Buffam's Tropical Haven and Costa Linda 9/1-9/10

[clarabell]

Let me preface this trip report. We are a couple in our mid 50 who are finished with the partying stage in our life and prefer to be with good friends and each other. We are early to bed, early to rise. My hobby is cooking and we both have different food allergies, so we don’t eat out much. It may sound boring to some but we like it. Our business has been significantly hit by the economy, so some of my tips may help others who are experiencing similar difficulties. But we had frequent flyers we needed to use or lose, so we decided to head off to Aruba when I found a great deal on a last minute time share at Costa Linda. We have been to Aruba a few times before, but always stayed at La Cabana—which is nice but nothing in comparison to Costa Linda.

Before leaving our mid west home, I prebooked online a long term parking spot through Global Parking.com. It was a great deal at $3.50/day and their site handles many major markets. So off we left for Miami and a short layover before Aruba.

Before going through customs, we picked up a bottle of rum and vodka at the duty free store next to the baggage claim area. When we exited, Hans at Tropic Car Rental was right there greeting us with our name on a small sign. He helped us to the parking lot and turned over the keys to a Hyundai with only 3,700 miles—almost brand new. We had filled out the forms he emailed us before leaving and we declined the extra insurance since I had confirmed coverage with our credit card. My husband took a few pictures of the car so we were all on point in case of any damage.

We were arriving a few days before our week at CL and I found a great studio unit at a bed and breakfast I saw on Trip Advisor, www. buffamstropicalhaven.com. Owners Sherrie and Rick have three apartments in the courtyard of their home close to Ling’s. The units are spotlessly clean, well equipped and the beds are comfortable. The house has a nice pool, beautiful gardens and an outdoor grill. But the best part was the wonderful owners, Sherrie and Rick who are ex-pats from the US. They gave us so many good tips, we felt like we were staying with friends. After we checked in, we headed off to Ling’s to pick up a few groceries, enjoyed a cocktail with our proprietors and grilled some grouper we picked up at the store. Iris showed up from fastphonesaruba.com and we were all set with the phone. We had brought our laptop and Sherrie and Rick let us use the wifi at no charge. A few glasses of wine, a moonlit swim and we headed off for a great nights sleep.

Thursday morning, Sherrie fixed us a great sausage and egg breakfast with juice. We had already made coffee in the room (I bring it from home with a suitcase filled with other non perishables. Remember, I love to cook.). We packed some sandwiches in a soft sided mini cooler I brought with a couple of cold packs I froze. We also bring Rubbermaid sport thermoses for our beverages and our snorkeling masks with water shoes. So off we went for first trip to Baby Beach for a morning snorkel. On the way down, we turned right in Saventa to the street where the Flying Fishbone is. There is a small bar/dock their called ZeeRover. Just look for the Heineken sign. The local fisherman use that dock and if you are lucky you can time it right to watch them with their day’s catch. We bought a bag of whole red snappers (cleaned) and some shrimp. ZeeRover stored it in their cooler until we were done at Baby Beach. We had a blast seeing the varied and colorful variety of fish. Near the brain coral at the reef, we spied three large black fish with electric blue spots near their gills and eyes. Beautiful. I don’t know what variety they are but they were amazing. I brought some left over rice from the night before and the fish swarmed everywhere. Rice works well to attract the fish, but they don’t like to eat it. So it works out well—they don’t start nibbling at you to feed them. We picnicked on Baby Beach and headed back to Buffams for a refresher. That afternoon, we borrowed some beach chairs from Sherrie and Rick and sat under the Divi Trees on Eagle Beach. But this time we added a little rum to our juice/Crystal Light in the thermos. Bobbing through the pristine waters on Eagle, we were in Heaven. Back at Buffams, I shelled the shrimp, marinated them in some salad dressing I bought and laced them on bamboo skewers. That night, my husband played some Buena Vista Social Club on the Ipod Docker and had another moonlight swim in the pool.

