An Aruba Adventure

Day 6: Thursday June 7 Aruba

Bon Bini and Welkomen to Aruba... We arrived in Aruba an hour late due to a mysterious technical difficulty on our ship, but that didn't stop us from having a great day in Aruba. We had booked a tour through Carnival so our late arrival didn't affect us at all. We met our tour guide at the cruise terminal and were taken to our jeep for an Aruban Safari. Our first stop of the day was at the Ayo Rock formation which is a natural rock formation that was inhabited by the earliest settlers of Aruba, an indian tribe originating from Venezuela. After climbing the rocks and sweating 15 pounds off in the heat we boarded our Land Rover and headed to our 2nd stop which was the Aruban Ostrich Farm, but before we could arrive Shandle's sunglasses flew off her head and disappeared forever (so long free pair of Maui Jims). Well, we arrived at the ostrich farm and were able to interact with and feed the largest birds in the world. After the ostrich farm it was time to really see what our Land Rovers could do and our group headed off road to visit the Natural Bridge, the old Dutch goldmine, the Church of Alto Vista, and the California Lighthouse which was named after a ship that sunk right off the northern coast of Aruba. The Natural Bridge collapsed in 2005 after Hurricane Ivan significantly weakened it but there is a smaller natural bridge that still remains, the Dutch goldmine was used to bring over 3000 pounds of gold back to the Royal family in the Netherlands, the Church of Alto Vista was the first church on the island and still remains an active Catholic church, and finally the California Lighthouse is no longer in use but stands tall above Aruba. Along the tour our driver fishtailed, jumped over boulders, got us stuck in 2 foot deep sand, and cracked my head open as he jumped our Land Rover over a group of rocks. After being beaten, bashed, and blasted with sand we ended our tour at beautiful Amarashi Beach for a chance to swim, relax, and wash away the sand and dirt stuck to us. This tour was one of the more adventurous tours and I recommend it for those only wanting to see less touristy places that are definitely off the beaten path.

 Our Land Rover for our Aruba Adventure

 Ayo Rock formation

 Ostrich saying hello to us

 

Shandle feeding the ostriches

The collapsed natural bridge

The Church of Alto Vista

Some little tidbits about our day in Aruba...
Shandle did indeed lose her sunglasses
Greg did indeed crack his head open on the top of the Land Rover (he is ok)
We saw hieroglyphics from the earliest settlers of Aruba at the Ayo Rock Formation
We saw these really colorful blue lizards that are native to Aruba
Curacao and Aruba both have an extremely unique climate that allows for several different species of cacti to grow all around he islands, sometimes even feet from the ocean or other water sources
The tour company we used was ABC Aruba Tours and our driver stalled our Land Rover over 20 times
Aruba and Curacao are part of an island chain called the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) and all three were part of the former Netherland Antilles
A few words we learned in Papiamento (the national language of Aruba and Curacao) Dushi=Beautiful Sushi=Trash Bon Bini=Welcome

 Greg on the Ayo Rock formation

 Cool Aruba blue lizard

California Lighthouse with cactus on Aruba's north coast

Us enjoying our day in Aruba (notice Shandle stole my sunglasses)


After finishing our tour we did a little shopping and then boarded the ship for our trip home. We spent a little time in the hot tub, ate dinner, then kicked back by the Seaside Theater with some drinks in our hands and watched the Heat and Celtics battle in game 6. We look forward to a relaxing last 2 sea days which will include a lot of drinking, some good comedy shows, the start of Euro2012, the Pacquiao fight, game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, and then some more drinking. Well that's all for now... we'll be home on Sunday.

Caves, Cliffs, and Colors of Curacao

Day 5: Wednesday June 6 Curacao

Hello, it's actually Friday June 8, but the last 2 days were so fun and busy that we didn't have the time to blog during the day or the energy to blog at night. So the next 2 days are relaxing fun days at sea as we sail back towards Florida, so we'll be updating Curacao and Aruba today and tomorrow.

