Caribbean Note #37

Hey Everybody,

We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!!  We're looking forward to returning next weekend (on the fourth) and will schedule a family dinner to celebrate Garrett, Matthew and Jacob's birthdays early in December.  And, of course, will have Christmas dinner soon as well.  We have missed you all and are anxious to catch up on life back in our wet and cold homeland.

We spent Thanksgiving night diving with the Tarpons and Black Friday wind surfing on Lac Cai.  After an hour long lesson (and some nice shin bruises from falling off and climbing back onto the board) Berit was looking pretty good out there.  We've just put Ron and Ashley on the airplane after a two weeks visit and the three of them sailed around the bay with increasing alacrity while I acted as team photographer and beach support. 

When Geoffrey and Amber were here we spent a day on a snorkel/sail charter called The Aquaspace to view the reef through the submarine windows of the boat.  While Ron and Ashley were here we did a similar snorkel/sail charter on The Woodwind and found the trip to be very cool and the crew attentive and nice and the snorkel spots full of brightly colored tropical fish and turtles.  Sailing along on the warm sunny seas and free diving toward the coral covered reef proved a nice counterpoint to returning home to hike in the rain forests of the Gorge and Oregon Coast. 

We've also done a bunch of scuba diving (of course) and with three rebreathers and Berit diving an Al100 we've been regularly doing two hour profiles at our favorite dive sites.  Ron and I have been collecting Lionfish in the 200' depths (where they are largest) and have had so many Lionfish dinners I'm happy to be taking a break for a while.  We're currently at (441) and counting. 

It's been raining lately and with the cooler weather we've had some relief from the heat, but are watching the reports of snow and freezing temperatures with more than a little dread.  We hope to go down to the square for Tuba Christmas but wonder if we'll be able to stand the shock.

Thanks to Geoffrey and his success in collecting all our necessary documents (and an Apostille for each one from the various states of issue) we have completed the process of obtaining our Sedulas and are now official residents of Bonaire!  This means we are no longer subject to the immigration rules for tourists and as an added benefit we are included under Holland's Universal Health care System.  So now we can come and go as we please and can stay for as long as we want.  Our next trip to Bonaire will be from March through May in order to be home for summer weddings and family events in Oregon.

We're still Survivor junkies and have been stymied the past two weeks by having no TV reception (thanks to TDS Curacao) but it seems all is now well and we'll be able to rejoin Ozzy and Coach this week on the island.  We are rooting for Ozzy and hate Coach as much as ever!!

The other big news on Bonaire is there's a brand new supermarket that opened yesterday with all the items we're used to seeing at Albertsons or Safeway back home.  Grocery shopping here has always been a scavenger hunt with bare shelves and few choices.  We typically go to four or five smaller stores and find enough here and there to complete our shopping, but now this big modern store has everything and all at good prices.  I don't think the island will ever be the same!  It will be interesting to see what the other stores do to compete.  I suppose it's a lot like the big box stores driving out the small hardware operations or the Wal-Mart coming into a community and driving out the Mom & Pop retailers.  This will make a huge difference in the way our little island buys its groceries.

Island life is still full of other challenges but is equally rewarding and for the most part a wonderful get away where we can slow down and enjoy life.  Please make plans to visit us here, we would love to have you come and stay with us!!

We've purchased a second birdbath to accommodate the increasing bird population and added additional plants to our garden to replace those stripped clean of leaves by the iguanas.  The garden is still our favorite spot on the island.

We've met and made friends with more and more people each time we visit and by now it's hard to go anywhere without seeing people we know.  It’s a whole lot like living in a small town where people embrace and feel connected to you in the shared experience.  It's easy to make friends, almost by default.

Well, enough for now.  Hope you all are well and happy!!

See you soon,

Dad

PS  Thanks go to Ashley for pictures included in this post.

Caribbean Note #36

Hi Everybody,

Wow!  Can’t believe it’s already November!  We’ve been here two months and it seems like two weeks.  Soon it will be December and while we’re looking forward to seeing you all we will miss the sun and clear blue water here in Bonaire.

It’s cruise ship season once again and the Pod People are running around everywhere.  We really hope our island doesn’t become a huge destination island like our neighbors Aruba and Curacao.

