Caribbean Note #51

We returned to Bonaire with fresh memories of our oldest grandchild turning 21 and our newborn grandchild squinting at the light as he began to see the new world around him. Lots will happen before little Christian reaches his cousin Garrett’s age. Berit and I were sad to say goodbye to you all but happy to be back here in our island paradise.

We arrived just in time for Regatta Week and right away were plunged back into our normal routine of birding with our friend Jerry and diving with our neighbors. When the winds are down we dive the otherwise violent east coast of Bonaire. Strange that this happens when the annual sailboat races are taking place!

Once again I chickened out of the 800 meter swim to Klein from Eden Beach. I go every year to join the crowds of people of all ages but my latest round of knee injections hadn’t kicked in fully and I was too timid to try, yet again. Maybe next year!!

We volunteered as flaggers and water station workers at the annual Duo Extreme bike race. I have mad respect for the riders in this 80 kilometer mountain bike race. The riders are faced with trails so steep and rough they sometimes have to carry their bicycles to negotiate the worst parts of the route. Every year we see the wounded who have fallen onto the rocks or into the cactus with bikes so covered in mud you wonder how the wheels turn or gears engage.

A formal end to hurricane season brought the cruise ships back in ever increasing numbers and by Matthew’s birthday we were once again faced with big city style traffic snarl in our little town of Kralendijk. Cruisers love to get on busses and into taxis and onto scooters and tour around our tiny island at 5mph on narrow roads where oncoming cars meet each other with one set of tires on the narrow asphalt roadway and the other set of tires on the coral rubble shoulder in order to fit two trucks into space enough for only one. It’s revealing that most everyone cooperates in this little maneuver and passes with a smile and a wave. But watch out too for herds of goats and foraging wild donkeys!!

In addition to our other official government business (residency, insurance, banking, taxes, political action and volunteering) we decided to get our driving licenses. They are required of residents but we only recently understood that we should have done this years ago. You see, there are the rules that exist that don’t get enforced and the rules that do get enforced. And recently, with the local cops setting up road blocks to check for license and registration we see it’s now time to comply with this rule.

It turns out it’s just as complicated to get a driver’s license as it is to do any other kind of government business here. We first had to go to the registry and pay to get a document that showed we were in fact residents. Then we took that to the “DMV” and made an appointment (five weeks away) for our driving test. Since we have valid Oregon driver’s licenses we didn’t have to take a written test, just a driving test, and in addition to paying the fees for the license, we were advised to hire a driving instructor to practice with because “everyone fails the test on their first try”.

As the weeks went by we asked around about the driving test and discovered that “everyone” really does fail the first time. So we hired a driving instructor recommended by the DMV and Berit and I went off with him to practice driving. It soon became clear that the reason everyone fails is because there are some very specific details you have to get right in order to pass.

For instance:

• No open toed shoes or you must reschedule your test.
• No sleeveless shirts or blouses.
• No shorts or capris; only long pants or dresses.
• No driving over 40 kilometers per hour (24 mph) which is really hard to do when everyone else is going at least twice that speed or faster.
• When making a u-turn the tires may not leave the asphalt roadway. So a turnaround involves going forward then backward in tiny increments on the narrow roadway until you’re all the way turned around.
• There is no need to parallel park but they make you back into these very narrow, sometimes skewed parking spots where you only have about six inches to spare on each side between the white lines. They have two examiners during your test and they open the doors on each side of the vehicle and compare notes before they agree you made it. And you have to succeed at this from each direction backing into the spots both from the left and from the right.

And the list goes on and on. They tell you that if they instruct you to turn a certain direction then to do that properly, but if they say nothing at an intersection you are supposed to “follow the rules of the road” and if you are confused you fail.

For example, you’re supposed to know (if uninstructed) that when you enter a roundabout you must signal and make the second right hand turn. By the same token if you arrive at a tee intersection (and there is no instruction) you must turn to the right. Oh, and if there is any construction on the road you may not go faster than 15 kilometers per hour.

