Caribbean Note #45

Damn!

It seems strange to be writing this installment of the Caribbean Note from cold rainy Oregon.  So much has happened in the past four weeks.

Rexx began to have issues with his heart and lungs at the beginning of March.  We took him to see Dr. Jan every few days and it seemed, at times, as though the medication prescribed would stabilize his condition, but in the end we could see that it was unkind of us to continue and by the end of March we had to let him go.  We take solace in the knowledge that he had a long happy life and will now stay forever on our sunny warm island.  He was always Berit’s snuggle buddy and it will take a long time to heal this wound but the memories live on.  Rexx was a good friend. 



Caribbean Rexx - 2009

R.I.P. li'l Rexxy

 

As you know, our original plan was to return home together but Berit has remained on Bonaire to complete the business of (finally) purchasing the house next door.  It has been essentially empty for the five(ish) years since we purchased our house here and has been on the market for the last two years.  The offer we made then was rejected but the market has fallen here too, so the owner finally relented and we agreed on a contract sale.  We took possession of the house two weeks ago and have been making repairs and cleaning since then.

The garden was in a much neglected state and we’ve done an extensive pruning in order to get the plants back to a manageable size.  All is going along as it should and we expect to close the sale and sign in the next few weeks.

 

Because we made no provision to be gone at tax time I’ve returned alone to get the paperwork together and resupply Berit with her favorite brand of coconut milk and restock her dwindling cache of Lara Bars and a certain kind of chocolate bar sold at New Seasons.  Just because you live on an Island is no reason to give up the essentials.

Of course I’m looking forward to seeing you at the Old Spaghetti Factory on Sunday and I too am taking advantage of an opportunity to embrace one of my guilty pleasures; a nice plate of spaghetti with brown butter and Mizithra cheese.  I wonder if Semper Kontentu Goatcheese Bonaire makes Mizithra?

Along with all that was happening during the past month we had a nice visit from our friends Bob and Noelle.  In addition to doing a bunch of great scuba dives at our favorite places we enjoyed sharing the chaos and were able to sail our ship in the rough seas with the support of a great crew.



Congrats, Bob!!!
March 21, 2013

Bob brought me enameled tools (mine have rusted in this tropical climate) and new electronic toys.  With his electrical expertise he sorted out our fuse box issues and together with Berit made sense of our circuits.  Bob and I built an iguana proof guard around Berit’s new Flame Tree to stop them munching the tender new leaves and was my right hand man when we were forced to change a flat tire on a remote coral rubble beach.  Where, incidentally we met Tom and Mike who stopped to help and turned out to be the renters of our good friend’s condo.  We had recently said goodbye to Doug and Dianne on their return to Canada after a month on the island and here were these guys from the New Jersey area who’d stumbled across us at Tailor Made who just happened to be staying at Villa Makoshi and were nice enough to stop and offer to help!  Now that’s a small world.

Meanwhile, as Bob and I worked to jack up the truck in this incredibly difficult terrain, Berit and Noelle spotted the elusive Manta Ray (that we have been hearing about for months and had never seen) and grabbed their fins and jumped back into the water to swim with it.

Anyway, we had a great time with Bob and Noelle.  We hiked the Pink Rock Trail in the valley of the bees and Kayaked in the Mangrove Swamps.  It was Bob who took the Facebook picture of Berit and me with the Mega-Bertha Lionfish container, and Noelle who cooked breakfast for two weeks.



Now that we’ve established a larger presence on Bonaire with the newly expanded Pement Family Compound, we expect to have more visits from family and friends who might choose to stay longer in their own “house next door”.

As always, life goes on.  Our new return date is set for June first and so if any of you are thinking along the lines of a late spring vacation, then, as Bob Barker used to say, “come on down”.

Love,

Dad





Caribbean Note #44

All hail Oregonians! Here’s all the news that fit to print from the Southern Caribbean!!

Bats!  We set up the camera on a tripod and Berit snapped about a gazillion pictures of bats coming to the Chibi Chibi sugar bowls.  You really can’t see them clearly on the wing but in the photos they’re pretty awesome looking.