Along with October comes the start of the rainy season and our first tropical storm created enough surge to wipe out the more vulnerable west coast docks and the surge caused the sailboat Utopia to break free of its mooring and she was destroyed on the reef.  Note to Matt:  When your sailboat is moored here in the harbor, make sure to use anchor chain instead of nylon line!!

Berit and I have been doing a regular 20 mile bike ride along the coast road and after the last set of thorns were removed from my (new) tires I had my first flat.  So, I took my tires to the bike shop to have Kevlar liners installed in the tires and made friends with the owner, Frank.  It turns out Frank was sponsoring the Bonaire mountain bike race, Duo Xtreme Bonaire (79K) the following weekend.  Racers come from all over the world to compete for cash and medals, and I volunteered Berit and myself to help.  It was pretty amazing.

We had two jobs at directing the race.  First, we stood in an intersection in town and stopped traffic while the 150+/- riders raced through, then we hiked out into the middle of the thorny countryside and waited in the hot sun while the racers wound their way through the rocky trails.  Our job was to direct them onto the right trail where there were intersections.

Needless to say, the conditions were very harsh and the racers had special tires and bikes to handle the terrain.  I don’t think our bikes would take it even if we were in good enough shape to ride the trails, let alone race on the trails.  In the end there were plenty of cuts and bruises and the leaders were hours ahead of the pack.

I managed to get my share of cuts and bruises too.  I climbed up onto a cactus covered outcrop of rock in order to see the racers coming and while I was on tip toe, the rocks gave way and I tumbled down the pile through the vicious spines.  As a 60 year old man I find I don’t roll down rock piles as well as I once did; still sore, but no lasting damage.

We spent last week diving and hiking with our house guests, Tim and Kat, and broke 300 in the Lionfish wars.  Berit and Kat spent an enjoyable day birding with our friend and resident island naturalist, Jerry Ligon.  It’s fun to experience all Bonaire has to offer and show people around the island; we’re becoming quite the tour guides.

No news yet on progress with our application for island residency.  Thanks Geoff, for helping us acquire all the documentation we need to jump through all the crazy hoops the Dutch require.  We hope none of you ever have to know the definition of the word “apostille”.

When we start to get a hankering for dinner at the Verbort Sausage Festival, we know it’s time for Matt’s birthday, so “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Matt!!  We’ll have a Matt and Garrett birthday celebration when we come home!  (No wonder the old man can’t take a tumble like he used to, he’s got a grandson getting ready to go to college!!)

For those who have visited, you’ll be pleased to know we’ve repaired all the window slides and as of now, they no longer need to be held up by sticks.  The story of how difficult it has been to accomplish a simple task like this would double the length of this post.  And, I can’t overstate how pleased Berit is about this repair!!  (No more falling windows and crushed fingers!)

Hope all is well and you’re following your dreams.

See you soon,

Dad and Mom

PS  We're considering training Rexx as a lionfish hunter.  We're still working with his gear configuration.  (Thanks Tina and Bonnie for the pic.)

Caribbean Note #35

Hey Everybody,

We hope life is treating you well and that you’re all still out in the middle of the ring slipping punches and throwing uppercuts!  Don’t let ‘em put you on the ropes!!

Today is our anniversary and tonight we have a reservation for dinner at one of the few restaurants we’ve yet to visit, a little French place famous for its lamb, called Bistro de Paris.  We’ve heard good things about the menu and Berit loves lamb, so off we go.

I’m writing at the patio table while she’s out in the garden pruning back the overgrowth and the birds and other garden critters are here in abundance.  The only downside to our peaceful secret garden experience is that the house next door (yes that one) has been occupied for the past couple of weeks by a very chatty family with grandparents who SKYPE incessantly (and think the way you make it work better is to shout at the screen) and a new baby.  The nonstop cooing and baby talk is all coming from the women while the baby is pretty quiet.   The neighbor’s house and car are still for sale, so if you know a nice quiet couple who are looking for a place in the Caribbean let them know!

A visit from Splitty McForkson.

Papaya, his favorite!             