• Or you fail.
• Or you fail.
• Or you fail.

We were glad we hired a driving instructor (for $60 more) and in the end we both passed on the first try. And then made an appointment for two weeks later to return (to a different office) to get our actual drivers licenses. Which we did and can now pass through the roadblocks without concern.

And yes, after working on it from the first of August until Thanksgiving our sedula’s have been renewed for the fourth time. One more year and we’ll be able to renew our residency in five year increments instead of each year!! WooHoo!!

By December we had been involved with the 35^th year celebration of the establishment of the Bonaire Marine Park with accompanying Lionfish Derby (killer Berit and I are up to 3,267 and counting); we had donated to The Sea Turtle Conservation Fundraiser Auction and had “won” a very nice driftwood carving called “Serenity” which is so big we have no idea where to put it; but it’s nice!!

We have once again witnessed the arrival (by boat) of Sinterklaas and The Black Piets (don’t ask!?!) and have helped serve at the annual Old Folks Christmas Dinner held this year at Divi Flamingo; which was pretty awesome. Thanks to our friend Michael Gaynor.

Of course we've been diving north, south, east and west with old friends and new friends and are very much looking forward to Matt & Kelli and Garrett & Zoe arriving soon to spend their Christmas vacation with us here on Bonaire.

Berit will be returning to Oregon in the middle of January for a six weeks stay in order to see family and take care of some necessary business and then return by the end of February in time for a visit from our friends Bob and Noelle in March. The diving here is still spectacular and our house is always available should you care to visit!!

As you surely know, you are in our thoughts and never a day goes by that we don’t speak of you all and hope you are finding joy and the strength to meet life’s challenges.

Merry Christmas (Felis Pasku) to you all!!

Love,

Dad

PS The truck (in our fenced and locked driveway) was broken into yet again. This sort of thing has become routine and sadly just a part of our new normal. This time in addition to all the other parts, they took the driver’s door right off the hinges!! So we’ve hired an electrician and designed additional security measures (lights and proximity sensors) to be installed in the driveway. At best it will discourage the thieves; at worst they’ll have better light to work in as they dismantle our truck.

Caribbean Note #50

Hey Everybody,

Wow, it seems like such a short time ago that we sent our original email to you all from Bonaire letting you know that we’d purchased a house here on the island. Now it’s been five years since that first Caribbean Note and today I’m writing number fifty. I suppose it’s fitting that these are nice round numbers since we've reached another milestone.

Work on the new house next door is finally finished and the place is ready for vacation rental. Here’s a link to our neighborhood website where you can see pictures of the house (Kas Koral #3) and potential renters can make contact with our property manager.

http://www.bonaireexclusief.nl/eng/bungalows/number3.html

Kas Koral - Bonaire Exclusief Bungalow #3

A new website is being developed with an updated appearance and additional information about the Bungalow Park, but this “old” site will have to do for now. Berit and I have worked hard this trip to make Kas Koral comfortable and nice and already people are signing up to rent this little vacation cottage. Of course it’s also available to family and friends, so we’ll be able to spread out between the two houses when you all come to visit. Just let us know when you can come and we’ll contact our property manager and have him block out the time for you.

You may remember the big news in my last post was all about my broken foot. I’m happy to report that all is well and mended now and we’ve resumed a full schedule of diving and hiking the goat trails in the mundi with Titan.

He’ll be traveling back to Oregon with us at the end of the week, so we’ve taken him to the vet for his shots and well dog paperwork and found a small carry-on kennel for him to travel in on the airplane. We’re not sure how he’ll react to the rain and cooler weather in Oregon. Since he barks and chases every critter he encounters from iguanas to goats, with great intensity, we’re a little concerned about him meeting Bentley and Kirby at the next family dinner. At least Cooni and Zumo won’t be there, so we have a pretty good chance that he’ll at least adapt to members of his own tribe. Please don’t hesitate to bring your dogs to meet him.