We have also encouraged our new population of young Iguanas by planting the Flame Tree last month and have been diligently trying (broomstick swinging wildly) to keep them away from the tasty little budding leaves and flowers they love to eat.   Aaarrrgg!  We’ve put a funnel barricade around the trunk to keep them from climbing up but they somehow get into the treetop anyway!?

It was nice of Mare to post the Pement Kids Hiking photos from 1986 on Facebook. I have fond memories of those days of camping together and especially the Lost Lake Camping Trip and hike up to the old Forest Service Fire Lookout Tower on Mount Hood!  That was the trip we canoed around the Lake and caught so many salamanders.

You’ll be pleased to know we finally took delivery of Berit’s new bike!!  It only took a full year to receive it from The Netherlands!!  But it’s pretty cool and much easier to ride than her old clunky city bike.  We made it a full kilometer up the kilometer and a half long Karpata Hill (stopping twice to rest before turning back) and know that one day we’ll succeed in getting all the way up without stopping.  After six flat tires from the thorns, we’ve had Kevlar liners installed and are all set to give Richard Sichel a run for his money.  We did our longest ride yet when we entered the thirty seven kilometer fundraiser ride for the local “Boys and Girls Club” Jong Bonaire.  We made it to the finish and boy were our butts hurting at the end of the ride!!

I managed to back into another truck while we were picking up scuba tanks at Yellow Submarine Dive Shop a couple of weeks ago and so we’ve had an education in what happens in order to make an insurance claim here; lots and lots of hoops to jump through.  We also took the opportunity to try and get the spare tire free.  It had become rusted in place under the truck.  Good thing we never had a flat out in the mundi; even the latches on the tailgate are covered in rust.  But all will be in order when we return in August; the truck will be repaired while we’re home for the summer.

We’re still in negotiations to buy the house next door, but still no news of a breakthrough.  Our neighbor has agreed to sell on a five year contract but wants us to buy his truck too and roll it into the deal, but it’s not something we want.  If we end up with it we’ll just have to sell it; we certainly don’t need the headache of a second truck on the island; just the headache of a second house.

Our friends Doug and Dianne just left after a month of diving and enjoying the island.  And Bobby was supposed to be here the last couple of weeks but got bent diving in the Caymans, so cancelled his trip in order to recover properly.  Our friends Bob and Noelle will be here tomorrow to stay with us for the next two weeks and we’re looking forward to their visit very much.  Bob and I volunteer together (along with Bobby) at The Oregon Coast Aquarium and have become good friends.

The end of March will bring Berit’s Birthday and then we’ll be home by the first of April.  We’ve been here seven months (with a Christmas break) and it still doesn’t seem like too much of a visit.  I think we’re becoming Bonairians for real.

We had a bit of a scare with Rexx.  He wasn’t eating and became very ill.  On Tuesday, the Vet diagnosed him with congestive heart failure and his lungs had so much fluid present he was breathing in a very shallow and labored way.  The vet gave him an injection and put him on meds and for a couple of days we were thinking he might not make it. But by Thursday he was looking a bit better and after his visit to Dr Jan today it looks like he’s on the mend.  He’s eating and while he’s still stumbling around kind of drunkishly he seems much improved.  We have high hopes that he’ll be well enough to travel in three weeks when we return.

We hope you’re all surviving the winter snow and ice and staying warm and are all in good health.  It will be nice to see you all again.  We’ll plan a family dinner soon.

Love, Dad

Caribbean Note #43

Hi Everyone,

Wow!  We're watching the news with interest as the cold air envelopes all of you in below freezing conditions with snow and freezing rain.  Icy wind is blowing across the country from kids in Oregon to Mom in Missouri to Paul in Chicago and to Colette in North Carolina.  Berit and I are feeling a little guilty here on Bonaire.  The water temperature has dropped from 84 degrees to 79 degrees and we've added hooded vests to our normal 3 mil exposure gear and still get out of the water talking about how cold it has become.

I suppose "hardship" is truly relative and in spite of the many hard knocks we all take in life it's important to count our blessings and focus on the positives in our lives.