I’ve taken advantage of the season’s calm winds and waves to dive the east coast (the wild side) of the island.  I’m actually pretty excited about it.  The west side, with its eighty five dive sites, is always calm and has been dived extensively for decades.  But the east side, because the ocean is so rough and the coastline so dangerous and inaccessible, has rarely been dived, even by boat.  On previous trips I’ve scouted the few places where it’s possible to enter and exit through the jagged ironstone shoreline and this trip (because of the September calm) have been diving the east coast sites.

East Coast beaches.

Whatever can be seen on many dives on the west side can be seen on every dive on the east side with pristine coral gardens thrown in for good measure.  It’s like finding a reef system untouched by local fishermen and divers.  Even on the west side Berit and I have been able to use the scooter to access areas of the reef system that divers can’t normally reach, and with mixed gasses I’m able to go to depths divers on air can’t risk going.  All in all this island really is a “diver’s paradise” as so often advertized in the scuba magazines.

We’re moving forward with our application for residency and hope that process will be complete when we return to Oregon in December.  We’ve been told to have patience and to be prepared to endure for “months” while our paperwork grinds through the system.

This week is the famous Sailing Regatta on Bonaire and yesterday was the annual swim to Klein (the little island 800 meters off the coast) and back again to Eden Beach.  I had intended to do the swim this year but chickened out at the last minute.  I’ve not tried to surface swim that far in a long time and, in spite of the fact that lots of people (including little kids) all lined up to do it, I managed to talk myself out of it again.  Maybe next year.

Last week we bought a BBQ and Berit now has a new obsession.  It’s so hot that cooking in the house has become an endurance contest; who will roast first the dinner or the cook?  So she is becoming a BBQ Zen Master.  First ribs, then chickens, then roast and finally ribs again.  It’s all about indirect heat and the placement of the coals and water and the manipulation of the vents and control of the temperature and the basting of the meats etc. etc. etc. while outside enjoying the ever present tropical breeze instead of being cooped up in the kitchen.  Nice for me too, and no it’s not necessarily the man’s job to BBQ, there are plenty of liberated women BBQ masters!

Beer Can Chicken.

Enough for now.  Hope all is well with you!  Please email the latest news and let us know how life is treating you.

Love, Dad

Caribbean Note #34

Hi Everybody,

We're back on Bonaire!!  It really does feel like coming home . . . (camera dollies in and zooms to extreme close-up of couple on the front porch of a little yellow house where we see goofy smiles and misty eyes.)

Least significant news:  the hot plate on our coffeemaker no longer works, so after the pot is made it just sits there and gets cold; new coffee maker in our future.  Most significant news:  we got a message from Jacob and he starts training in his new job today!!  We are very happy and wish him congratulations and good luck.

We enjoyed seeing all of you over the summer months and marvel at the way your "life situations" evolve and have great confidence in your abilities to meet challenges and embrace the future.  All twelve of you are in our thoughts daily and no mention here can fully express how proud we are of each of you.

A quick mention of Burning Man.  As you know we, along with Geoffery and a second front including Roger, Bonnie and Evan (along with sixty thousand of our closest friends) were at Burning Man the week prior to returning to Bonaire.  We quickly made friends with our neighbors Soothie and Beth, the Helicopter Art Car boys that Roger and I camped with last year (Geoff's buddies), along with Doobie Man and his whole crew and got into the swing of things.  Before the week was out we were riding around the Playa atop the Helicopter Art Car, LED lights blazing and music blaring, with Bonnie, resplendent in her LED dreadlocks and Berit with her pink hair wig and fairy wings, fending off the admiring young men who flocked to the spectacle of the art car winding its way through the dusty sea of playa partiers.  A lot of alliteration, I know, for an apt allegory of aging acolytes engaged in arduous adventure but I wanted it in the record that we had fun.

We arrived on the island to find Robert had done a great job watching after out little house.  After a few days of cleaning, errands and delivering the "imports" and gifts brought for our friends, we got down to the serious business of diving.  After a nice checkout dive at The Lake where we identified leaks and trimmed out our new gear configurations, we took our new and modified lionfish spears to Fish Hut South and killed a bunch of Lionfish that Berit cleaned and froze in anticipation of our next fish fry.