Speaking of the family dinner how about Sunday the 15^th of June at our house for a back yard BBQ? We can grill burgers and hot dogs and make some of grandpa’s onion dip. Let’s say come at noon and we’ll eat around 3:00. The only thing missing will be the grilled Lionfish. We’ve got a recipe for ceviche from Chef Hagen that Berit has wanted to try. We’ll make it for you when you come to the island.

We’ve missed a ton of recent birthdays and events to celebrate at the dinner too. Berit, Carrie, Amber, Sidney, Kelli, Ian and Jesse and I are all getting older and Zoe is graduating from high school and heading off to Oregon State; not to mention Sidney and Jesse are cooking up a brand new baby for us all to spoil and Geoffrey (with Amber’s help and support) has opened his new store. So much life happening all around. It will be nice to catch up on all the news.

As usual there have been some challenges living here on this little rock. When we arrived in 2008, the Island Council was embroiled in controversy and charged with all manner of corruption and criminal activity. The several coconspirators were placed under indictment and their records seized by the Dutch Government Officials who have had them under investigation all these years. And now the charges have been dropped and these men are back in office or currently forming a “new” political party to run for office in the upcoming election.

The 2015 evaluation of the 2010 change in the political status of the island is creating a push for a new referendum to include the choice to separate from the Netherlands and become an independent country; an option favored by a small but vocal group unhappy with Dutch rule. An appeal is being made to the United Nations under a sixty year old UN mandate ordering European powers to allow free elections in their colonies. Bonaire keeps voting for inclusion within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and this group keeps saying the elections are unfair and the vote is bought by local politicians aligned with Dutch interests.

Bonaire Marine Park has won its battle with Karel’s Beach Bar and now the huge new water park and hotel complex will not be built on the waterfront on new piers extending out onto the reef. In addition the pilings already sunk into the reef around the existing party pier will have to be removed. This is good news for the cause of reef conservation and the diving industry on Bonaire. But there are so many new hotel and development projects that the island infrastructure has been overloaded and power, water, roads, schools, airport, hospital, police, etc. etc. are all struggling to keep up with the influx of people and especially the island's embrace of tourism in the form of additional cruise ship amenities like shopping malls and island bus tours. The traffic is insane some days.

And Bonaire’s problem with petty theft and burglary just keeps getting worse. Social service programs and social welfare programs are stretched thin and with the lack of avenues for upward mobility the poor keep getting hit harder and harder with rising costs for food, power, water and other essentials including taxes. Many here blame this situation for the rise in petty theft and burglary. Our latest brush with crime resulted in our car being damaged and tossed right in our driveway inside our locked gates. Berit awoke to Titan barking at 3:00 AM and went outside but saw nothing in the darkened driveway. In the morning we discovered the damage to the truck and the missing tools and jack. We wonder if the dog had not barked would we also have lost the battery and tires or even the car itself.

But in spite of all this, Bonaire rewards us far more than she punishes and we do live on an otherwise beautiful, safe and essentially crime free island.

We fly back to Oregon in just a few days and can’t wait to see you all and especially Titan’s reaction to wet grass. With Rose Festival comes rain and more rain and our “outside dog” will have to learn to adjust. 

Our Sunbather -- He's gonna hate Oregon!

He may come to love the spot in front of our fireplace as much as Rexx did.

Love,

Dad

Caribbean Note #49

Hey Kids and Kidlets,

Well, we've been away from Oregon for a month and for the first three weeks Berit and I walked along the waterfront every morning and hiked in the mundi on Saturday and biked along the coast road on Sunday and stuck to our regular workout routine after returning from our early morning adventures before enjoying a leisurely breakfast in our garden. We were back in our little island paradise doing all the things we love after our cold, icy stay in the Pacific Northwest.

We managed to fit in a bunch of nice long dives during those weeks and then, in light surf on entry at Playa Frans, I stepped wrong on the coral rubble bottom and broke my foot.

The trials and tribulations of getting from that moment to this one;

were all handled with very competent and patient resolve by Nurse Berit who performed as ambulance driver and admittance clerk and personal assistant who took care of recording the doctors instructions and obtaining the crutches you see and making me comfortable etc. ad infinitum. Many thanks for this and all the years she’s chosen to put up with me. I know it’s been a lot of work.