We enjoyed seeing you all over the holidays and sharing in your joys and helping to shoulder your pain as life continues to bring each of you a measure of happiness and sadness along with myriad challenges and daily opportunity for choice in future direction.  We're constantly amazed at the courage and strength you each demonstrate in your lives and are very proud to know we are your parents. Our advice to you is this: take courage.

We returned to Bonaire to find Rexx in fine shape for a 15 year old dog, and in spite of his advanced age he can still sometimes run and jump around and act like the puppy he once was.

Uncle Paul flew back with us and for a week we were able to relax and share memories and catch up on family news and still find time to double his diving experience in our warm blue waters.  We were lucky to find octopus, squid, turtles, eels and of course lionfish at some of our favorite dive sites.

Berit and I have found the reefs have been helped a bunch by the efforts of the hunters and sometimes we can't find a single lionfish on our dives.  We were lucky to have been invited to dive with our friend Hagen in an area off limits to divers and found the reef teeming with the invasive fish.  It goes to show what the situation would be all along our reef without hunters.  We took 150 fish that day without effort.

Our latest quest has been to find the elusive seahorse and have found one at Oil Slick Leap and heard tell of three  more at Salt Pier.  We're looking forward to the arrival of our friends Doug and Dianne from Canada to continue the search.

We get far less news here from abroad, but are watching the machinations and national political chaos with interest.  I feel pretty good about the way things are going back home and have hope that more will be accomplished in the second term than I had expected.  Go Barack!

We're also watching Tiger on his comeback trail at Torrey Pines and have heard rumors that he's getting back together with Elin.  The rumor is he's willing to sign an agreement that says, if he cheats on her again he'll forfeit a 300 million dollar trust fund.  Wow! That's an expensive dalliance. So much for our telenovellas.

Robert says "Hello" and is very much a part of our lives here as usual; he has a new puppy named Bumpy.

We were disappointed that we were not visited during the last three weeks by Splitty McForkson and believed he'd become iquana stew for someone, when he finally showed up looking fit and happy.  We wonder now if maybe Splitty is actually a mom and was off tending to her new family.  We have seen a new crop of small green iquanas but of course have no way of knowing who belongs to whom. We're calling them Scrappy Doo, Scrappy too and Scrappy three, because we can hardly tell the apart!

Local government issues remain strange but manageable, and there have been a couple of recent changes.  The iconic Netherlands Radio broadcast towers at 1000 Steps have been removed and the decades old brothel, Patchi Place, has been closed.  For even casual visitors to Bonaire, these were places synonymous with the island and landmarks everyone used for directions.  Time marches on.

As for us, we're still waiting for Frank at De Freewieler to receive shipment (from Holland) of Berit's new bike, and we're working our way through season four of The West Wing which remains one of our all time favorite programs.  It's amazing how these ten year old story lines could be taken verbatim out of the current headlines.  Aaron Sorkin is a genius!

Thanks to our friend, Jerry, we have a new acquisition for the garden; a Flame Tree which we're told will bloom with vivid red flowers in a couple of years.  So, you see, we too are planning for the future!



Digging the hole.



Mission accomplished!





Hope all is well with you.

Love,
Dad

P.S. STAY WARM!!

Caribbean Note #42

Happy Holidays, Everyone!  Hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving.

In spite of the fact that there is very little that Berit can eat at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner prepared by strangers in a restaurant that caters to the tourist diver, she agreed to go with me to Captain Don's restaurant, Rum Runner's, for turkey with all the trimmings.

We were shown to a table for two overlooking the sea with our even smaller islet "Klein Bonaire" as back drop to the schooling tarpon below who have been trained to know that food scraps will be thrown into the clear blue water as soon as guests are seated for dinner.

Even though meat, vegetables and fruit are on the menu for her, it's uncertain where these items came from or especially how and under what conditions they were prepared.  So, it was a very generous moment when she accepted an invitation to accompany me to a dinner where I would eat stuffing and potatoes with gravy and candied yams with marshmallow and "mystery" turkey and ham with chocolate cake and pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert.  She may as well have been watching me shoot heroin.  But was instead gracious and a wonderful dinner companion.