Friday was moving day to CL. We took the morning for a drive to the Lighthouse and some snorkeling at Malmok. The rep from the Marriott Surf approached us about a tour. When he quickly went from $75 DePalm activity to $150 credit we signed up. On the way back to Buffams, we stopped at a restaurant supply near the inn to pick up some really colorful outdoor ashtrays Sherrie and Rick had. I have a few friends who smoke—or insist that their friends smoke outdoors. Sherry had bought them for a group that rented her units for a month and had a wedding reception there! Anyway, at $3 each, the ashtrays will make cute Christmas gifts for my friends. Also picked up a citronella candle as a romantic bug preventer on the balcony at CL. Sherrie and Rick were nice enough to let us store our perishables in their fridge until Costa Linda’s check in at 5pm. At CL, we signed in early and they let us use the beach facilities—though we were sad to leave our new friends. We got in our CL unit, we were delighted. We weren’t in a renovated unit, but we loved it. Large, spacious, nice view. Flat screens for my husband and nice kitchen for me. I rubbed the whole red snapper with some spice mix I brought, stuffed them with lemon slices and wrapped them aluminum foil. CL employees light the grill for you. The staff at CL is very accomodating! A great salad, rice, a veggie and the best red snapper I have ever had! We lit our candle and ate on the balcony in our unit. We decided to try some of the small box white wine from Chile we found at Ling’s. At $5 per liter, it was great! Actually better than some more expensive bottled wines we bought at Ling's. Very nice for very little money. We topped off the meal with some local ice cream we found in clear, deli like plastic containers at Lings. I think the brand is Piets and it is wonderful. Love the pistachio and the chocolate flavors!

Saturday was my husband’s birthday. After the morning Baby beach snorkel, he said he just wanted to party at CL’s beach. We ran back to Ling’s and picked up a bottle of dark Aruban rum for like $8-9 dollars. Frankly, we liked it better than the name brand we bought at the duty free and I won’t bother with that airport stop again. The day was spent bobbing in the ocean with a few breaks up to the unit for more lotion and our rum/Crystal Light potion. We had planned to go out for dinner, but our pale face sunburn and an afternoon of Rum changed our mind to a walking trip to Bob’s Pizza in the same complex as CL. The pizza was wonderful!

While we were getting ready for dinner as the steel drums played by the pool, we heard the most blood curdling screams from the pool. At first I thought it was someone’s husband throwing her in the pool—but no, much more serious. The band stopped playing abruptly and throngs of folks started congregating between the pool and baby pool. The sirens went off and the EMT crew came running in with a gurney. We didn’t want to add to the commotion so we stayed upstairs. The silence at the pool was deafening. The EMT surrounded the gurney as they ran out towards the lobby. All I could see was an oxygen mask over someone’s face. Later, I learned that a 5 year old little girl was found at the bottom of the pool near the rocks. The vacationing nurse who gave her CPR said the child was very blue but alive. We came to learn she spent the night on a respirator but started to breath on her own the next day and she was airlifted back to Venezuela the next day. I don’t know what happened to her then, but the staff and medical technicians were very professional! It would not surprise me to learn that everyone staying at CL said a special prayer that night.

Sunday we went back to Baby for our morning snorkel, stopped at the weekend flea market near the Certified (husband bought a gaudy shirt with iguanas for $13). We made a nice trek up to Alta Vista chapel. Then on to a hut a CL for an afternoon bobbing in the ocean. We met a few nice folks at the beach from New Jersey. My husband remarked how physically fit the Venezuelan ladies are and how fashionable their thong bikinis are! That day at the beach, we made a list of everything we wanted to do during the rest of the trip. Sunset sail? Natural pool? The Park? Windsurfing? Each idea got nixed. We had already done all that in previous trips. What we loved was snorkeling, enjoying the beach at Costa Linda and eating really fresh fish from ZeeRover and sipping Aruban rum. In fact, we decided to cancel the Marriot Surf presentation, because we didn’t want to do any activities they offered! So why not just stay with the same which is exactly what we did!

