Caribbean Note VII

Wow!! When it rains in Bonaire it doesn't bother with a little drizzle or "Oregon Mist". It has rained hard five of the last eight days. It has rained so much that we've been amazed by the sheer volume of water gushing off our roof. We've renamed the walkway in front of our house The Grand Canal and our driveway is our Family Lake. People can't use the sidewalks downtown because of the spray from cars driving along the flooded streets. The stores are out of milk and fresh produce 'cause the port in Curacao is so deep in standing water the container ships can't be loaded. Our friend said he thought he saw Noah gathering lumber last week?!

Needless to say, the rain has caused delays in our construction project so instead of diving this week we'll be painting and planting, if our rain God allows. All the inside work is done and we're pretty happy with the result but outside we even had to rebuild a section of our cactus fence that fell down because of the soggy ground.

The mosquitos have been crazy!! We're going through bug spray (Off!) like it was water and even Rexx is snapping at them when they buzz around his ears and butt!!

The death toll in our house mouse campain is up to an even dozen :( and I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to have to depopulate the whole island before they stop coming to our house. Unfortunately, our trap chopped off the tail of one of our resident tree lizards. Who would've thought that lizards like peanut butter?

So, about now I imagine you're all wondering why you should visit. Sounds like a great place to be except for all the work and rain and bugs and rats and when it's not raining it's all about the scorching heat and crowds of cruise ship tourists?!? All I can tell you is that the coolness of life here far outweighs the little inconveniences.

We took our Canadian friends out to Paradise Moon and had a wonderful dinner at a table overlooking the ocean. The sunset was spectacular and since they too are divers we have lots of common experience in the underwater world we love so much.

Every time we pass by the sailboats in the harbor we see people on the boats going aout their daily routines onboard and think of my son and picture him living aboard his sailboat (with Stephen Stlls singing Southern Cross in the background) and traveling around the Caribbean Sea and one day visiting us and mooring here in the harbor. So in spite of all the "surprises and unique opportunities" presented by island life, we're very happy here!

Two more weeks and home again to Oregon. Hope you are all well and happy too!