When we come home soon to host the family Christmas dinner, she will be certain that the food we serve (well, most of it -- long live "Onion Dip" and Ruffles) is not only healthy but "uncontaminated" by all the poisons that mass produced foods contain in order to make them more appealing to misguided consumers like me.  Even though I still eat a variety of mystery foods I am off the breakfast cereals and peanut M&Ms.  Mao said "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

On the subject of food, we've been having a bunch of rib dinners with asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli or brusselsprouts and tossed salad with all the "stuff" in it and the occasional lionfish thrown in.  Berit has ruined Buster's BBQ for me; her ribs are soooooo much better.

The lionfish hunting continues unabated with what proved to be the fattest I've speared yet at 1277 grams.  Nice fat fish.

We spent a couple a couple of weeks hanging out with a group of divers from Oregon who were really into the whole lionfish hunting thing and paid to be certified by one of the local dive operators and speared over a hundred on a couple of dives at Candyland.  It reminded me of Ron and Ashley's visit; that hunting bug really bites hard.

Berit and I did a night dive at the next site north called Tailor Made, hoping to have a similar result but came away with far less fish.  The Oregon group must have wiped out the whole population in that section of the reef!

On a sad note,we spent five days in Aruba visiting our friend Susy Weber who is in the hospital there recovering from a very serious infection in her leg.  In spite of the fact that her doctor here on Bonaire was treating her with good results, the infection suddenly became much worse and rapidly became life threatening.  The hospital here put her in a coma for a medical evacuation flight to the larger hospital on the nearby island and when she arrived in Aruba the doctor there was forced to amputate her leg in order to save her life.

She has been in the hospital for seven weeks and is making good progress in her recovery but it will take a long time for her rehabilitation.  She is a very strong person and has a good attitude about her situation and is optimistic about the possibilities for her future, so Berit and I are optimistic too.
I've been digging in the yard trying to make amends for my failure to properly instruct our gardener as to which trees to cut down.  Berit and I talked at length about taking out the Meme tree and two of our palms, and I explained to the Gardener which trees to remove and while we in Aruba he did the work.

Turns out I was right about two out of the three, but the palm in the middle of the yard was gone and the one crowding the little tree in the corner was still there.  When the steam had stopped coming out of Berit's ears, I suggested that we move the little tree to the place in the middle of the yard where it could flourish and not be crowded by the palm she wanted removed.  Problem solved!?!

Well, with little choice, she agreed.  Now all I had to do was dig the stump of the palm out of the middle of the yard and dig up the tree in the corner and transplant it to the middle of the yard and voila, problem solved.  But yikes!  Digging in this rocky ground is almost impossible!!  It took me (literally) days to dig out the stump and carefully dig up the little tree, but when it was transplanted and everything cleaned up and put away I think it looks great, maybe even better than her original idea?  Anyway, with all the back breaking work and days of digging I think she's forgiven me.  She always tells me I never listen to her and in this case it turns out she was right.

Island life is still wonderful.  We explore and scout new dive sites and spend quiet mornings watching the birds and lizards, and quite evenings watching old seasons of The West Wing (thanks Geoff and Amber; great show) or current episodes of survivor.  The power still goes off at the most inconvenient times and the weather is cooling and the rain and cruise ships have returned but I wouldn't trade our island for anywhere else I've ever been.

We're very much looking forward to seeing you during our little "vacation" back in Oregon.  Our flight gets in on the 23rd and we'll be "home" for two weeks

Hope all is well with you!

Love,
Dad

Caribbean Note #41

Hey Everyone,

Hope all is well with you on this balmy Halloween morning.

We have been watching the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy and feel bad for the people in New Jersey and on Long Island.  It's like watching our own vacation island get wiped out, but if that were to happen at least we could return to Oregon.  We're sad to see there are a whole bunch of people in a whole lot of trouble there. I'll take our volcano over their hurricane any day of the week.

Happy Birthday(s) go to Garrett and (soon) Mr. Matt with Jacob on deck before we arrive home at Christmas.  We'll have to have Birthday cake along with our ham for Christmas dinner!

