze, it was near impossible! I’m using my iPod these days & you have to click, swipe & touch in order to hit snooze… It was quite the task when you’ve got a rubber hand!

I eventually got up just before 1000. I didn’t realize all aboard was 1530, otherwise I would have woken earlier. I was on a mission to return the blender & exchange the G12. The blender hasn’t worked well since the day I got it. The G12 had a black line across the LCD that shouldn’t be there.

Becky phoned & was up for a walk, so she accompanied me to the hardware store. It was a bit of a mission. The lady doing returns wasn’t very ‘chipper’, to say the least. She tested the blender, ignoring the rattling happening in the motor, tell me it was fine to blend water. She did put ice in it & used the ‘ice crush’ button, which I’ve never used. She said their return policy was 2 days & they don’t do cash refunds. Clearly seeing someone had done something to her cornflakes this morning, I asked for the Manager. He seemed pleasant enough & when I explained my situation, he said he’d have to call his boss. I thought to myself, ‘But aren’t you the Boss?’ Anyhow, LONG story short, we ended up paying a 15% restocking fee & got $87 back for a blender that should cost about $40 in Canada. We paid over a hundred dollars for the blender originally. At this point, I was happy to get ANYTHING back! The whole process took us an hour.

Becky & I motored back to the ship, collected Jaco & made our way to Boolchand’s for the camera exchange. Thankfully they were organized & all was in order. I picked up my new G12, tested it out & away we went. I do hope everything will be okay with it! I must say, Boolchand’s has been very good to me. I had some troubles with the underwater housing & the camera & they were very quick to replace the items – even when I wasn’t going back to the original shop & had to exchange the item on another island altogether! If you’re in St. Maarten, be sure to stop in & see Mike or Ravi for a sweet deal on gear!

We caught a cab from the Renaissance Hotel to the beach. The driver took us to the closest one, since it was already 1400. We went to Divi beach & it was GORGEOUS! I don’t know why we haven’t been there before! They were welcoming to cruise ship passengers, the beach was near vacant & the water was beautiful! I was so sad we didn’t have more time!

Jaco went for his usual long swim & Becky & I bobbed in the water taking the waves in stride. It was a perfect beach day! Our hour went by quickly & we were soon looking for a cab back to the ship.

We made it back with 10 minutes to spare – of course, after picking up a few postcards! Becky & I went up for a bite to eat & after she dashed away for work, I ran into Carla. She used to work on ships, is married to a Senior Officer & is sailing onboard with her daughter while they visit Daddy. We had a wonderful visit & I hope to run into her again before the end of the week.

Jaco & I spent the night talking & chilling out. I typed a few blog posts while he watched tennis, football, Piers Morgan & ET. He’s now sleeping peacefully beside me – most likely unaware that he’s drifted off & is missing the sports highlights. I do love him so.

Lekker slaap,

xxxxMaria