Aruba Round 2: WPW and kid free

I do recognize that I just did posts on Aruba but that was the with kids version. Our friends had recommended a lot of non-kid-friendly options at our last visit so of course we had to come back, and what better time than when you also get continued medical education credits through the Women's Physician Wellness Clarity conference?

It is also our birthday month so a lot of our focus was to declare it was my birthday to get better tables...yo...I have no shame in this because nothing is exciting about turning 48 except for making it this far.

Recap of prior: food is expensive as are drinks unless you are going to local food joints, which I 1000% recommend. Florins are the currency and it is 2 florins roughly to a dollar. The tourist areas are all in dollars and many add tip already to the bills. The language is Papiamento, which is a combo of Dutch and Spanish mostly, but the locals know all the formal Dutch, Spanish and English to some extent. The weather is hot, but it seems less so because of a constant 10 or more mph breeze. Hey, the Dutch were brilliant this way...tropics and breeze. Kids are all over but specific kid clubs are limited to resorts. Animals are also welcome at many hotels. Curry and roti, Caribbean aji sauces, and the best burger huts are the bomb, but the seafood is incredible everywhere.

On arrival we rented a car (Still 100% recommend. It's not super expensive and most parking is free.). Rather than an Airbnb a mile from the beach, we were at Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino this time. Normally this place is silly expensive but our trusty leader got us a great price. The hotels slightly south of the Ritz by about a mile are more reasonable if you don't want to have to remortgage your house.

Arriving on a Monday afternoon, we basically just wandered and had bar bites before hitting the pool for a good slow start. That evening though, we did a toes in the sand dinner at Atardi within the resort. The food was outstanding, sea bass, octopus, lovely cocktails. It is resort prices but the ambience is perfect at night. Link: https://www.atardiaruba.com/contact-location

Side tracking: The last time we were in Aruba, we noticed an enormous number of Chinese owned grocery stores. Since we saw pretty much no people of Asian descent, we were super confused by this. The Kong Fui, Hai ma, and Ng mart, all within a quick walk. So what the heck is the deal? A quick bit of research shows the Asian population of Aruba in 1.6%, so that was in line with my observation. Back when Dutch settlers visited the island to colonize, they had a gold refinery which was insanely profitable on the eastern side of the island, a rugged wind-swept and somewhat eerie landscape. They hired Chinese workers cheaply, and killed off many of them because of the toxic chemicals used in refining gold products and the unrelenting wind on that side of the island. Those that survived got settlements in some cases, but in general, they stayed because of other family in Venezuela and surrounds. Additionally, the current refinery business in Aruba is a massive crude oil refinery near the cruise port, which lay dormant for a while. This isn't actually refining oil at the moment, but local and foreign investors have been trying to figure out if the plant is able to be repurposed for cleaner energy purposes such as ethanol and wind plants, so the Chinese contingent has potential for big influence. This is a huge aside, but my husband and I are weirdos when it comes to this stuff.

Tuesday was my birthday, so I booked a morning deep sea fishing excursion with a different company than last because they did not have availability. In retrospect, sticking with the guides you know is a smarter move. Royal Blue was a nice boat but Randy and other guy that didn't tell us his name hardly talked the whole time and were really kind of an odd vibe altogether. We did catch a few barracuda so not all was negative but for future reference, still use Peter Meijer with Arubafishing.com. His staff are great and personable and also good with the kids. After this, a brief snack at the beach then a bit of RnR at the spa for a massage that I passed out during. Oops. But, the capstone of a birthday is a great meal. Our Cincy friends arrived that afternoon and we went off the beaten path to The Kitchen Table, an intimate 12 or less person dinner with 8 courses and pairings. I am just going to post the pics because they change the menu monthly, but every little thing we tried was insanely good. Www.thekitchentablearuba.com. Reservations are required in advance. Please go there.

The next day we ventured to Baby beach for snorkeling and sun. The kids and Tim had a great experience last time seeing octopus and a variety of other great stuff. I still whole heartedly recommend the drive to the south tip but unfortunately the current didn't cooperate with our efforts that day. But, on the other hand, if not for the trip we wouldn't have gone to Kaminis, a local curry and roti place that is absolutely fantastic. Want it spicy? No problem at all...you can have it but get ready to rumble. The margaritas are amazing and designed to knock you on your ass. They are not a joke. Drink prepared. 10/10 on that one. They do not have a website but google them...and eat roti and curry.

