We were in Aruba for 8 nights in September. This was our 15th trip, but the first time for our daughter who we adopted in 2005. We really wanted this trip to be special! Prior to our trip, someone from one of the Aruba forums introduced us to a local taxi driver named Bully.
For some reason our luggage was delayed getting off the plane and most other passengers from our flight were already long gone. We waited so long for our luggage that a flight from Venezuela came into the carousel next to ours, unloaded all of it's luggage and all of the passengers were gone and out by the time we received our suitcases!
Dh, dd and I walked out of the door past Aruban Customs and we knew Bully was a "keeper" when he greeted us with our name on a sign. We were absolutely stunned that he had waited for us. Probably an extra 40 minutes.
Bully is a credit to Aruban taxi drivers. We used him throughout our trip. He uses a mini-van which was great for all of our luggage. Pleasant and knowledgable about the island, there were no lectures on politics- local or international (sore point with dh- he does not want to hear it- he is on vacation)- and he was always on time, usually early. There were two nights when we were finished eating dinner and it was getting late. If he had begun driving early in the morning. One night he sent his uncle to pick us up in his taxi and another night his cousin picked us up in his. No problems whatsoever!
As a matter of fact another little funny story was that we "thought" we had seen "all" of Aruba. Well when we were there in September there was some road construction going on between Palm Beach and Oranjestad. When Bully picked us up at the hotel to take us to the airport at the end of our trip, in order to get around the congestion, he took a detour through the center of the island. We had a mini tour of a whole big section of the island which we had never seen before!
We liked him so much we have already contacted him for 3 separate pickups for our family members arriving at the airport in Oranjestad from different parts of the US in December and again for departure in January.
Just wait until he encounters my two nieces and nephew in December! They travel with everything, BUT the kitchen sink. There is no better feeling in the world than having a friendly familiar, smiling face waiting to greet you at the airport at your home away from home.