The doctor said the foot was broken and I was given a temporary cast and after ten days hobbling around, I was to return to the hospital for evaluation and would know my fate. There was to be either a good result and I would get a walking cast to wear for the following five weeks, or surgery would be required to pin the broken bone back where it belonged and then later the walking cast.

This was a very, very long ten days; and after new X-rays were evaluated the result was better than I could have ever hoped. The doctor cut the cast off my foot and told me there was no further treatment required and I was free to go.

This is my left foot.  You see that little round broken bone fragment that sits isolated to the left of the large bones in my ankle?

That kind of looks like Klein Bonaire?

Well the doctor doesn't think it needs to be connected to anything, including where it broke from, so I’m released from my cast and free to walk on my foot as long as it doesn't hurt too much.

Which is very good news if my foot eventually stops hurting too much. For those of you who are old enough to remember, I’m getting around these days like Chester on the old Gunsmoke TV Show. “Mr. Dillon! Mr. Dillon!!”

During this time we've been entertaining our visiting guests Bob and Noelle, along with their son Matt. So while I was holding down the fort at home with Titan, they (Berit, Bob, Noelle and Matt) were out diving, during which time Bob took 650+/- pictures like this one of a Green Moray:

Bob and Noelle spent their non diving time taking care of projects around the house like figuring out and labeling the fuses in the electrical box, moving furniture around, sewing new curtains to replace the poorly functioning closet doors and were very helpful and fun to have around, especially while I was limping here and there on crutches. Matt was an interesting guest too; a physics professor at MIT when he’s not on Bonaire diving. We talked about gravity wave detection and the existential angst felt by those silly string theory guys. You know, small talk and chit chat.

Our guests have gone and things are getting back to normal. Berit’s birthday was a bit traumatic for her. She prefers to be confused about her age but this time it’s pretty easy to remember since both numbers are now the same.

She managed to get an additional 28 Lionfish while I was laid up and Bob took a bunch of shots of killer Berit too:

Going in for the kill

Got it; fish on!

Our houses look nice with their new paint, but we’re still waiting for the white stone to finish our project from last visit. Oh well; poco poco.

We don’t get a lot of news and would love to hear more from you all. Please “reply all” and let us know what’s up!

Love, Dad

** All photos courtesy of Bob Evans.  Thanks, Bob! **

Caribbean Note #48

Greetings from rainy, but warm, Bonaire,

All the news will follow, but first, allow me to digress.

Back in the olden times, around 1975, we lived in a 2^nd floor apartment that backed up to a wooded area of very large trees.  It was during the time I was trying to quit smoking (Geoffrey was a new baby) and I would go out onto the balcony and sit there and smoke the occasional cigarette so as not to smoke around the baby.

There was a huge tree adjacent to the apartment complex and as I sat there smoking I wondered if I could make the leap from our balcony to the tree.  It was pretty far and there were no limbs at the second story level, but there were thick wrist sized vines growing up the trunk.  The tree was quite a bit taller than our three story building and I thought that if I could leap onto and grasp those thick vines they would be able to hold my weight and I could climb up into the branches above.  So I finished my cigarette, climbed up onto the balcony railing, took a deep breath and jumped.

Everything worked out as expected, except for the fact that those thick vines turned out to be Poison Oak.  By the time I had climbed up and back down that tree, my arms were scratched up pretty good and over the next few hours my arms began to swell and by the next day were covered in oozing pustules.  The worst part was that everywhere the open wounds touched new skin the stuff would spread and take over and man did it itch.

I discovered that if I held an affected area under really hot water the itching would subside, and since, by now, I was essentially covered with sores, I got into the shower and sort of scalded myself from head to toe.  This brief relief was followed by the realization (over the next few days) that my hot water treatment had managed to spread the poison oak more or less uniformly over my entire body.  To make a long story short (or at least less long) the sores eventually scabbed over and healed up, but I've been scrupulously avoiding poison oak, poison ivy, and any other kind of skin irritant from that day to this.

