Hello my friends! I´m back from St. Maarten.

I had a lovely time. And this trip had been specially meaningfull for me because last year I did not know whether I would be able to travel again. But everything turned out fine except for a few extra pounds that I will have to take care of.

Oh well, at least the extra weight proves you didn't struggle finding something to eat..or drink no doubt!

Well, good for you and many, many thanks for the BR, it's much appreciated!

I never stopped puttinf some coins inside mypifggy bank, but I didn`t know until last month if the doctor would let me go away to another country. Still, _io would not have dared travel alone now.

And I'm glad to hear that... I've heard Chemo is painful.. The doctor was right when he said you needed a vacation... It is truly amazing, that you make money online for your vacation trips... Its not an easy thing to do... :-)... Take care of your health my friend!

I earn about $100 a month online and I don´t use any of it for other purpose. I get direct referrals by exchanging sites and although that means a lot of work, it´s worth it. I live alone so I just need one ticket. And I can get awesome lodgings for a reasonable price because I own a timeshare I bought when my husband was alive. The doctor accepted my idea of vacations, but she didn´t suggest it. I have always known that vacations are better for health than many pills. Chemo had it´s problems, but I think the worst is to learn to accept that you don´t know what you will get around the corner. Thanks for your kind wishes, friend!

These vacations were specially needed as I did not know whether I would have more in my entire life. Last year was difficult with chemo and then the infection that took me to the hospital for a week. So that when the doctor told me to go away until the end of August, I took her word. I had lots of fun!

Would you believe me if I said me? I am not into beaches that much . And I swam Way too much when I was young . Now I would worry about hurting my hair. It is the mountains for me.

I won´t say no more mountains for me yet, because last year everyone said there would not be any more travel for me ever and I made it. But I felt so happy to walk 4 or 6 blocks everyday as if I had climbed the Everest. I didn´t have any energy all the time I had my chemo and I´m not to expect to have my energy back until the follow up treatment is finished. No problem with hairdos for me yet either; I pamper and caress every day the inch of hair I have now

I loved it. But who wouldn´t, with such a good weather, nice beach and a big pool at a walking distance!

Our Summers are not so bad here. We have dry weather with maybe a month of around 30ºC. Winters are milkd too, but not anymore for my old bones. So I try to go away in Winter to skip part of the cold. I don´t have central heater at home and it´s not much needed. But my knees don´t understand thoe reasons So I work online all year to go bask in the sun a couple of weeks, when I start hating our gray days.

we tend to have winter in three day groupings, and it can get quite cold during those days, but then it goes up to some nicer temps, its the upper 30's/40's in the summer that kill me! (yes, I looked up the "C"s last summer because it was so BLEEDING HOT!)

40ºC is much too high. I read about a heat wave in India from a post from one of my friends and he said the temperature rose over 50ºC. I just cannot imagine that

I had a lot of fun and thankfully my friend also wanted to rest so we went slowly to do all we wanted to. The island is interewsting and quite different from Aruba. Here people mostly talk either English or French. In the dutch side, English is not very good except when people have more studies. There is a creole language too that is not the same as papiamento in Aruba.

Your spring will start soon, so you will be able to enjoy warm weather again. You are on the right side of the winter solstice. Enjoy to eat the fish..

I used a very good blocker (50). I needed it, as my skin is not what it used to be after chemo. I will have to take care of it for a long time if not forever. Still I am a little tanned and the sea was awesome. I live where the sea is icy cold (good for fish, but not for me). The Caribbean is just perfect.

I was going to make a post with the best part of our trip and I will later, maybe doing a sort of copy paste. But you will be the first to know of this adventure. I was reading by the pool one day when I noticed that the lady who was by my side was reading a book by a chilean writer. That started a conversation. It so happened that her husband was a biochemist (and so was my father) and they had gone to Chile for some time many years ago. So one thing led to another and we got quite chummy. They invited us on a trip around the island. They had rented a car as Bob was handicapped so he couldn´t walk much. But he loved to do snorkeling and could do it so we checked every beautiful part of the island for the best place to do that. When we reached the perfect spot, Bob went to the water and I discovered that Dolly, my friend, had brought a towel. I was very tired and sleepy from the trip (you know how it is) so while Dolly talked to our new friend Mary, I place the towel over the sand under some trees and forgot abour the world for about half an hour. We came back happy and hungry and made plans to go out for diner on Saturday. That turned out to be another nice story, but I will tell it one at a time.

I hope your doctor gives u a clean bill of health. Will add u to my prayer list again. Save those coins so u can go somewhere again. I know u love to travel.

My doctor has already said that she can only give me bills of health worth for 3 months. I don´t mind. Noone knows what lies around the corner and we have to live as best as we can. I did not save coins some months last year because I just knew I would never travel again. I was wrong and now I will have a more possitive attitude. I even bought another piggybank at St. Maarten I´m sure I´ll be alive and kicking by next year

We have a mild climate where I live, but till I prefer to have my vacations in Winter when it is colder as my knees and knuckles hurt more with cold weather.

You can stay at the low part of the pool if you don´t know how to swim, sasalove. I think pools are so refreshing! Beaches are more scary if you don´t swim.37 degrees is a lot! We have around 33 or 34 at the most for a few days in Summer.

Thank you for your suggestion. Yes, I never go to the deep part of the pool every time I went with my friends. I will consider to go to the swimming pool, which will make me feel more security only if I don't care other people's criticism.

If I cared about what people say, I´d have to stay in the closet or under my bed all the time. Fish swimm, human beings walk. You can walk in the shalow parts

I love vacations so much and feel they are so important for me as health goes, that when I discovered that I could not afford smoking AND traveling, I quit smoking after 50 years

wow, really? it is very good, right? I love vacation also, spending on beach, relax, enjoy..life is very great when enjoying vacations...

I did not find the island so expensive, but it seems that my country is very expensive so that is the reason I had no problems. The wooden huts are placed at the beach and thet are called palapas. They serve as sort of umbrellas to keep away from sun and rain while you are at the beach. I´ll post a picture for you with part of the resort from a terrace.

Could it be Curacao? I did not go to the beach on midday, but I basked on the sun until about 10:30 or 11 AM and then starting at 4 PM. I imagine that there are several religions in the islands as there are also so many different races and mixtures of races there.

I love the climate of the Caribbean and for me that´s the best of it. There are stories and legends of pirates and treasures, but there is just a small museum if you want some cultural thing. The island is wonderful for people who love snorkeling and there are many beaches with white sand and a warm ocean. Then, if you are interested in gambkling, there are small casinos (not the kind that you see in the gambling cities of the world though).

Thank you, friend. As it happened, we had some small adventures uch as meeting nice people and having good conversations. The place was awesome and the climate perfect. I´ll tell you all how we managed.