My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
We went to Aruba every two weeks in the winter. I couldn’t find a lot to do out on the pier, so I signed up for some tours when we returned. First I did a walking tour where I learned the history of the island, learned about the meaning behind the statues, monuments, the flag and the parks. I tasted some local food. I didn’t write any of these facts down, of course. They had these blue horses all over town. I can’t remember their significance, but I took pictures for my Aunt Wendy because she loves horses.
This next one was my favorite. They all had names.
The next time we were in Aruba, I had enough time off to go on the crew tour– a catamaran to go snorkel around a sunken ship. That sounded awesome!
It was a pretty amazing day. The weather was beautiful after it rained on us briefly. I always think it’s so funny when people run to get out of the rain when they’re on their way to the beach. What are you going to do at the beach? Get in the water. We’re just doing that now. It was so windy and overcast that we didn’t realize how much sun we were getting and everyone came back sunburned.
The snorkeling was awesome. There were tons of fish very close to us. Then we moved to wear the sunken ship was and that was just creepy. I swam out really far until I could see it and then got creeped out and came back. But the snacks were good.
That night we had Liar’s club and I was on the panel. In Liar’s club we have an obscure word and three of us give different definitions and the guests try to guess who is telling the truth (well, who has the correct definition). I always try to tell the most ridiculous stories and if no one votes for me, I consider that a win. One of the words we use is Pisonia (which is really a thorny tropical plant that attacks birds). For my story I went on and on about our catamaran tour (which was originally based on a cat tour I did in St Thomas last contract), which was convenient that we’d gone on the tour that day. I talk about the snorkeling and then I made up that I was stung by a jellyfish and one of the crewman peed on my sting to make the pain go away. So if you get stung by a jellyfish, just have a sailor Pisonia. It got a good laugh.