In the previous two and a half weeks, we have managed to cram in a lot. All of the destinations were new to us and some of them were pretty intense, so we were looking forward to coming to Aruba for 3 nights, to relax, swim and see family.

 

Back in 2018, when Nick was recovering from his surgery in Ecuador, we went to Aruba to meet his cousins and stayed with them for a week. Casper Hese is first cousins with Nick’s father.

 

In the past 6 years, since our last trip, the boys Emiliano and Bartholomeo have grown so tall, especially Emiliano. Philippe & Vanessa have built and moved into their new home, which is conveniently next door to Casper and his wife Sandra, but everyone calls her Poppy.

 

During our time here, we managed to sleep late, making sure we woke up before breakfast finished being served! We also swam in the pool, swam in the Caribbean Sea, did a bit of exploring but as we had been chauffeured around the island on our last visit, we were focusing more on relaxing.

 

Probably, the main thing we wanted to do was to catch up with Casper & Poppy, Philippe & Vanessa, if they could fit it into their busy schedules. On our last night, we were invited to join them for dinner at Zeerovers, which is a fresh fish place, right over the water.

 

Now as many of you may know, MJ doesn’t do fish, of any sort, so we were a bit concerned. We spoke to the chef at our hotel who said that he was happy to make a hamburger to take with us to dinner. Next we rang the café and explained the situation – they were very understanding, so that night, we were picked up, MJ and her burger in a plain brown paper wrapper, and went to have dinner and catch up with the family.

 

We talked lots, we showed photos, we drank a fair bit too! We had a wonderful night and want to give a huge hug to Poppy for helping to ensure this night happened.

Tomorrow it will be back to the madness of the US!