Caribbean Note II

This week went by so quickly I’m a bit late with this note, but all has been well here in our tropical paradise. I’ll give you a day in the life plot line retelling and go through a single day in week two.

As always we woke to our alarm at 6:00 and had coffee and orange juice on the patio while the sun rose and the mosquitoes buzzed around our ears. We cover up good during this period to fend off the attack of the irritating critters who are not out at 6:00 when it’s still dark and are also not out at 7:00 when it’s full day, but during the half hour of sunrise from 6:20 ‘till 6:50 they are insanely abundant! At around 7:00 we take an hour long walk down to the waterfront and north to a dive site called Something Special then back again south to The Divi Flamingo Resort, then back North along the same route to our favorite BBQ joint Bobby-Jans at the end of our street and home again. If we’re in the mood for a good workout we leave the dog at home but often we take him along (he slows us down) and since there are very few=2 0small dogs on the island Rexx has become something of a celebrity and we’ve come to be known as the couple that have the little dog. Even when we meet people for the first time some remark on this. Today the Scientology Training Ship FreeWinds was in port with its current group of Thetans for their OT8 (operating thetan level 8) training. Google it if you want to know more.

Often Berit will buy papaya or other fresh fruits at the open air Venezuelan fruit stand set up every day and supplied by a small boat that makes the 50 mile crossing from the mainland. Our breakfast is usually lunch as well since we’re out and about ‘till suppertime most days. Berit puts her heart into these meals and since we have a one butt sized kitchen and I’m not much good unless there’s a can opener involved she does everything except set the table on the patio when the cooking is done. This day we had scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms, peppers and onions along with made from scratch refried beans, potato pancakes and toast and a variety of fresh fruit including grapes and a yellow watermelon that was really sweet.

After breakfast, most days, it’s time to dive. We don’t go everyday (cave hunting, yard work and the like) but we don’t go less often than every other day. Today was a site called Candyland up north beyond the Venezuelan oil transshipment facility called BOPEC. It was our first time diving this site and it’s our current favorite. The reef drops off to the abyss and the blue water is loaded with schools of small fish with bigger fish chasing through the schools and huge lobster and groupers amid spectacular stands of hard and soft corals with angelfish and tangs and grunts and all the usual suspects in abundance. Fabulous.

After an hour or so we surface and stumble out of the surf and up the coral rubble beach to our truck and chatter like school children about the new things we saw while we get out of our gear and rinse the salt off with milk jugs of water brought from home. We have to remember to put the bottles in the cab while we dive so the water will cool down from scalding to just hot. Bonaire is just twelve degrees off the equator and the sun will literally boil or broil anything left out in it. One of the facts of life here is that it is always HOT!!

After diving our routine is to stop off at The Yellow Submarine Dive Shop to fill our tanks; then return to our house to clean up the gear, shower and put everything away for the next time. When we bought the house we wondered how it would be to have no hot water heater. I can tell you for true we haven’t missed it a bit. It’s not that you learn to live with cold showers; it’s that you’re surprised to discover that the water from the tap is already always warm! If you want a cool drink of water you get it from the pitcher in the refrigerator.

Anyway, the Yellow Submarine is back to the south, and the northern dive sites like Candyland are on a one-way section of road heading north, so to get back south to Kralendijk you have to take the roundabout route on “good” paved road through the small central island town of Rincon (there are only the two towns on the island) or take the dirt road “shortcut” back over the hill (maximum elevation on the island is 700 feet) but the tradeoff is it’s r ough going, but hey, that’s why we bought a truck.

We took the shortcut and about two miles along in the middle of nowhere saw a dive bag along the side of the road. Of course we stopped and picked it up and went through it looking for identification and found (along with a wet suit and other dive gear) a complete dive log with all the dives “Kostas” had ever done. He is Greek and has dived the Red Sea among other places and had all his certification cards and personal information there in his log, so when we got home I called the number in the log and had a very short conversation with some woman who spoke Greek and hung up on me. That’s when I realized it had to be around 3:00 AM in Greece and probably not a good time to call.

Kostas had also included an email address, so after we were all cleaned up and ready to go out to dinner, Berit emailed him, and before we even arrived at a decision on which restaurant, he called from his hotel (The Kon Tiki out at Lac Bay) and we drove over and gave him his stuff. He was pretty happy as he was leaving the next day and=2 0the only thing that was missing was his camera. He explained that the bag had been stolen from his vehicle at the dive site Karpata, and offered to buy us dinner, but we declined and wished him well on his trip and drove off into the night like the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

The thing about the theft of the dive bag is weird. There’s a lot of petty theft on Bonaire but it’s thought of as normal and preventable by not making your belongings available to the thieves; like it’s your fault if someone steals from you. It never happens in person. There is very little crime or violence on the island and I’ve never been afraid here; everyone goes out of their way to be friendly and nice. But, if you leave something of minor value in your car it will be taken. On Bonaire you are instructed to leave your car windows rolled down and your car doors unlocked, otherwise your windows will be broken in an attempt to see if you’ve left any valuables in your car. The dive sites are targeted ‘cause the tourists like Kostas don’t know any better.