Okay, our trip is probably boring to many. There are wonderful restaurants to enjoy, gambling, bars, and nightclubs— what ever your heart desires. But that is exactly the point. Aruba has everything you want but you don’t need to do any of it if you prefer. And this trip at least, we did it all very affordably. So don’t not come because of money, you can have a wonderful time on your budget.

[dwippies]

what a wonderful report! i plan to check out buffams. it sounds wonderful. hubby would love their breakfasts. your trips are totally perfect in my mind except for the cooking, lol. i love cooking too but it is my 2 weeks without any labor.

btw, if you think you loved costa linda this time, i've seen the finished product and it will be even better. hopefully you will get to stay there again on your next visit.

thanks for the report. i felt like i was on that beach with you and the rum, lol.

Originally Posted by clarabell

Let me preface this trip report. We are a couple in our mid 50 who are finished with the partying stage in our life and prefer to be with good friends and each other. We are early to bed, early to rise. My hobby is cooking and we both have different food allergies, so we don’t eat out much. It may sound boring to some but we like it. Our business has been significantly hit by the economy, so some of my tips may help others who are experiencing similar difficulties. But we had frequent flyers we needed to use or lose, so we decided to head off to Aruba when I found a great deal on a last minute time share at Costa Linda. We have been to Aruba a few times before, but always stayed at La Cabana—which is nice but nothing in comparison to Costa Linda.

Before leaving our mid west home, I prebooked online a long term parking spot through Global Parking.com. It was a great deal at $3.50/day and their site handles many major markets. So off we left for Miami and a short layover before Aruba.

Before going through customs, we picked up a bottle of rum and vodka at the duty free store next to the baggage claim area. When we exited, Hans at Tropic Car Rental was right there greeting us with our name on a small sign. He helped us to the parking lot and turned over the keys to a Hyundai with only 3,700 miles—almost brand new. We had filled out the forms he emailed us before leaving and we declined the extra insurance since I had confirmed coverage with our credit card. My husband took a few pictures of the car so we were all on point in case of any damage.

We were arriving a few days before our week at CL and I found a great studio unit at a bed and breakfast I saw on Trip Advisor, www. buffamstropicalhaven.com. Owners Sherrie and Rick have three apartments in the courtyard of their home close to Ling’s. The units are spotlessly clean, well equipped and the beds are comfortable. The house has a nice pool, beautiful gardens and an outdoor grill. But the best part was the wonderful owners, Sherrie and Rick who are ex-pats from the US. They gave us so many good tips, we felt like we were staying with friends. After we checked in, we headed off to Ling’s to pick up a few groceries, enjoyed a cocktail with our proprietors and grilled some grouper we picked up at the store. Iris showed up from fastphonesaruba.com and we were all set with the phone. We had brought our laptop and Sherrie and Rick let us use the wifi at no charge. A few glasses of wine, a moonlit swim and we headed off for a great nights sleep.

Thursday morning, Sherrie fixed us a great sausage and egg breakfast with juice. We had already made coffee in the room (I bring it from home with a suitcase filled with other non perishables. Remember, I love to cook.). We packed some sandwiches in a soft sided mini cooler I brought with a couple of cold packs I froze. We also bring Rubbermaid sport thermoses for our beverages and our snorkeling masks with water shoes. So off we went for first trip to Baby Beach for a morning snorkel. On the way down, we turned right in Saventa to the street where the Flying Fishbone is. There is a small bar/dock their called ZeeRover. Just look for the Heineken sign. The local fisherman use that dock and if you are lucky you can time it right to watch them with their day’s catch. We bought a bag of whole red snappers (cleaned) and some shrimp. ZeeRover stored it in their cooler until we were done at Baby Beach. We had a blast seeing the varied and colorful variety of fish. Near the brain coral at the reef, we spied three large black fish with electric blue spots near their gills and eyes. Beautiful. I don’t know what variety they are but they were amazing. I brought some left over rice from the night before and the fish swarmed everywhere. Rice works well to attract the fish, but they don’t like to eat it. So it works out well—they don’t start nibbling at you to feed them. We picnicked on Baby Beach and headed back to Buffams for a refresher. That afternoon, we borrowed some beach chairs from Sherrie and Rick and sat under the Divi Trees on Eagle Beach. But this time we added a little rum to our juice/Crystal Light in the thermos. Bobbing through the pristine waters on Eagle, we were in Heaven. Back at Buffams, I shelled the shrimp, marinated them in some salad dressing I bought and laced them on bamboo skewers. That night, my husband played some Buena Vista Social Club on the Ipod Docker and had another moonlight swim in the pool.