Until now! Here on Bonaire I've managed to get into something similar and, as I write these words, I’m on day six of a too familiar adventure.  Yes, I’m older and wiser, so I tried to determine what plant could have been the culprit (thanks, Jerry Ligon, for all your help with that) and began to treat the affected areas right away with Daktacort, a hydrocortisone cream.  Still don’t know for sure which plant was responsible and the stuff is spreading, though very slowly, and it looks like the original sites are healing, so maybe in another week I’ll be back to normal.  Yikes! What a mess!!

In our last note I told you about our painting project and the new neighborhood pool project.  Well, the painting project, which was to take three or four weeks, is now in week twelve with no end in sight; and the pool project was cancelled by the neighborhood association because the owners could not agree on the design and cost of the new pool.  This pool project has been talked about for years and now is tabled.  The subject will be brought up, yet again, when the new board meets in the spring of 2014.  I was afraid this would happen and once again it has. We’re stuck with the crappy old pool for now.

We've been working toward the third renewal of our Sedulas (residency permits) since we arrived at the beginning of August and it looks like we’ll be able to finish that process next week.  Four months out of each year devoted to renewal.  Wow.  We love Bonaire. On our fifth renewal we can do five years at a go instead of annually; can’t wait!

Our interest continues in the kid’s abuse hot-line, Respeta Mucha (Respect Children) and the afterschool programs Jong Bonaire and the Junior Rangers, along with a new program designed to assist abused women and children called Bea Vita (Beautiful Life).  This is essentially a poor island and in spite of new money and improved services since 10-10-10 the plight of the Bonaireans has not improved.  The budget for the island High School has been cut again and while political action and activism are on the rise there is still a lot of suffering here on the island.

Speaking of suffering, hurricane season is officially over and the cruise ships are back so our wrecked streets are once again clogged with pod people by the hundreds.  I suppose it’s good for the tourist industry and the restaurants, but it sure makes it hard to go to town.

Tina was just here for a nice two week visit and in addition to diving and joining us in volunteering to help with the annual Duo Xtreme Mountain Bike Race, she brought along the locations of “buried treasure” and we spent a couple of days “GeoCaching” by using a handheld GPS unit to find boxes of trinkets hidden by others playing this world wide treasure hunt game.  A couple of the twenty five places here on Bonaire, required a long hike to reach and of course a search to find the spot, sometime on top of a huge boulder or buried under a rock or stashed in the out crop of a cliff face.  We signed the enclosed logs and took or left objects for others. One cache had a travel bug with a message that it wanted to go to the Pacific Ocean so Tina took it and will place it in a cache on the Oregon Coast at Canon Beach. We found nine caches; it was great fun!  

At our water station at Washington-Slagbaai Park gate.

Found it!

We took Tina diving on “the wild side” and she did here first solo dive too, and as always diving here in our beautiful crystal blue waters was wonderful.

Lionfish hunting continues unabated with our total in the 2500 range now.  There are more frequent opportunities to dive with rebreather friends, which is awesome, but still only occurs occasionally.  I sometimes dive solo with my scooter and am able to cover several kilometers of reef and explore places I wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach without my trusty Magnus 950. (When I write that I always feel like Harry Potter gushing over his Nimbus 2000.)

Berit and I celebrated the 23^rd anniversary of our first date and our 20^th wedding anniversary.  Matt and Garrett are both Happy Birthday boys since the last Caribbean Note and Geoff and Amber will be traveling with us to Missouri for Mom’s 90^th next month.  Everybody’s getting older!

Berit’s crown has been bothering her for some time now and she’s been avoiding having a root canal because of the new evidence of the negative effects of that procedure, until finally the tooth became very painful and last week she was the first of us to visit the island dentist and had the tooth pulled.  All went well and since it was in the back you can’t even tell she’s missing a molar.  Any additional work can wait ‘til we’re back in the US in order to visit her regular dentist.