So, we arrived in Curacao at 2pm and I had done research to know exactly what I wanted to see but we needed transportation to the different parts of the island. After haggling with a few taxi drivers we found a nice guy who told us he could take us where we needed to go and also show us some things that only the locals know about. We made price arrangements and jumped in for the hour ride to Westpunt the western most part of Curacao. First stop of the day was Boka Shete National Park and a view of Boka Pistola and the amazing waves crashing against the volcanic cliffs. After seeing what we wanted to see our guide brought us to one of those local knowledge spots in the park and guided us into a cave where the water rushed all the way to our feet before it was sucked back out to see and thrashed against the cliffs. The next stop was Knip Bay but before we got there he showed us another local spot called Westpunt Beach Overlook and we were able to get a few beautiful pictures. Finally we arrived at Knip Bay, which is the top rated beach on Curacao. As we grabbed our towel and bags to head to the beach our guide pulled me to the side and showed me a walkway that lead to an amazing overlook off a cliff. I thought it was great, then he told me to jump. I had heard about cliff jumping but didn't know exactly where it was so after he told me where to jump and how far out, I threw caution to the wind and launched myself off the 30 foot cliff. WOW, what an experience... and after jumping again several people on the beach gathered around and started jumping too. We spent another hour at Knip Bay Beach and the cliffs before heading back towards the cruise port. But before we got back to the port our guide pulled over and showed us some salt flats near Williwood. After looking out over the salt flats we noticed hundreds of pink birds...FLAMINGOS!!! So, after caves, cliffs, cliff jumping, and flamingos we were finally back at the cruise ship.

 Cave in Boka Shete National Park

 Wave crashing against the volcanic cliffs in Boka Shete

 Knip Bay Beach

 Greg cliff jumping

 Us in the water at Knip Bay Beach

Flamingos in the salt flats

We went back to our cabin, showered, changed, ate, then headed back into Curacao to experience the nightlife (we were docked until 11pm). We explored a local fort named Rif Fort, walked across the floating bridge, and then visited the amazing waterfront district that is totally illuminated by neon spotlights. While at the waterfront district we ran into a couple that we had seen the 3 previous days and just stood on the floating bridge and talked, then we walked a little further and all of a sudden Shandle heard someone calling her name, we turned around and there was Eugene from South Africa waving us over to a table he was sitting at. Eugene works on the ship with the art team and remembered us from the Day 1 art auction. After visiting with us he told me he had something lined up especially for us (My no art buying rule this trip may be in trouble)... anyways after visiting with Eugene we started to walk back towards the ship when we came across a few wonderful photo opportunities with the Carnival Freedom. We finally made it back onto the ship and decided to attend the sail away party on the top deck when I noticed the Curacao Little League championship being played. I came to find out that Curacao's Little League team had won the Little League World Series 9 times and has produced major leaguers such as Andruw Jones and Dan Uggla. I snapped a few zoomed in pictures of the game and a few pictures of Curacao as we sailed away towards our next stop in Aruba. Curacao was a question mark port for us but it turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly exciting stops we've experienced while cruising. Another great day in the books it's time to get some sleep in preparation for Aruba!