Friday was moving day to CL. We took the morning for a drive to the Lighthouse and some snorkeling at Malmok. The rep from the Marriott Surf approached us about a tour. When he quickly went from $75 DePalm activity to $150 credit we signed up. On the way back to Buffams, we stopped at a restaurant supply near the inn to pick up some really colorful outdoor ashtrays Sherrie and Rick had. I have a few friends who smoke—or insist that their friends smoke outdoors. Sherry had bought them for a group that rented her units for a month and had a wedding reception there! Anyway, at $3 each, the ashtrays will make cute Christmas gifts for my friends. Also picked up a citronella candle as a romantic bug preventer on the balcony at CL. Sherrie and Rick were nice enough to let us store our perishables in their fridge until Costa Linda’s check in at 5pm. At CL, we signed in early and they let us use the beach facilities—though we were sad to leave our new friends. We got in our CL unit, we were delighted. We weren’t in a renovated unit, but we loved it. Large, spacious, nice view. Flat screens for my husband and nice kitchen for me. I rubbed the whole red snapper with some spice mix I brought, stuffed them with lemon slices and wrapped them aluminum foil. CL employees light the grill for you. The staff at CL is very accomodating! A great salad, rice, a veggie and the best red snapper I have ever had! We lit our candle and ate on the balcony in our unit. We decided to try some of the small box white wine from Chile we found at Ling’s. At $5 per liter, it was great! Actually better than some more expensive bottled wines we bought at Ling's. Very nice for very little money. We topped off the meal with some local ice cream we found in clear, deli like plastic containers at Lings. I think the brand is Piets and it is wonderful. Love the pistachio and the chocolate flavors!

Saturday was my husband’s birthday. After the morning Baby beach snorkel, he said he just wanted to party at CL’s beach. We ran back to Ling’s and picked up a bottle of dark Aruban rum for like $8-9 dollars. Frankly, we liked it better than the name brand we bought at the duty free and I won’t bother with that airport stop again. The day was spent bobbing in the ocean with a few breaks up to the unit for more lotion and our rum/Crystal Light potion. We had planned to go out for dinner, but our pale face sunburn and an afternoon of Rum changed our mind to a walking trip to Bob’s Pizza in the same complex as CL. The pizza was wonderful!

While we were getting ready for dinner as the steel drums played by the pool, we heard the most blood curdling screams from the pool. At first I thought it was someone’s husband throwing her in the pool—but no, much more serious. The band stopped playing abruptly and throngs of folks started congregating between the pool and baby pool. The sirens went off and the EMT crew came running in with a gurney. We didn’t want to add to the commotion so we stayed upstairs. The silence at the pool was deafening. The EMT surrounded the gurney as they ran out towards the lobby. All I could see was an oxygen mask over someone’s face. Later, I learned that a 5 year old little girl was found at the bottom of the pool near the rocks. The vacationing nurse who gave her CPR said the child was very blue but alive. We came to learn she spent the night on a respirator but started to breath on her own the next day and she was airlifted back to Venezuela the next day. I don’t know what happened to her then, but the staff and medical technicians were very professional! It would not surprise me to learn that everyone staying at CL said a special prayer that night.

Sunday we went back to Baby for our morning snorkel, stopped at the weekend flea market near the Certified (husband bought a gaudy shirt with iguanas for $13). We made a nice trek up to Alta Vista chapel. Then on to a hut a CL for an afternoon bobbing in the ocean. We met a few nice folks at the beach from New Jersey. My husband remarked how physically fit the Venezuelan ladies are and how fashionable their thong bikinis are! That day at the beach, we made a list of everything we wanted to do during the rest of the trip. Sunset sail? Natural pool? The Park? Windsurfing? Each idea got nixed. We had already done all that in previous trips. What we loved was snorkeling, enjoying the beach at Costa Linda and eating really fresh fish from ZeeRover and sipping Aruban rum. In fact, we decided to cancel the Marriot Surf presentation, because we didn’t want to do any activities they offered! So why not just stay with the same which is exactly what we did!