Soon the election will be over and we'll have to wait (that's right, never enough) for the next cycle to begin.  And then we'll have both parties battling it out in the primaries.  I wonder if Hillary will run?  I'm already looking forward to 2016!

Life on the island is as easy and laid back as ever. Our business with the government office, like taxes and residency renewal, has moved along at a glacial pace and when we checked last week (again) on Berit's new bike (ordered for her birthday last March) we were told it was still not here but would arrive soon from Holland. We hope to have it by her next birthday.


The new neighborhood "watchdog" -- Tequila!
She lives next door and is a sweetie.

Our garden continues to be a great joy and we have so many named iguanas coming for their daily ration of papaya that we're starting to feel overrun.  Rexx doesn't even chase them anymore.  The lizards stand their ground and Rexx trots by with hardly a glance while on his way to see if they left any scraps of food for him.

  

A pot full of zucchini.  Hope to have some by Thanksgiving!

We volunteered again this year for the big (82 kilometer) mountain bike race and feel like we're getting to know more and more of the regular folks (instead of mostly divers) and still enjoy the island very much.  Regatta week has also come and gone with the influx of "cruisers" and sailboats of all description.

DuoExtreme 2012 Mountain Bike Race
Photo by Henk Piek

There is a group of divers here from Oregon (including Bobby) for two weeks, staying at one of the dive resorts and we've taken them to a couple of our favorite spots to dive.  They are (as we once were) trying to squeeze four and five dives a day into their vacation, so we mostly stay with our own more casual routine. We are taking advantage of the favorable winds to dive the East Coast sites and collecting more and more information about the wrecks and little known sites on the island.

We had an opportunity to join a group diving from an inflatable rubber boat off the very rough East Coast Site where an old lighthouse still stands. There is an inlet about two kilometers north by the same name, but Spelonk Lighthouse is where it is because the coastline there is probably the roughest on Bonaire. Anyway, Berit and I did two dives from the RIB on the wrecks there and along the beautiful reef and were certain to have been two of the very few to have ever dived the site. One of the other divers took video of Berit spearing lionfish and posted it on YouTube, so now she is an internet star!!  Three hunters - two dives - 100 less lionfish on the reef!  

We're still regularly spearfishing and have passed the 1000 mark with lionfish now commonly in the 40 cm (16") range.  More and more restaurants are serving lionfish and the tourists are asking for them, so a bit of a competition has started among the hunters to provide fish to the restaurants.

Berit has had a difficult time getting the supplements she needs through the mail, so it was fortunate she could have Bobby bring a package for her when he came last week.  He also brought (as visitors are asked to do) some items for me, a mask and a hard to find book I'd ordered, and even a frying pan for Robert.

Speaking of health issues, it's been more than ninety days since my heart surgery and I've been off all medication now for more than thirty days with zero incidents of A-Fib, so it's time to pronounce me cured of my heart condition.  Too bad this treatment protocol wasn't available to help Aunt Zada, and at sixty thousand dollars it was fortunate I was (mostly) covered by health insurance, but at least, going forward, the country will have access to health care in spite of the efforts of "He who shall not be named".

As always, you can Skype us (mpement) here if you email first and designate a time for us to meet you online. We love and miss you all and would be glad to hear from you anytime (thanks Sidney and Jesse!!) to catch up on the news.

Talk to you soon.

Love,
Dad

Caribbean Note #40

Dear Kids & Kidlets,

Bon Dia!  Tur kos ta bon?  Esta bon aki!

We miss you all and hope all is well with you too.  We know you all have busy lives and days filled with work and family and myriad problems to solve and plans to make and dreams to make happen; we don't get the chance often enough to tell you how proud we are of each of you and that we will always be here for you.

We arrived on the first of September to find all in order and our world here waiting patiently for our return.  We had soon delivered our gifts and the suitcase full of hard to find items for our friends, and were reacquainted with our garden critters.  Rexx seemed happy to be back and within the first hour we were paid a visit by our favorite iguanas Darcelle and Splitty McForkson.