We weren't hungry for a long time after that but did grab a late night snack. The bruins were on screwing things up so we also tortured ourselves.

Another aside: pigeons and doves. Anyone but me ever wonder what the deal is with bobbing their heads when walking? Well, I looked it up. In order to increase the field of vision, these birds bob their heads for a better visual circumference. The bobbing also assists with consistent focus on objects as the legs or wings move up and down. Kind of like a built in ability to constantly focus on a treadmill. I have seen people try to read on a treadmill and as we know, it is almost impossible. I am not suggesting a pigeon head for us because we aren't evolved that way, of course, but just as an analogy. And, if you claim you can read well while running, I challenge you directly.

Thursday was the start of my conference. Tim and Jeff went morning snorkeling while I got a great workout with Dr. Ali Novitsky of The Fit Collective (please look her up, she is brilliant) and great lectures on finding clarity in what you want for your career and self.

Snorkeling at Boca Catalina and Tres Trapes for the afternoon was wonderful. We saw everything from octopus to turtles to amberjacks controlling a school of fish. Really beautiful, an easy swim with fins, minimal waves even on the reef. If you love snorkeling, you understand my passion for a shallow reef with all the fish. If you haven't snorkeled, take a tour and see what you're missing. You don't need to be a master swimmer to do many things, and getting in touch with the local beauty of tropical fish is priceless. Also, diving and certification is less expensive than in the states and you see shipwrecks and reef galore at not too low of a depth.

That evening we ventured to Red Fish Grille for some fresh catch of the day and interesting live music. Everything is and good and plentiful here but you do need to get off the main resort area for it.

Friday was more incredible lectures on how to recognize the things that need change, as hard as it is to get into your own head. Mentally, it was a lot so for the afternoon, we had a bigass raft (aka a couple of random rafts tied together with docs transporting buckets of beverages into the ocean). Getting to know other women doctors is priceless when a thermos of rum and vodka are involved. A bonus of Aruba, the beaches are calm and you can just float. You never get slammed with a wave and the float areas are off limits for all annoying jet skis and mostly from kids trying to drown each other.

We happened to be on the island at a time when the HiWinds Festival was there. These are professional kite and windsurfers doing tricks and races with food stands, beverages, and live music. The event began a few decades ago but has evolved into a really fun beach bum phenomenon which is people and athlete watching. You can literally sit in for the water and watch professional kitesurfing and have the competitors send you a wave. So check it out if you are there during the event. Shout out to Tom from the Netherlands who hit every jump but also smiled at me...making an old lady feel good about herself my friend.

Dinner at Indo, a Surinamese restaurant just off a residential area, 5 minute drive from resorts. Authentic menu, and friendly staff are key at this location. If you know nothing about Surinam or its food, the waitstaff are incredibly helpful, but since we don't eat huge portions of anything, we opted to share a plate with a few rice and noodle dishes. Www.indoaruba.com

Saturday we ended the conference, roamed the beaches, and tried to decompress. We kind of missed dinner because we went to the best Caribbean speakeasy ever, Apoteke. It you can find the red light and the doorbell, please go here. The cocktails are top notch and inventive and the atmosphere is burlesque and voodoo in a speakeasy. Design your own drink, try one of their 'prescriptions", whatever you fancy. It cannot get better than that. We had some original cocktails but also the design your own drink option too. A weird devil on the wall occasionally spews smoke at you also.

Www.apoteke.com

I might be quickly becoming the queen of 'maybe another day'. When it is cheaper to change your flight and keep the car an extra day, I see this as a no brainer. So we checked out of the Marriott and went to Brickell Beach (Wyndham) for one more night. As it was Mother's Day we met back up with our friends for brunch on the way.

The trick shows were scheduled for the Hi-Winds festival so we made our way down the beach, causing an unfortunate bout of heat shock for me. So I laid in the ocean while people zipped by on the kites praying for normal body temperature. Ehlers Danlos disease is a royal pain in the ass for heat or cold. I wish I had a way to get better warning. Either way the show was fascinating.

For our actual last night we did a restaurant called Caya, which is a hidden garden oasis in the midst of a lot of touristy stuff. The food was just perfection. Octopus gyoza, duck with mole, scallops in ahi-Amarillo with rice clouds...and the cocktails were insane. Highly recommend. www.cayarestaurant.com

We did miss a few locations we were set on so I have to come back of course. Also, if you are a female physician, pretty please check out womenphysicianwellness.com