Okay, our trip is probably boring to many. There are wonderful restaurants to enjoy, gambling, bars, and nightclubs— what ever your heart desires. But that is exactly the point. Aruba has everything you want but you don’t need to do any of it if you prefer. And this trip at least, we did it all very affordably. So don’t not come because of money, you can have a wonderful time on your budget.

[Elaine S]

Clara..I loved your trip report! The rum, and lounging around is my kind of vacation.

And, I totally agree with you as to affordability. I'm not there to impress anybody. I'm happy eating in and occasionally going out. I stay for a month, and eating out every night's out of the question, not only because of finances, but I reach a saturation point with food, and I kinda like a sandwich or something light.

Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about how much you and your hubby enjoyed your vacation on our favorite little piece of paradise.

[ruba4ever]

Ditto what Sherry and Elaine have already said. That was a great report....and at just 7 days out...I was experiencing each and every thing you were describing. Thanks so much ....
ruba

[Liz from N.J.]

A great report. Thank you for taking the time to share your vacation.

[iamromo]

How was the snorkeling at Baby Beach? We have done the DePalm island trip, but it is getting rather expensive.

[roschone]

Love your report, and would also love your trip. Every part of it, even the cooking. While we certainly eat out more often on vacation than we do at home, I love looking for and using local ingredients. Making a light, simple meal is a pleasant change, because as Elaine said, you can get saturated with eating out (we go for a little over 3 weeks). We really mix it up, having some quiet simple days like the ones you desribed, some loud partying days, some gambling nights, just whatever we feel like at the moment. God, I just love Aruba - so much you can do yet so little you have to do.

[BigPapa]

Thanks for sharing...Sounded like a wonderful...relaxing time...I hope the child was OK.

[clarabell]

To answer Iamroma: The snokeling at Baby Beach is great. We bring our own masks with us from the US-- higher quality and more sanitary than renting IMO. We don't bother with fins but I suggest those inexpensive water shoes which I buy at Sports Authority for $10. The circle pool in Baby is lovely. You can walk to the middle and still have the water below your neck. I am 5'8". Walk or swim through the isthmus. The rubber watershoes help with the slippery rocks as you enter the snorkeling area. It is shallow enough that in some areas you can stand and just put your face in the water to see the fish. That is nice for novice snorkelers. Of course, the better fish can be seen if you swim out to the coral areas. We bring rice since the fish are attracted to it but don't like to eat it. They swarm but do not nibble at you to feed them more. They do love leftover frozen peas but I am not sure it is good to feed them. Some have had negative comments about the vista of the refinery. It doesn't bother us . Also, I have read bad comments about the surrounding food vendors. We bring our own picnic and drive over to rougher beach the opposite direction from the anchor marker. I think it is called Boca Grande. We don't theme park type "nature" so I wouldn't go to La Palm. Baby is free and wonderful. But the Jeep safaris do take over several times a day. We like to go in the morning before the sand is stirred up.

[arubabob]

Originally Posted by clarabell

Let me preface this trip report. We are a couple in our mid 50 who are finished with the partying stage in our life and prefer to be with good friends and each other. We are early to bed, early to rise. My hobby is cooking and we both have different food allergies, so we don’t eat out much. It may sound boring to some but we like it. Our business has been significantly hit by the economy, so some of my tips may help others who are experiencing similar difficulties. But we had frequent flyers we needed to use or lose, so we decided to head off to Aruba when I found a great deal on a last minute time share at Costa Linda. We have been to Aruba a few times before, but always stayed at La Cabana—which is nice but nothing in comparison to Costa Linda.

