Caribbean Note III

Happy Birthday Gary!! How does it feel to be sixteen? That was a long time ago for me in a galaxy far far away . . . clear back in the year of the famed Summer of Love. We hope you're having a great day. We'll celebrate with you too when we come home.

Speaking of another galaxy; we finished watching the last season of Battlestar on DVD and (spoiler alert) are you kidding me??? It wasn't enough of a stretch to have two separate Earths with identical continents but they had to throw in angels too?? WhatTheFrack!? And this entire group of people just agrees en mass to give up technology (when they can't seem to agree on anything else) in favor of an arduous survival level existence fraught with hardship and death because . . . why again?? . . . because 150,000 years later we're back in the same fix yet again?? What a terrible finish to the series.

So we moved on to Mad Men and after a marathon of madness just finished the second season of this series, which we like a lot; very smart and very cool. We especially like the time capsule features included on the DVD's and the care with which the writers include historical events in the plot line. Two thumbs up from Michael & Berit!

We've spent time Iguana watching and Iguana chasing too. We have a Palm Tree that has produced bright red nuts that a big Iguana comes over to eat. It's a hoot to watch him try and climb the smooth bark and then crane his neck to reach the cluster of nuts only to slide back down before he's had his fill. The other day Berit took pity on him and picked and tossed nuts to him one at a time 'till he'd had about fifteen of them. I tried to open one (a nut not an Iguana) and it took a hack saw to cut it in two. They must be able to digest scrap metal.

Our Bonairian friend was over (having an Amstel) the other day when Rexx chased a big Iguana into our house. He explained that Iguanas are like Pit Bulls and will bite and not let go even after you cut their heads off. So we chased this thing around the house with him skidding and scurrying and sliding around on the tile floors from one room to the next 'till he finally reached down and grabbed him like the Crocodile Hunter and tossed him back outside. We always have them around but this was the only time Rexx had gotten close enough to one to cause a problem. They usually keep their distance and run away when they are approached.

We've also done a good deal of cave hunting and I've attached pictures of e few I've found. #247 is a large dry cave as is #256, but #252 and #264 are both wet and divable. I still need to rope into them with the proper gear to do the underwater survey but at least I'm starting to get on the right track in finding them. I understand there a number of wet caves but only a handful are worth the effort to dive.

This week is the annual Sailboat Regatta with the coming week full of boat races and activities. The town is all spiffed up for this event and started off this morning with a mile long swim to Klein Bonaire (a small island offshore) and back again to Eden Beach. Berit took a few pictures of the swimmers (zip file) and here's a link to the Eden Beach web cam.

http://www.bonairewebcams.com/BeachCamNorth.php

We have scouted the East Coast (wild side) dive sites and will begin diving them with a dive outside Lac Bay called Cai. We're going with a local guide who will lead us through the channel into the ocean outside the reef. I'll let you know how that turns out next week.