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