 Neon Waterfront District of Curacao

Curacao Little League Game

Us in front of the Carnival Freedom

Saona, Sun, Swimming, and Starfish

Day 4: Tuesday June 5 La Romana, Dominican Republic

Today was the day I was most excited about for this particular cruise itinerary. In our past cruises we've done some amazing excursions from fishing in the Panama Canal, feeding wild sharks in the Bahamas, hiking to the top of Mayan ruins in Belize, interacting with monkeys in Honduras, and night kayaking in a bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico. So, this excursion was the one that I had picked to go up in our top 10 cruise moments... and it did not disappoint. We started the day with a 25 minute taxi ride to Bayahibe Beach to meet up with our guide for the day. Once everyone arrived we boarded speedboats and took off towards Saona Island. We saw the cliffs of Dominican Republic, the mangrove swamps that seperate the mainland from Saona Island, and the point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Carribean Sea at the eastern tip of Dominican Republic. Once we arrived at the island we spent some time at the beach and waited for lunch to be served. Lunch was amazing, the free rum was amazing, and the beautiful island was amazing... after a few hours on the island it was time to traveled to "Piscina Natural". Piscina Natural is the 2nd largest sandbar in the Carribean and is a breeding ground for the giant starfish. They stopped the boats and let us out to walk around in the 2 foot deep water. The starfish were everywhere and we were able to hold them and interact with them. I held one for about 5 minutes and it ended up suctioning itself to me, I had to get Shandle to pry him off. After spending about an hour at Piscina Natural it was time to head back to Bayahibe Beach, so we boarded the 3 speedboats and had a 30 minute Miami Vice-like race back to the beach with big waves and lots of splashes. It was definitely an exciting end to a great day at Saona Island. We boarded our taxi and drove back to port at la Romana where we did some souvenir shopping before boarding the Freedom.

                                Local Dominicans greeting the cruise ship

      Saona Island Beach as seen from our swimming spot

                                                        Saona Island Beach

                                                    Paradise

  

Us at Saona Island

                                               Piscina Natural

                             Us with a giant starfish at Piscina Natural

           Greg with his starfish friend and a Starfish Rum drink

                                   High speed boat race

 We're about to set sail and head to the very very southern port of Curacao but right before we left we watched a group of kids play baseball. Anyone who knows about baseball knows that some of the greats in MLB come from Dominican Republic (Manny Ramirez, Pudge Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez, etc etc), so it was pretty cool to see these kids enjoying the game on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. Well, the ship horn just sounded so were officially on our way south now, blog to you later!!!

                              Local Dominican Republic baseball park

                            Back on the Freedom heading to Curacao

Dirty Whale Tale

Day 3: Monday June 4 Grand Turk B.W.I.

Our ship sailed into the Turks and Caicos just before 7am and this was the day that I was going to wake up early and catch the sunrise. Well, if 6:30 isn't early enough to catch the sunrise, then that just isn't going to happen this cruise. I was however the first person off the ship and I was able to walk the beach by myself before 3000 other cruisers all came aground and overran the area. i walked to the very end of the island and visited a place called the conch graveyard before heading back to the ship to get breakfast and Shandle. After breakfast we picked our spot under a shady palm tree on the beautiful beach and spent some quality beach time in Grand Turk. After swimming in the ocean it was time to get liquored up so we headed to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville where we spent the afternoon drinking Pina Coladas, Margaritas, and Havanas and Bananas straight from the blender at the swim up bar. Well we are back on board and sailing towards La Romana, Dominican Republic now and are really looking forward to our adventure tomorrow.

On a side note, I have been accosted three times now by three different people. Last night on our way back from the Comedy Club a lady who had WAAAAYYYYY too much too drink stumbled into our elevator and proceeded to beg me for a piece of my watermelon off my plate. Then this morning at breakfast some guy sitting at the table next to us asked me for half my banana, I gave i to him but made some crude joke about exactly what I had done to the banana beforehand. And, finally at Margaritaville this kid (young enough for me to laugh it off, but old enough to know better) starts splashing me while I was taking a picture. I had sand on my feet and was standing on a bridge above the pool, I kicked sand at him and he ran away after that, it made me laugh :)

 Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

 Conch on the beach with the Freedom in the background

 Conch Graveyard

Carnival Freedom and the crystal clear Caribbean Sea in Grand Turk

 Our shady spot on the beach

Wastin' away at Margaritaville

 Shandle just hanging out in Grand Turk with a blender full of booze in her hand

Picture I took just before we got back on the ship

Now to end this blog update with a joke we picked up at the Comedy Club.
Two whales are swimming around (a boy whale and a girl whale). All of a sudden the boy whale starts crying. "What's wrong" asks the girl whale. "Well you see that boat up there above us, that bot is full of guys who hunted and killed my entire family". The girl whale looks sad and asks if there is anything she can do. The boy whale replies "Well we could swim up there and blow water on them and knock them off their ship. The girl whale agrees and they swim to the surface and blow out of their blow holes, all the men go overboard. The whales start to swim away when all of a sudden the boy whale starts crying again. "What's wrong now" asks the girl whale. "Well, we knocked them overboard but they are close to shore so they'll probably be rescued... my family didn't get saved, so I don't think it's fair" replys the boy whale. The girl whale looks a little suspicious and asks "What would you like to do about that"? The boy whale gets excited and says "Let's swim up there and eat them"!!! The girl whale stops and says "It's the first date, I have no problem giving a blowjob, but I am not swallowing any SeaMen"...