OUCH!!!!

Sunday is Dia di Gracia here on Bonaire and Thanksgiving is fast approaching; in just four short weeks we’ll be back in Oregon.

After our weekend trip to Missouri for Mom’s Birthday, we’ll be back in time to cook Christmas dinner, so you’re all invited to our house on Christmas Day for the usual celebration. And just for the record, if any of you want to host the family gathering one day, we’re fine with that, as long as you invite us too!!

Shoes filled with straw are being left in the markets and images of Sinter Klaus and the Back Piet’s are everywhere here!!  We feel part Dutch; Christmas is coming!!

All our love,

Dad

Caribbean Note #47

Hey Everybody,

It’s very hot here in the southern Caribbean.  I hear you’re having quite the opposite weather in Oregon.  Sorry to know you’re dealing with cold temperatures, but happy to remind you that we’re only a plane ride away.  Come and see us!!

The plethora of birds is singing in the garden and the iguanas are gathering for their breakfast of salad scraps and old fruit left over from meals past.

Our big news these days is we’re having our houses painted.  We’ve done more than our share of this sort of thing in years past, so we’ve hired Stefan (PRO-Home) and his crew for the job.  All we really have to do is unlock the gates before we go diving and admire their work when we return.  This project includes building a new security door and some necessary roof repairs on the new house and should be complete in three or four weeks.

Our owners association is finally taking action to build a new pool in the neighborhood.  We have witnessed quite a lot of drama in emails and at the meeting to approve the design and accept the contractors bid.  Wow, I thought dive club politics were problematic.  We were shocked at the emotion invested in this decision making.  But, I think it’s all settled now and I expect to see bulldozers and backhoes any day now.

We’re still trying to exercise daily and have established a routine of early morning (weekday) “Insanity” warm-ups followed by a long walk along the waterfront; plus a (Saturday) uphill walk to Sera Largu and a long bike ride on Sunday.   I’m sure there are a lot of people doing more, but at least we’re trying to stay with it.  It seems we often try to find a reason to skip it today, but so far we’ve been pretty good.  We’ve been taking Titan on these walks and he seems to really love it!  He’s all jumping around and happy and when we’re out in the mundi, on the hiking trails, we let him off the leash and he exhausts himself running after the goats and bounding around in the sticker bushes and cactus like a little gazelle.

We’re in the middle of our annual residency renewal process and it’s going slowly, as usual, with the never-ending glitches in the operation of the island bureaucracy.  But poco poco as they say here, little by little we’ll get it all done.

The Sailboat Regatta and annual Extreme Mountain Bike Race are coming up soon, along with a Royal visit from the new King of The Netherlands. So life goes on here as always.

We’ve always had an interest in local politics and have been looking for a way to make a positive contribution, so we’ve agreed to help fund a new foundation established to provide kids with a hotline and access to resources when they find themselves with problems they can’t solve and nowhere to turn for help.

In addition we’re interested in a friends desire to create a community center where anyone can get a meal without the normally requisite hoops to jump through like paperwork or proselytizing that typically are part of programs for the poor.

Meanwhile the investigations continue into corruption in Island Government and the charges brought against current and former government officials along with myriad environmental scandals that affect Bonaire’s reef and wildlife.  So, there are still plenty of local issues to interest an activist child of the sixties.

We’ve been taking advantage of the calm September winds to dive the "wild side" of the island whenever possible.  I’ve been lucky to meet a few rebreather divers who are here on extended stays and have done some nice long dives with them.

Berit and I are looking forward to visits by Tina and later Bobby, and also my cave diving buddy Dave and a group of rebreather divers from Canada who will all come to Bonaire in October.

We’re still finding a bunch of Lionfish but see a definite reduction in their numbers in recreational depths.

Divers still come to the island in droves, but it’s nice to have a break from the cruise ship passengers; too bad hurricane season doesn’t last all year.

Our 20^th anniversary, along with Garrett’s Birthday are coming up next week and we’re kind of starved for news from home, so please drop us a line and let us know how everything is going in your lives.  We think about you every day and hope all is well.