Before leaving our mid west home, I prebooked online a long term parking spot through Global Parking.com. It was a great deal at $3.50/day and their site handles many major markets. So off we left for Miami and a short layover before Aruba.

Before going through customs, we picked up a bottle of rum and vodka at the duty free store next to the baggage claim area. When we exited, Hans at Tropic Car Rental was right there greeting us with our name on a small sign. He helped us to the parking lot and turned over the keys to a Hyundai with only 3,700 miles—almost brand new. We had filled out the forms he emailed us before leaving and we declined the extra insurance since I had confirmed coverage with our credit card. My husband took a few pictures of the car so we were all on point in case of any damage.

We were arriving a few days before our week at CL and I found a great studio unit at a bed and breakfast I saw on Trip Advisor, www. buffamstropicalhaven.com. Owners Sherrie and Rick have three apartments in the courtyard of their home close to Ling’s. The units are spotlessly clean, well equipped and the beds are comfortable. The house has a nice pool, beautiful gardens and an outdoor grill. But the best part was the wonderful owners, Sherrie and Rick who are ex-pats from the US. They gave us so many good tips, we felt like we were staying with friends. After we checked in, we headed off to Ling’s to pick up a few groceries, enjoyed a cocktail with our proprietors and grilled some grouper we picked up at the store. Iris showed up from fastphonesaruba.com and we were all set with the phone. We had brought our laptop and Sherrie and Rick let us use the wifi at no charge. A few glasses of wine, a moonlit swim and we headed off for a great nights sleep.

Thursday morning, Sherrie fixed us a great sausage and egg breakfast with juice. We had already made coffee in the room (I bring it from home with a suitcase filled with other non perishables. Remember, I love to cook.). We packed some sandwiches in a soft sided mini cooler I brought with a couple of cold packs I froze. We also bring Rubbermaid sport thermoses for our beverages and our snorkeling masks with water shoes. So off we went for first trip to Baby Beach for a morning snorkel. On the way down, we turned right in Saventa to the street where the Flying Fishbone is. There is a small bar/dock their called ZeeRover. Just look for the Heineken sign. The local fisherman use that dock and if you are lucky you can time it right to watch them with their day’s catch. We bought a bag of whole red snappers (cleaned) and some shrimp. ZeeRover stored it in their cooler until we were done at Baby Beach. We had a blast seeing the varied and colorful variety of fish. Near the brain coral at the reef, we spied three large black fish with electric blue spots near their gills and eyes. Beautiful. I don’t know what variety they are but they were amazing. I brought some left over rice from the night before and the fish swarmed everywhere. Rice works well to attract the fish, but they don’t like to eat it. So it works out well—they don’t start nibbling at you to feed them. We picnicked on Baby Beach and headed back to Buffams for a refresher. That afternoon, we borrowed some beach chairs from Sherrie and Rick and sat under the Divi Trees on Eagle Beach. But this time we added a little rum to our juice/Crystal Light in the thermos. Bobbing through the pristine waters on Eagle, we were in Heaven. Back at Buffams, I shelled the shrimp, marinated them in some salad dressing I bought and laced them on bamboo skewers. That night, my husband played some Buena Vista Social Club on the Ipod Docker and had another moonlight swim in the pool.

Friday was moving day to CL. We took the morning for a drive to the Lighthouse and some snorkeling at Malmok. The rep from the Marriott Surf approached us about a tour. When he quickly went from $75 DePalm activity to $150 credit we signed up. On the way back to Buffams, we stopped at a restaurant supply near the inn to pick up some really colorful outdoor ashtrays Sherrie and Rick had. I have a few friends who smoke—or insist that their friends smoke outdoors. Sherry had bought them for a group that rented her units for a month and had a wedding reception there! Anyway, at $3 each, the ashtrays will make cute Christmas gifts for my friends. Also picked up a citronella candle as a romantic bug preventer on the balcony at CL. Sherrie and Rick were nice enough to let us store our perishables in their fridge until Costa Linda’s check in at 5pm. At CL, we signed in early and they let us use the beach facilities—though we were sad to leave our new friends. We got in our CL unit, we were delighted. We weren’t in a renovated unit, but we loved it. Large, spacious, nice view. Flat screens for my husband and nice kitchen for me. I rubbed the whole red snapper with some spice mix I brought, stuffed them with lemon slices and wrapped them aluminum foil. CL employees light the grill for you. The staff at CL is very accomodating! A great salad, rice, a veggie and the best red snapper I have ever had! We lit our candle and ate on the balcony in our unit. We decided to try some of the small box white wine from Chile we found at Ling’s. At $5 per liter, it was great! Actually better than some more expensive bottled wines we bought at Ling's. Very nice for very little money. We topped off the meal with some local ice cream we found in clear, deli like plastic containers at Lings. I think the brand is Piets and it is wonderful. Love the pistachio and the chocolate flavors!