It’s not like this at your house. People know there are valuables in your house so the houses are all locked up like Fort Knox with bars on the windows and lighted up at night like a football stadium. When you’re home it’s no problem, when gone you have a service (and your neighbors) watch your place. So it turns out that Kostas was lucky to have lost only a camera and even if he files a police report he will find a sympathetic officer but there will be no action taken beyond that.

We don’t eat dinner out a lot, but after leaving Kostas, we decided to try a restaurant we’d never been to called The Chibi Chibi. It’s in The Divi Flamingo Resort which we see every day on our walk. Wow, was it a great place! We were seated at a table overlooking the water and the lights from the restaurant attracted tons of fish which schooled below waiting for diners to toss bread into the water which would start a feeding frenzy. Of course we were much too refined and gentile to engage in this gauche activity. . . . at least while anyone was looking. Berit had the Seafood Mixed Grill and I had the (all meat) Mixed Grill and everything was very good. As a dessert offering we chose to have Mudslides. Turns out they are pretty darn good too! Wonderful place; one of the best we’ve been to on the island!!

After dinner we took what was left of our bottle of wine and wandered down the waterfront to the Divi Casino. It is the only casino on Bonaire and nothing like Las Vegas. They try, but it is more like a small room with a bar and a few slot machines than a casino. When we arrived the man at the door took our bottle of wine an explained he would keep it for us at the bar. We took a quick look around (we were almost alone there) walked up to the Roulette Table and explained that we’d like to make one bet, and laid a Fifty Guilder note on the table. The man exchanged the note for chips; I placed all of them on black; he spun the wheel and dropped the ball into the wheel, and when it stopped bouncing around it had landed in=2 0black.

He paid me in chips; I traded them for money at the cashier’s window; picked up our bottle of wine at the bar; tipped the man at the Roulette Table and we left the casino. It’s nice to be able to say we checked out the casino without it costing us anything. Now we don’t have to go back. I won’t have to bother with reporting the winnings to the IRS though, ‘cause this little trick doesn’t always work and I’m not yet even in my gambling experiences. Still it was fun to win.

And so to home and bed after one more in a long string of wonderful days.

There was a lot more to tell that happened last week from cave hunting to Survivor/Battlestar evenings to Iguana stories and more. But enough for now.

Caribbean Note I

It's the end of our first week here (already) and we wanted to keep in touch, so decided to keep the ball rolling with these updates. Hope you don't mind getting this little weekly blog. We arrived in Bonaire to find our car washed and waiting for us at the airport and the house still in the condition we left it; except for the collection of Iguana poos outside the front door. We spent the first couple of days cleaning (an all pervasive red dust) and getting groceries in and activating our island cell phones and paying our bills. The new thing this week was having our septic tank pumped (the previous owners had never done it) just so we could say we knew when it was last done. Not eventful in any way. We've spent the rest of the week diving (sometimes with our neighbor and walking around in the kunuku (cactus choked countryside) looking for wet caves. The diving has been wonderful; the cave hunting not so much.

I have gotten "directions" from cavers I've contacted and locals too, but they say things like "follow the coast road 'till it makes a sharp bend then turn onto the dirt road there and follow the power line to the fifth pole and walk out into the kunuku heading west for several hundred yards and it's entrance is a small hole behind a Wiacaw tree." I've found several dry caves but no luck with a divable cave yet. The kunuku is impenetrable without boots, jeans, leather chaps and a machete and is so thick you couldn't see ten yards through it even if you were on the right track. So, I'm still searching, but have a GPS unit with me and can navigate without getting turned around and if I ever find what I'm looking for I can mark its position to be able to return to it with the gear to dive it.

All in all we're having a much more relaxed time this trip and Rexx seems happy to be back too.

Caribbean note VI

Wow! Six weeks gone and we'll be leaving for home on Saturday. This should be the last of these little blogs 'till we see you at Rose Festival next Sunday to watch Amber's team win in the Dragon Boat Races.

All the loose ends have been coming together nicely this past week and things like repairs and accounts and gas suppliers have all resolved as if to make sure our list of "must do's before we leave" won't be an excuse to stay longer.

 We've been diving more these days. Berit and a girl we met on Bonaire Talk, buddied up yesterday at a site called Karpata while I did a solo dive to 378 feet. (Nice to finally have a reliable source of Helium.) The edge of the reef is a nearly vertical wall with sand ledges and Gorgonians all the way down. After 400 feet it just keeps on going. I saw a bit of everything from big lobsters and turtles to Queen Angels and schools of Blue Tangs and Jacks.

