Caribbean Note I

We’re at the end of our first week on Bonaire and, as usual, are amazed at how quickly the days pass by. Nine weeks will slip away and December will arrive in no time.

The house was in good repair but after four months was covered in red dust and the Geckos and creepy crawly critters had to be evicted. We arrived on our anniversary (seventeen years) at 5:00 AM and spent the day cleaning and putting everything in order.

October and November are the rainy months here and because the island is just a big rock the streets and countryside are pooled with water, but it’s always summertime and the ocean is warm and turquoise blue.

We’ve been pretty good at keeping our resolve to walk (3 ½ miles) along the waterfront every morning and then Berit works out while I swim laps in the neighborhood pool.

The big news on the island is that Bonaire is changing its political connection from The Netherlands Antilles (which ceased to exist last night at midnight 10-10-10) and is now a “municipality” of the Netherlands directly; still Dutch but even more so. I don’t think we’ll notice any difference.

We managed to get into the water by midweek and on our very first dive Berit found a Lionfish at the entry point, but because it was our checkout dive we didn’t bring our net or gloves or anything to catch it with. We carried on with the dive and while I was fiddling with the new configuration of my gear and electronics, Berit found a Seahorse! This was a site we had dived before (The Lake) and one of our favorites for finding these elusive creatures.

In time we finished the dive and loaded all our gear back into the truck and talked about going home to get the gloves and net, when Berit decided to try to get him in a small mask box with lid. So, she grabbed her fins and mask and jumped back in the water and after half a dozen free dives she finally got him in the box!! It was her first solo Lionfish catch and she did it without scuba or even gloves (to protect from the venomous spines) or a net!! Quite a feat!

We’ll start a new construction project on Monday. We’re building a nice wall and garden to replace the chain link fence along our front yard. In preparation we spent Saturday (in the terrible heat) digging and transplanting and pruning to save as much of our garden as we could from the workmen who will be building our wall and garden enclosure.

Rexx is happy to be back in the sun; he lies on his rug on the patio with his face toward the sunbeams with his eyes closed and seems for all the world like a young girl sunbathing on the beach. He has become reacquainted with all his lizard and iguana friends and enjoys chasing the doves that come to feast on the seed Berit puts out for them every day. Life here is good.