Saturday was my husband’s birthday. After the morning Baby beach snorkel, he said he just wanted to party at CL’s beach. We ran back to Ling’s and picked up a bottle of dark Aruban rum for like $8-9 dollars. Frankly, we liked it better than the name brand we bought at the duty free and I won’t bother with that airport stop again. The day was spent bobbing in the ocean with a few breaks up to the unit for more lotion and our rum/Crystal Light potion. We had planned to go out for dinner, but our pale face sunburn and an afternoon of Rum changed our mind to a walking trip to Bob’s Pizza in the same complex as CL. The pizza was wonderful!

While we were getting ready for dinner as the steel drums played by the pool, we heard the most blood curdling screams from the pool. At first I thought it was someone’s husband throwing her in the pool—but no, much more serious. The band stopped playing abruptly and throngs of folks started congregating between the pool and baby pool. The sirens went off and the EMT crew came running in with a gurney. We didn’t want to add to the commotion so we stayed upstairs. The silence at the pool was deafening. The EMT surrounded the gurney as they ran out towards the lobby. All I could see was an oxygen mask over someone’s face. Later, I learned that a 5 year old little girl was found at the bottom of the pool near the rocks. The vacationing nurse who gave her CPR said the child was very blue but alive. We came to learn she spent the night on a respirator but started to breath on her own the next day and she was airlifted back to Venezuela the next day. I don’t know what happened to her then, but the staff and medical technicians were very professional! It would not surprise me to learn that everyone staying at CL said a special prayer that night.

Sunday we went back to Baby for our morning snorkel, stopped at the weekend flea market near the Certified (husband bought a gaudy shirt with iguanas for $13). We made a nice trek up to Alta Vista chapel. Then on to a hut a CL for an afternoon bobbing in the ocean. We met a few nice folks at the beach from New Jersey. My husband remarked how physically fit the Venezuelan ladies are and how fashionable their thong bikinis are! That day at the beach, we made a list of everything we wanted to do during the rest of the trip. Sunset sail? Natural pool? The Park? Windsurfing? Each idea got nixed. We had already done all that in previous trips. What we loved was snorkeling, enjoying the beach at Costa Linda and eating really fresh fish from ZeeRover and sipping Aruban rum. In fact, we decided to cancel the Marriot Surf presentation, because we didn’t want to do any activities they offered! So why not just stay with the same which is exactly what we did!

Okay, our trip is probably boring to many. There are wonderful restaurants to enjoy, gambling, bars, and nightclubs— what ever your heart desires. But that is exactly the point. Aruba has everything you want but you don’t need to do any of it if you prefer. And this trip at least, we did it all very affordably. So don’t not come because of money, you can have a wonderful time on your budget.

Nice report. That is how we spent our last trip. Just relaxing.
Do you have any contact info on Buffums. I could not find a web site or phone number.

[clarabell]

Do you have any contact info on Buffums. I could not find a web site or phone number.


You used incorrect spelling. Website is Buffam's Tropical Haven Aruba. Owners names are Sherrie and Rick. Hope that helps.

[bhoffdhoff]

Still couldn't find it.

Bobbie

[clarabell]

Originally Posted by bhoffdhoff

Still couldn't find it.

Bobbie

Just click on the link I posted. It works. Otherwise www.buffamstropicalhaven.com