Allright that's all I've got for now... We'll update again in La Romana.

Well we are officially cruising!!!

Day 1: Saturday June 2 Embarkation Day

We left our apartment at 10:15am and had no traffic to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. We arrived at the Port around 11 and flew through the process and were on the ship by noon. After lunch consisting of hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, and potato salad we decided to explore the Carnival Freedom. Now since this is our 3rd time on the Freedom we didn't do too much but we got our mandatory Bottomless Bubbles card and then headed to our room to see if our luggage was there. Well we checked 4 bags (2 of them mine, 1 Shandle's bath stuff, and 1 was all handle's clothes). We only got 3 of them and the one that was Shandle's was missing. We hurried to the muster safety drill and then back to our room to see if her clothes had arrived yet. We had dinner reservations at 6:30 for the Sun King Steakhouse but unfortunately Shandle's clothes didn't arrive until almost 7 so we pushed back our reservation and then got ready.

Finally the check in process and familiarization was done, it was time to really started cruising and anybody who cruises knows that one of the highlights is defintely the food!!! And at Sun King Steakhouse we had lots of full. I had the Escargot appetizer, Chef's Special 18 ounce 5 spice steak with loaded baked potato and steamed brocolli. Shandle had the tableside made Caesar's salad, the 9 ounce filet mignon with loaded baked potato and steamed brocolli. Before dinner we got two amous bouche appetizers courtesy of the chef (including the world's smallest hamburger) and we received a complimentary bottle of Chardonay (It was smooth but bitter, BUT also free). Overall, this was one of the best dinners we've ever had on a cruise ship and it set us up perfectly to go work some of the meal off in the... HOT TUB!!! The hot tub is my happy place and after spending some time there we headed to the late night comedy show for some laughs before bed. Tomorrow is a sea day and I love sea days because they are lazy days.




Carnival Freedom Leaving Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale








 Us on the Carnival Freedom









Me eating the smallest hamburger ever



Sunset over the Carribbean

Day 2: Sunday June 3 Sea Day
We woke up at 10:30 and lazied around our cabin for a while before venturing out to get some lunch. After lunch it was time for free champagne and the art auction. The last 3 cruises we've been on we have purchased art but I really don't have any room on the walls in our apartment so I told myself that I would not buy anything that we didn't absolutely love. Well after day I managed to dodge the art bullet and we just enjoyed a few hours of free alcohol. After a little bit more time in the hot tub and up on deck we grabbed a late afternoon snack and headed back to our cabin to prepare for formal night. We're getting all dolled up in our Sunday's best now and look forward to a nice elegant dinner before watching the Heat vs. Celtics game on the Carnival SeaSide Theater tonight and then some more comedy in the After Hours Punchliner Club. Tomorrow is Grand Turk Day in the Turks and Caicos. We're looking forward to a nice beach day!!!

Day Eight: Our last day in the "Eternal City"

So we went to sleep yesterday and it was snowing, we woke up today and it is snowing. It finally stopped snowing and Rome has 5 inches of snow on the ground. It has not snowed in 27 years in Rome but we get 5 inches??? Today started off rough, we walked through slushy watery ice trying to find a taxi but we were unable to so we ended up in Piazza Navona. After a brief visit we found a taxi and went to Piazza del Popolo and had lunch. After lunch we walked around Piazza del Popolo (Piazza of the People) then headed towards the Spanish Steps. After a brief visit there and an encounter with two rather friendly snowmen we then visited the Trevi Fountain so we could throw our coins in to ensure our return to Rome. We grabbed some coffee and it was time to souvenir shop. After shopping for a couple hours we took the march down Via dei Fori Imperialli which is the road that Benito Mussolini constructed to parade his forces in a triumphant demonstration with the Roman Forum and the Colosseum as the back drops. After our triumphant stroll we arrived at the Colosseum right as the sun was setting. We took a few pictures and called it a day. We arrived back at our hotel and packed our bags, then went to our final Italian dinner of the trip, and finally sat down in our little neighborhood cafe for a few sips of macchiato. Tomorrow we fly to Portugal where we will be visiting Lisbon for a day before our European trip comes to an end.