The entry/exit at Karpata is a bit tricky with wave action and surge, especially with (3) extra sling bottles, but they worked together to drag the cylinders in and out again. The big Iguanas have become quite tame from people giving them snacks at the site; they all begged for handouts as we sorted our gear in the hot sun. After diving we stopped by one of the local restaurants for snacks,cold drinks and chit chat. It was the kind of day we had in mind when we decided to buy our little house.

Caribbean Note V

This week was a tough one for us. My friend Paul died on Monday while diving off the coast of New Jersey. Paul was the guy I dove the Submarine Spikefish with on my east coast trip last summer. We also dove the caves together in Mexico and hung out at various times as well. I won't belabor the issue, but there’s an article from his hometown paper if you care.

Other than sweating out the search for a couple of days we really haven't done much new. Berit has had a stuffed up head and sore throat, so we've stayed out of the water. She also sat on our glass top coffee table and crashed through into a pile of glass. It was pretty dramatic but she was lucky and only had a small stab would to her hip. (No stiches.) The list of all we've accomplished in the last five weeks is pretty impressive, but we've still got a ways to go before we're ready to come home in two weeks

Caribbean Note IV

This is the end of our fourth week on the island and we've been busier than ever trying to get all our ducks in a row so we can enjoy our vacation paradise. We've accomplished a lot here, but there are more loose ends than ever and every few days a new problem to add to the list. The latest was installing the gear table I built in it's proper place beside the hose bib on the dive locker side of the house. As I was digging to set the concrete blocks under the table legs, I discovered that the drain pipe from the washing machine was smashed and full of rocks. I dug all around the broken section of pipe and called a plumber to replace it. After sawing through to achieve clean ends to wok with he tried to snake out the remaining rocks only to find the pipe was truly full of them . . . so we dug until we found the end which drains into a kind of rock filled french drain system and determined the solution was to dig a big hole at the far end and push all the rocks out into the new hole.

At the same time Berit was asking why the white clothes were getting yellow stains on them and the answer was because our water was not filtered and the old iron pipes on the island were rusty inside so the first water from the pipes when you open the tap was rusty. So . . . we decided to dig up the water pipe too and install a water filter system where the city water enters our property. After digging here, there and everywhere it seemed logical to dig and finding nothing, we gave up and called for a local laborer to come the next day and "find the pipe." Which he did; about four feet down through the rockiest "soil" you can imagine. By the time he was done there was no time left in the day to dig out the hole to solve the problem with our drainage so the digger agreed to come back the next day and keep digging.
Meanwhile our plumber came back and replaced the broken section of drain pipe and installed our water filter on the water pipe and went home too. The next day no laborer showed up by late morning so I started digging and filling holes and making new ones until I was all done at 5:30. Man, what a workout!! In the new batch of pictures you'll see our problem and the solution.

Also in the new batch of pictures is the method (we were shown) for replacing missing cactus in the cactus fence. Dig a hole and put in dirt; find a cactus arm and chop it off with a machete; put the arm in the hold and voila! it will grow. We only tried one to see if it works. Maybe next trip we'll work on the cactus fence.
Anyway, we still have lots to do and only three more weeks to get it done. Berit has had an ear infection for the past week. We spent a couple hours last Monday at the clinic where she was examined and prescribed ear drops and told to stay out of the water for a week, so tomorrow will be the first time we've been in the water for awhile.

Caribbean Note III

Well it's been three weeks and this weeks Caribbean note comes from my fellow islander who is making life here really easy for me. She's doing all the girl stuff like cooking and shopping and washing clothes, while I get to do all the boy stuff like pounding nails in wood and playing with dive gear. I'm really glad we're in this together. She's a great dive buddy too!!

Caribbean Note II

We're at the end of our second week and have been diving everyday after breakfast and taking care of business and exploring the island in the afternoon. We've seen reefs covered with coral gardens and schools of brightly colored tropical fish along with big groupers and barracuda. The leeward side of the island is calm and the beaches allow easy entry into the ocean. But I want to dive the windward side where there has been so little diving done. We've scouted this other side of the island and have seen some of the roughest coastline ever with sharp jagged rock sculpted by the wind driven breakers. The shoreline looks deadly. Where there is an occasional break the rollers roar through with huge waves that crash and surge onto the rocky beach. 

I haven't found a way to get into the water, or more to the point, a way to get back out. We met a group of people who are friends of our dive buddies and went to dinner with them a couple of times. They are from Vancouver Island and dive the same sites we do in the Pacific Northwest. Two of the couples are buying property here so we'll soon have a local contingent of Puget Sound divers on Bonaire. Small world. We've purchased a dive truck and I'm building an outdoor workbench to better manage rinsing and assembling our gear.