Darcelle visits with Michael in the morning

Darcelle and Splitty begging for their papaya

Our plants behave in two ways while we're gone.  Either they grow like crazy or they don't grow at all!?  So we paid a visit to Capt. Don and Janet at their nursery and picked out a couple of new additions for the garden in hopes of filling in the "bare" spots in front of one of our garden lamp posts.

Robert and Monica are well and adjusting to life without their grandchild Joshua at home, since Farah and her husband moved with him to Holland.  It's been a tough transition for "Opa" but having kids move away is part of life too.  We had a nice lamb stew lunch together the other day, with Robert coming over around 8:00am to start the meat at our house and "instruct" Berit on the proper way to prepare it.  And once it was cooking on the stove he left with strict instructions to never lift the lid on the pot!  Robert's theory on cooking is that men have an innate talent for cooking while women need clear instruction and step by step supervision in order to properly prepare a meal.  We like Robert a lot.

Back in March I had ordered a nice new bicycle for Berit for her birthday from Frank at De Freewieler bike shop and guess what?  In spite of the fact that it would only take a few weeks or so (back in March) to get the bike from Holland, we're still waiting!!  When we arrived four weeks ago Frank told us it would be just "two more weeks" but the new bike has never arrived.  I can't understand how Frank's bike shop stays in business.  I just hope Berit will have her new bike in time for her next birthday in March.  Island life MAKES you slow down and be patient but, yikes!!

We were looking forward to the September wind reversal and calm conditions on the East coast, but that has not happened yet, so all our diving has been at the always calm and beautiful West coast sites.  We've had a month of revisiting our favorites and, of course, catching a bunch of lionfish.  By the way, I'm now the record holder for the biggest lionfish caught on Bonaire at 45.5cm as recorded by our lab CIEE.  Nice!

Berit is diving a new gear configuration with backplate and wing and is much more streamlined in the water but is still working out her trim.  We're both carrying the new fish containers I built when we arrived which replace the old catch bags we carried previously.  The lionfish were able to "sting" us both with their venomous spines able to penetrate the bags, but now the fish are shoved into 6" PVC containers and the spear pulled back out through the funnel shaped opening with no need to get your bare hands anywhere close to the spines.  These "zoo keepers" work great; we're close to 100 fish for our September total and have passed the 800 mark all together.  We've had our share of fish dinners with most of the catch going to Robert and his family.


A couple of monsters

Right away when we arrived we had an appointment at the government office to renew our residency for another year and all went smoothly.  Of course, we won't know anything for eight weeks, but that's what we expected so we'll know by Thanksgiving if we're still "island residents".  We don't expect any surprises.

Speaking of government issues, Robert and I marched in a protest rally in support of addressing the issue of run away price increases for food here and island services like power and water.  Since the new political change on 10-10-10, gas and food, etc. has been taxed at a rate double what was previously charged at great hardship to the local people, many of whom (like Robert and Monica) are old age pensioners on fixed incomes.

I'm sure most everyone is tired of politics by now, but I'm still all about it and can't wait for the debates next week.  I do believe we're going to wiiiinnnn!  I just hope our cable and internet holds out.  It's been sketchy at best with days of internet blackouts lately.

As far as security is concerned, we finally had our first "break-in" since buying the house three years ago.  Break-in is in quotes because our security bars were not damaged.  While Berit and I were off diving (with Rexx on guard at the house) someone reached through the bars and opened the unlocked screen door and "fished" with a tree branch and broom handle my wallet and watch off the kitchen counter from about 10 feet away.  Luckily they only took money and the watch, so I still have my ID and debit card, while they have the wallet and insurance cards, etc.  So, now we lock the door too, in addition to the security bars.

We are feeling fine.  Berit is receiving her delivery of supplements by post from her doctor in Oregon and I'm being weened off my heart medications after my A-Fib surgery in July.  In two weeks I'll stop the last of my pills and be back to just a daily aspirin again.  Still no recurrence of my A-Fib episodes but I can't be sure I'm cured until some time has passed without medication.  So If I make it to the end of October without incident, I'm probably in the clear.  Plus, the knees feel great again after my OrthoVisc injections over the summer so, I'm almost a new man again!!

