Kukoo Kunuku

One of the highlights of the trip was the Kukoo Kunuku tour in Aruba. I have no idea what it means but it was fun. We were picked up at the dock by a couple of interestingly painted open-air busses and whizzed off to the eastern end of the island and the California Lighthouse. It was a little breezy but the scenery and the champagne more than made up for it.

Above is the back end of our bus along with our new friends and dinner tablemates John & Eileen from New Hampshire. This is when we were still sober (kind of).

The lighthouse and the bus made a pretty picture as the sun was setting. This was the first stop on the tour and the champagne was flowing freely. Our driver and party guide Richard is seen posing between Lorri and Eileen.

The next stop was dinner at Mr. Lee's. This photo was taken out in front of the house or restaurant or whatever it was. I think it was kind of a museum. private residence and part-time restaurant all rolled in to one. After a decent dinner and a drink or two we were off to some serious bar-hopping.

After driving through some local streets and being cheered on by various spectators, we stopped at a place called La Ronda where we took two old guys playing dominoes by surprise. We were led in several intricate dance steps (which, of course, I mastered immediately) by our bus driver and the driver of Bus No. 2, shown in the middle photo doing a solo on a table. The next bar was a little closer to civilization and was called, appropriately, "U Wanna Beer" which we all did. You can see their fancy sign in the photo on the right.

Outside U Wanna Beer, Lorri and Eileen tried to pick up the guy in the photo on the left, but he was busy serving beers, so they left him alone. The door behind John and I in the middle photo was about five feet high and was labeled "employees only". We were wondering if there was some sort of height limit for employees because of this. OSHA would never approve. A little later, to the delight of the crowd, Eileen got into the limbo.

Next stop: Carlos 'N Charlie's. This was in town down near the ship so we could stagger home, which we did. It was jumping but after a few more libations, us old folks had had enough. On the right, John & I pose for mug shot. You can see my new Kukoo Kunuku tea shirt! On the way back to the ship we ran into our waiter, our wine steward and various other crew who had about an hour of free time before the ship sailed. They were headed straight to Carlos 'N Charlie's to make the most of their short leave.

On the way back I set my camera on a car top and snapped this photo of the ship all lit up, like we were.

On to Curacao!