Quick Summary 9/23-10/2

[~Amy~®]

This was my 25th trip to Aruba.

A detailed trip report and photos will be coming in the next couple of weeks....but in a nutshell -

-----------------


Weather - beautiful, sunny, HOT, breezy (back to the Aruba weather I know)


Food - favorite new place was Carambola and just okay "old place" was Marandi - not sure we'd go back to Marandi again for such a long drive for "okay" food.
My usual favorites (Screaming Eagle, Bingo, Passions, Mango's, Tulip, etc.) - great as always!

Car rental incident - my rental car was almost stolen from the hotel parking lot one night. Luckily, the security guys were there. They didn't catch him (couldn't hold him because he was threatening them with a knife and a screwdriver and police got there too late) but he did some damage and....left his Blackberry in my car so hoping the police can arrest him. Just happy that he didn't get away with the car. Will give more details on this later. But what a pain/mess for everyone. Hans at Tropic has been great though and we will spending alot of time together via email with all of the paperwork, claims, etc.

Fishing charter with Mahi Mahi - first time I ever did this and had a ball. Mango's cooked our mahi-mahi that night for dinner

Philip's Animal Garden - if you love animals, spend a few hours here seeing everything from rescued monkeys, horses, birds and kangaroos
(yes, kangaroos!)

Oh....another new favorite place for me was Tandoor. Was in the mood for something other than steak/fish/etc. and they have the best curry chicken! Will definitely be going back again! Their food was GREAT!

Went to a charity golf fundraiser at Tierra del Sol for Cas Animal. Looked liked everyone had a great time after golfing with good, drinks, music - all for a good cause.

[Arubalisa]

Welcome home.

[crimms]

Amy,
Thats something about the car. Glad you got his blackberry-too funny. This is the first time I've seen anyting on Philips animal garden. Thanks so much for the tip. We will check it in December when we go. Cant wait for the photos.
Thanks Sean and Susan

[~Amy~®]

Originally Posted by crimms

Amy,
Thats something about the car. Glad you got his blackberry-too funny. This is the first time I've seen anyting on Philips animal garden. Thanks so much for the tip. We will check it in December when we go. Cant wait for the photos.
Thanks Sean and Susan

Make sure you pay for the tour. When we arrived there was a sign that said closed for the day - but we refused to believe it and pulled in anyway. LOL! We saw Philip and he said he was not doing tours that day but we were welcome to walk around all we liked. Halfway through, he came out again and started expaining all of the stories behind the animals and how they came to his place, their habits, etc. It was MUCH BETTER with Philip there because we learned alot and he's very passionate about taking care of these animals when others could not. So the tour is definitely worth it! We just got lucky that he was available for most of our time there. Wait til you see the smiling pony - we really does smile and likes to look up at the sun and smile (so cute) - but he is nippy so watch the fingers. The monkeys were also entertaining and Philip told us stories about how they learned to give them water (a bucket doesn't do because they just dump it out and use the bucket as a toy all day - LOL!) And how they were making noise with certain things for attention every time I turned my back on them. Apparently, you must be smarter than a monkey and it's a slow learning curve. LOL!

The car incident was unnerving to say the least. They broke a window and cut some wires near the ignition so they did some damage but they didn't get the car so that's a good thing!

[Andrea J.]

glad you had fun and the weather cooperated.
sorry to hear of the car and the thief!!!!
despicable actions!

[Randi]

Amy, I look forward to your full report.
The car issue is awful and I always wonder what would happen with insurance, etc when renting a car. We used to pay for insurance in Aruba(which is expensive) but then we found out that our own insurance covers us in Aruba. I guess I should ask more questions on how this would work in case of theft, etc.

With regards to Mirandi's: We love the setting and have always loved going there too. Always on our "must do" list. However, last December we went there and found it wasn't the same food quality and some of our favourite dishes were gone. Sadly, it was the loss of their chef who opened up Barefoot (which we love) and seems to be doing very well. When we went back to Aruba in March we didn't even go there and I also didn't bother making another reservation for this December based on reviews with the same feeling as I had. I feel saddened that such a wonderful place (owners and location) is not trying to elevate their food quality and try and win back old customers. I look forward to your longer trip report with more comments.

Otherwise, glad you had a wonderful time!

[kent]

Amy, I can't believe that was your 25th trip. I will have my 25th in 4 weeks. One of these days we are going to both be in Aruba the SAME TIME!!! Kent

[~Amy~®]

Originally Posted by kent

Amy, I can't believe that was your 25th trip. I will have my 25th in 4 weeks. One of these days we are going to both be in Aruba the SAME TIME!!! Kent

Hi Kent! Yeah, I can't believe that was trip #25 either. LOL!

We're still looking at doing NYE in Aruba again this year for trip #26.

Hopefully, we'll see you in 2012 in Aruba!