1. 24
    Mar

    Bon Bini

    “You only live once,” is the cliche term that Jo uses to justify every decision and action we’ve made in Aruba this week. Although I subscribe to this saying, I never thought that its meaning should encompass drinking $9 glasses of rum in the middle of the afternoon or holding an octopus in the sea and letting it suckle on your arm. I’ve always thought of the term as a rudimentary way to say that you should grab every opportunity you can and throw inhibition to the wind. Which is, also, one thing I’ve been doing. I’ve been awake since 6:30 this morning exploring this island/country every way I know how. I am wind burnt, sunburnt, exhausted, and happy. My dad, his friend, and I left the shore on a fishing boat at 7 am. We saw enormous, ritzy resorts quickly turn into colored shanties with padlocks on the doors. Lush palm trees gave way to cacti. Lizards crossed our path and wild roosters howled in the bushes as we cast our lines. We passed a grand Royal Caribbean cruise ship so closely in our little boat that I was afraid their wake would overtake us. As I strained my neck straight upward, I saw people on board waving franticly, enthusiastically, at us. They were so happy to see land after 48 hours on sea in transit from Nassau. So happy to see “locals,” they would have been devastated had they learned we were actually from Ohio. We boated so far that Venezuela came into faint view. Every time we passed another boat, our driver shouted untranslated words at them in the local Aruban language; an eclectic mix between Dutch and Spanish. The only word I know is “bon bini” which means “welcome.” Toward the end of our trip, it started to pour. Unaccustomed to and unprepared for bad weather, we wrapped ourselves in towels to keep the rain from stinging us as the boat moved full speed to outrun the cloud. What we caught that day wasn’t fish. Instead we caught a moving portrait of a country smaller than the city I’ve grown up in. We also caught a piece of seaweed, a rock with a crab family living on it, a row boat, and a dock.

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