It turns out that, Tal Bixby (the inventor of the only legal lionfish spear here on Bonaire, the ELF) is on the island and we're invited to a meeting with him tonight to view the latest iterations of his spear and its newest features.  Among those attending will be our friend Bas Noij, who coincidentally just rescued a diver in trouble from a freak occurrence of rough surf at The Lake.  The surf was the result of tropical storm Maria and the diver had been clinging to a mooring buoy at the dive site afraid to swim in through the pounding surf.  Bas and Bonaire Marine Park manager Ramón, swam out to him and brought him in unhurt.  Berit and I dove this site the next day without incident.

Today was to be my first scooter dive at the East coast site Onima during the first wind reversal since our arrival.   (They occur from time to time during this part of the year and make East coast diving possible.)  But the rain has been pouring down instead.  We have gone from a very hot 35 degrees to a quite pleasant 26 degrees in less than twelve hours.  Since there is no Fahrenheit scale on our Celsius thermometer we have become accustomed to the metric designator.  In order to convert we have to jump through hoops, so as a rule we don’t, but for the record, 35 = 95 degrees and 26 = 79 degrees.   The water when at depth ranges from 78 degrees to 88 degrees; the deeper you go the colder it gets.

As far as politics are concerned, the local situation rivals the US in drama and intrigue.  In other words, situation normal all f'd up.  Robert was involved in a local protest march last week and still looks forward to revolution and independence from the Dutch.

For out part we're happy to be back and look forward to the coming weeks and months of life on our island paradise.

Talk with you soon!

Love, Dad

Thanks

Well, well, well.  What a nice thing Jesse and Sidney have done.  It must have taken a good bit of time to organize all the emails sent home from Bonaire into this blog.  Thank you very much for the nice birthday gift!

I do believe it's important to stay in touch during our absences and am pleased to have a nice spot to maintain contact with friends and family.  If anyone is interested in following this blog you can do so at: http://bonairegonian.blogspot.com/

I intend to post updates from time to time while Berit and I are out of the country and hope you will enjoy our adventures as much as we do.

Michael

It's a Birthday Blog

This blog is a birthday present. A gift for Michael.

As an avid diver, early retiree and father of five, Michael has no shortage of tales to tell. That's why this blog was created for him. Part email, part story archive, this blog would serve as a way for us, his family back in Oregon, to stay connected to him at his retreat in Bonaire.

But because this blog was developed without his knowledge, it's not entirely clear what he'll do with it--let alone even like it. Though one thing is certain, if he does decide to share a diving story, a story about Portland, Bonaire--or maybe something completely random--it will inspire a smile.

A Final Note: To get you and Michael acquainted, we've posted his email updates (aka "Carribean Notes") from Bonaire from the last two years all the way to today's date. Posts after this blog's date, will be from Michael himself.

Happy birthday, Michael.

Caribbean Note III

It's almost eleven PM and we're finally all packed and ready for our flight in the morning. Very sad to be leaving our little island but happy to be coming home to see you all again.

We'll have to schedule a family dinner soon to celebrate all the birthadays we missed and those just around the corner!! Our projects are finished and we even squeezed in a few more dives, but it will be good to be back in the Pacific Northwest for the summer; please include us in your invitations and we will include you all in ours.

Caribbean Note II

Well, we managed to go through the entire month of April without spending any significant amount of time working on our list of home projects. It was another month filled with summer fun. (Note to kids: put $ in your IRA’s)

Over the past month, we have spent many enjoyable evenings with island friends and part time residents who own property here. We’ve met people from all over the world who think this little island is the place to be after visiting here there and everywhere. Many couples cruise the Caribbean Islands on their sailboats and end up staying here. The local people and tranquil blue waters are really nice. It’s hard to find hubbub and discord on Bonaire.

We are working with an island lawyer on tax and immigration issues with respect to our ability to stay 180 days or even longer as “official residents”. The new Dutch rules for people like us are uncertain and it’s very difficult to get answers. For sure we can stay for 90 days and all else depends on the answer you get from the person you’re talking to at the moment.

We have befriended a group of medical students (who like to relax by hunting Lionfish) and have tried to become more involved in local issues and causes. Island celebrations have continued with Simidan, an island wide harvest festival, and Dia de Rincon, another opportunity to parade through the streets in recognition of the several hundred years of slave culture in the island’s original town Rincon.