 

Snowy Roman Street.

 

 Piazza del Popolo. 

 

 Shandle and a friendly snowman at the Spanish Steps.

Greg and a friendly snowman at the Spanish Steps

 Via dei Fori Imperialli

"Lasting Reflection"

Us in front of the Colloseum, our last picture in Rome!!!

Day Seven: The Renaissance City

 Well we woke up to a bitter cold wind in Florence and were a bit worried about our walking tour of the "Renaissance City", but we braved the wintry conditions and met our tour guide for the day. Our first stop was Piazzale Michaelangelo where we enjoyed a beautiful panoramic of the entire city of Florence and a replica of the famous sculpture of "David" done by the artistic genius Michelangelo. Next was a trek across the Ponte San Trinita bridge which spans the River Arno and overlooks the famous Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio is the bridge that is so beautiful that even Adolf Hitler wouldn't destroy it. During WWII every bridge was destroyed in Florence except the Ponte Vecchio.


Panoramic view of Florence, Italy

Looking down the River Arno with Ponte Vecchio in front

After all that time in the elements it was time to visit a couple of indoor places. First was the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore were we saw the outside of the Baptistry, the inside of the beautiful Cathedral which also has the famous Duomo created by Brunelleschi and the famous bell tower created by Giotto. After visiting the Cathedral we took a short cold walk to the Accademia Gallery which is home to several great works of art but none more famous than "David". "David" is the 13 foot tall sculpture done by Michelangelo which depicts the boy who faced off against Goliath. It was very strictly enforced that no pictures be taken but the statue is considered one of Michelangelo's greatest works behind only the "Pieta" in St. Peter's Basilica and the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. After marveling at "David" as well as 2 lesser known "Pieta"s and 4 unfinished sculptures also done by Michelangelo we decided to eat a quick lunch (which consisted of a dessert that featured several different Chocolates and a glass of 27 year old Sherry) and then visit the Basilica of Santa Croce.

 Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with the Baptistry and Giotto's Belltower

A bronze copy of Michelangelo's "David"

Our assorted chocolates and 27 year old Sherry

Santa Croce or "Church of the Holy Cross" is the final resting place of Michelangelo and Galileo, and it holds a few tributes done to the poet Dante who wrote the "Divine Comedy" and created the Italian language. Dante was an outside thinker and the rulers of Florence banished Dante from the city. After he wrote the "Divine Comedy" and established a new language they desperately wanted him to call Florence home so they made several monuments and paintings and shrines to Dante, but he never returned.

Galileo's Tomb

 Michelangelo's tomb

Painting of Dante reading the "Divine Comedy", notice on te left is hell, the top is the ascention to heaven, Dante is in the center, and Florence is on the right. Dante is outside of hell and outside the gates of Florenece but he is placed directly under the ascention to heaven (This was Florence's way of trying to get Dante to come back to the city he was born in)

Us in front of Santa Croce

After finally having enough of the cold we decided to end our time in Florence about 5 ours earlier than originally planned, and it turned out to be a great decision because when we arrived at the train station we found out there was a big snowstorm just south of Florence and north or Rome which was causing havoc on the transportation system. We caught one of the last trains out of Florence before they started cancelling travel. We arrived in Rome to find it was already snowing and it was forecasted to snow throughout the night. We had a nice dinner then ducked into a cafe to escape the weather, who knows what tomorrow has in store for us. I suppose it depends on this wintry mess!!!

Snowy night in Rome