Sorry for such a long note, but it's nice to share the news with you.  Please feel free to let us know how life is treating you.  Don't forget you can (as long as the Internet is working) Skype us.

Love, Dad



Caribbean Note #39

Hey Y’all,

It seems like it’s been 58 days since we’ve seen you all – no wait . . . it has been 58 days since we’ve seen you; with another 34 days to go ‘till we’re back the first weekend in June.  We’ve just passed by Danica’s Birthday and will pass by Carrie and Amber’s Birthdays next month so --Happy Birthday-- to everyone, and we’ll celebrate mo’ better when we get back.

We’ve managed to acclimate to island life pretty well this trip and have slowed down into an easy going pace where each day includes birds, birds, birds mixed together most days with fish, fish, fish.

Berit has been birding with Jerry and her new friend Eileen and we’re still killing lionfish on the reef and giving away more than we eat.  (We’re at 612 and counting.)  The garden is alive with critters and our favorite iguana Splitty McForkson still visits every day for his papaya handout, along with Darcelle and the new iguana kids trying to horn in on Splitty’s action.

There’s a new ground dove baby that’s been flapping around in our back cactus fence.  A couple days ago his brother fell prey to some local predator.  Chick number one is learning to fly with Mom and Dad; chick number two is mostly eaten with the ants finishing off what’s left of his skeletal remains.  The iguana world was dealt a blow when the neighbor cut down their home tree, but at least there are still plenty of nice places around to move into.

Berit and I have been diving new sites and will be heading out before sun-up in the morning for a transition dive.  We’ll get in the water in darkness and during the dive the night critters will be replaced by the waking daytime critters.  We’ve done this kind of dive before and find it’s like ringing a wake-up bell on the reef.  It all happens at once; one minute you’re seeing eels and lobsters and the next parrot fish and turtles.

We’re still hanging out with friends and neighbors (Robert asks about Geoff and Jacob) and we’re taking Eileen to Dia di Rincon tomorrow evening for the annual festival in this five hundred year old town.  The event recognizes the importance of the village to the local people; kind of like a combination founders day and freedom rally.  Rincon is inextricably tied to historic Bonaire in all its glory and especially its horrific embrace of slavery and the hardships and celebrations of plantation life.

And speaking of celebrations we just had our own “Taste of Bonaire”.  Not quite the same event as other places like “Taste of Chicago” or even “The Bite” in Portland but food and fun and music and a chance to see people.

Berit and I have been drafted by our friend Michael G. to help survey local businesses as to their “handicap accessibility” in order to help raise awareness and remove barriers.  It’s kind of strange ‘cause the roads and sidewalks are so bad that cars have trouble getting around let alone wheelchairs.

Every year since I bought my rebreather I’ve replaced the electronics and they have failed yet again.  This time (luckily) it’s only my deco side unit that’s gone wanky and I do have an off-board backup I can use for deco.  But Damn!!  I always replace the failed gear with the newest and bestest and most foolproof new thing around that always cost more (but is oh so much better) only to have it fail one year later like clockwork.  So remember, when you all buy your rebreathers, factor in an ongoing expense to keep them in good repair!!

Berit is still learning about nutrition and putting what she has learned into practice (on me) and I’m still losing weight and we’re still working out every day and getting stronger, which helps with some of the nasty sites we’ve been diving, humping our gear up and down goat and donkey trials to get onto coral rubble beaches where I’m sure we’re the only ones to go diving.

So, as you can tell, life here goes on as it should for two retired people in paradise.  I’m glad I have the where-with-all to live here, but even more thankful that I have Berit to share it with.

Bobby and Tina will be coming down soon for a couple of weeks, and I confess I’m looking forward to playing cards and hanging out with some folks from back home.  That'll give us a chance to catch up on the local news.

Remember that you’re all invited to visit us here any time you can.  After the summer weddings we’ll return in September and this time we’ve purchased one-way tickets.  Anyone want to spend Christmas on Bonaire?

Hope all is well with you and the people you love.

Dad