Berit and I have, of course, kept up our rigorous dive schedule, and we are up to 148 Lionfish taken off the reef. We have had so many Lionfish dinners I’m ready for a break, but so many friends and neighbors keep asking for a taste that Berit has been kept pretty busy with the frying pan.

We had a local “Lionfish Derby” where four teams of divers and spotters were in completion for three prizes; one for the most fish, one for the biggest fish and one for the most unfortunate sting. The four teams took 122 fish and I managed to get the biggest one at 13”. Fortunately no one claimed the prize for the most unfortunate sting, but Berit and I did get our picture in the local paper.

The derby inspired Bonaire Marine Park to invite us to dive in the off limits section of the reserve to hunt for a day and our group took 169 fish off the reef saving thousands of juvenile Parrots and Chromis and others from extinction. We are currently working with the research lab CIEE to count and classify the local Lionfish population and are going for our first “research dives” with the CIEE people later today.

Now that we have only May left of our 90 day visit, we have to get focused on completing our painting projects while we clear up the issue of extending our visas for an additional 90 days in the fall. (Note to kids: come visit sunny Bonaire during September, October and November.)

We hope all is well with you. We think about you all everyday.

Caribbean Note I

We’ve been here on the island for five weeks and miss you all. We have to thank Facebook for the contact we’ve had with you and enjoy seeing your posts from time to time. I decided I wouldn’t burden you with a weekly note this trip but I do want to know how you’re all getting along and want you to know that we think about you every day. Our news is as usual; all good.

We arrived to daily rain and opened the house in a downpour. We met our neighbor next door and found he was selling his house, so we made him an offer which he rejected out of hand without even a counter offer. We hope to have another shot after he comes back to planet earth.

We arrived in time for Karnival (think Rio) with all the Fat Tuesday fun and a big costumed parade through town. But we finally settled down to diving and got our gear together (including my Nimbus 2000) and did our checkout dives in preparation for our first round of guests.

We have been kicking around the scuba circuit for years and we were glad to have them come for a visit. We did a bunch of dives while they were here and were surprised to see that the lionfish were waaaaaay more numerous and much bigger than when we were here last Fall. Our friends were great guests and we had a wonderful week.

Around the middle of March, Berit and I signed contracts with Stinapa and Bonaire Marine Park and were issued spearguns (the wee ELF – Eliminate LionFish) and became official lionfish hunters, authorized to catch, eat and even sell any lionfish we can find. Kind of like Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane; we’re the new law in these parts. Our total catch now is fifty-four including some nice sized fish which Berit cooks for dinner or happy-hour snacks. One of the fish refused to go quietly and while Berit was bagging him the little sucker stung her in the palm of her hand. The spines are venomous and the sting is very painful, but not usually life threatening unless allergic to the venom, but she not only finished bagging the fish, but took him home, fried him in butter and coconut oil and ate him. So I guess the score is Michael and Berit: 54 - lionfish: 1. We now have a safer strategy for bagging them so don’t expect the fish to “get the upper hand” again.

We had a week between the first visit and round two of guests. We used the time to get the patio painted (still in the rain) but it really made a difference and the house looks pretty nice now even though we still have the garden wall out front to finish painting.

Our visitors left yesterday and the time they were here was all about diving during the day and playing cards during the evening. The ladies were taken for sisters by everyone we met and we finally had a chance to hike up Mount Brandaris, the highest peak (700’) on Bonaire. It was like the scene from that Tom Hanks movie where he was stranded on the island and climbed the tallest point and could see the entire island, North, South, East and West with ocean all around; very cool. We also celebrated Berit’s Birthday at one of her favorite restaurants and did a night dive where our lights filtered blue ultra violet and we wore amber lenses over our masks to reveal all the florescence of the coral and reef critters; also very cool.

Didn’t mean to torture you with such a long note; maybe a few short letters are better than such a long one. Anyway, we’re into our chores zone now and will be attacking the long list of things that need doing. It’s been nice to have filled March with vacation fun, but April will be balanced with work. And now that the rain has stopped, the painting will get done.