Love, Dad

Caribbean Note #46

Hey Everybody.

The navigation was a bit convoluted of late, but our ship is still on an even keel and our course is, as always, fluid.  Who knows what lies ahead?  Who indeed; but we’re still enjoying the voyage.

It was nice to see all of you while I was in Oregon to do business with Uncle Sam; all but the birthday girl and her husband busy traveling the world.  I was pleased to find you all fending off the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.  You are all (I am proud and humbled to say) survivors.

The big news is that while I was off the island Berit fell in love with another man.  His name is Titan and he’s come to live with us here.  He sleeps outside on the front porch and barks when there is danger.  I like him too and happily he seems to like me; lots of kisses and he’s happy to sit on my lap as well as hers.  He’s currently unsure of how he feels about all the iguanas, but since he is small the iguanas don’t pay much attention to him.  It would be nice to teach him to like Splitty McForkson (he still comes to breakfast as a rule) but chase the others away from eating our garden shrubbery.

We’re still working on the contracts to purchase the house next door, and the drama of dealing with the local notaris and a seller living in The Netherlands has kept us involved to say the least.  We have been working to repair the house and get the garden back in shape, but we’re trying to “go slow” until the deal is finally done.  As they say on the island: poco-poco; little by little; maybe soon.

We have been lucky to have had a four day streak of no wind and very small waves, so we’ve finally been able to get in some East Coast dives.  We started with the southernmost point of Bonaire at Willemstoren Lighthouse where the sea fans and soft corals are in abundance; then went full East Coast with a long dive at Boca Onima, and finished off with a couple of awesome boat dives north of Boca Spelonk at Boca Olivia, an area (truly) inaccessible from the rocky shoreline.  All these places have beautiful corals and so much variety of life with big creatures essentially undisturbed by the masses of activity on the west coast.  We were joined on our way back to Lac Cai by a huge (hundredish?) pod of Dolphins swimming with the boat and leaping out of the water and spinning in the air around us.  The Lionfish count is now nineteen hundred for Berit and me and it’s nice to be able to diminish their numbers on “The Wild Side” too.

It’s turtle nesting season and we helped clean up one of the east coast turtle nesting beaches called Boca Washikemba.  It’s astonishing how much trash and plastic debris floats ashore on the waves.  So many shoes and plastic bottles and toothbrushes and doll parts and medical waste like syringes and serum bottles.  We collected enough to fill a thirty yard dumpster in just a few hours with a couple dozen people.  So sad.

This past weekend was the confluence of several local holidays, chief among them was Dia de Rincon to celebrate the almost five hundred year history of the mid-island town here on Bonaire.  Also the international Labor Day celebrations and the inauguration of the new King of The Netherlands.  So, lots of noise and activity with parades and partying over the four days of events.  Things are getting back to normal now and it’s easy to tell summer is on the way because our winter temperatures of low eighties have climbed to our spring temperatures in the high eighties.  When we return in August we’ll be trying to cope with another ten degree increase then.  So, more diving is always the solution to the heat.

Last month Bob Evans and I fabricated an iguana proof shield to protect Berit’s new Flame Tree and it works great so far.  We often see them trying to climb its smooth sides to get at the tender leaves just out of reach.  And since we pruned the nearby Oleander they no longer have an adjacent platform from which to hurl themselves onto it.  So, I think it’s safe to declare this mission “save the tree” accomplished.

Even though we’ve kept in touch with family and friends and everything seems to be going along as expected with the people in our lives, we sometimes wish we could do more to help with the myriad unsolved problems around us.  We ponder and choose and try to fit in where we can and do feel hopeful about the progress we see, but if you know of something that needs doing or someone who needs help or encouragement, please let us know.

As you know we had planned to be back in Oregon by now but the new house et.al. has kept us here.  Our current plan is to return at the beginning of June, and with the start of the month host a mega birthday dinner to celebrate the half dozen birthdays we’ve missed since April.  We’ll keep you posted.

Love, Dad

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