A Year of Selfies

Happy New Year from Bonaire

Beach Christmas

The east side of the island is famous for it's beach art.  This year the local artists erected interesting and unique driftwood works of art.  Everyone stopped to take pictures, as well as Rick and I.

Merry Christmas (Bon Pasku) from Bonaire! 

 

Christmas Time

Sinterklaas and his merry Black Petes are gone from the island.  Santa Claus has arrived. Santa (the oldest man I have ever seen dress like Santa) entered the main square in Kralendijk assisted by two people on either side guiding him to his chair.  The kids flocked to him. It was a heart warming event and part of the week's activities leading up to Christmas.

The island is fully decorated with Christmas lights.  Every round-about, every government building, houses, street lights and restaurants are all decorated with Christmas trees and lights.

There have been Christmas markets each night in various barrios around the island.  The stores in downtown Kralendijk stayed open until 9:00 pm which is only done at Christmas time.  They usually close at 5:00 pm. The festivities included kiosks with handmade gifts for sale, food booths and music. We saw our friends strolling the boulevard.  

 

The resorts also hold Christmas markets and decorate with lights and trees.  Its a full week with an event happening every evening. The island really knows how to celebrate. Last Christmas we were sick and not able to partake in the festivities.  It was a real treat to do Christmas in a small community.

Boats

I have been taking pictures of boats that come to Bonaire and I thought I would share them with you.

The best cruise ship is one that is heading out to sea.
 

The large sail boats that bring a small number of tourist to the island are more welcomed than the 10 story cruise ships carrying 5 thousand people.

Cargo ships are our favorite.  They bring in all our food, construction materials (wood, sand, gravel, steel, asphalt, pavers) cars, and household shipments. They also bring in gas, oil, jet fuel and propane. They carry Bonaire salt away to markets around the world.

Dutch military ships, including the Coast Guard, dock at Bonaire. They are here for military exercises, catching drug runners, picking up illegals, and saving fisherman who are stranded.

My personal favorites are the pleasure crafts that sail at sunset. These boats are the stars of sunset pictures from the shore. 

Concert

The Classical Music Board of Bonaire put on a wonderful Christmas concert. Choirs sang Christmas songs in four languages and tunes that we knew and could sing along. The Bonaire Kuarta Ensemble played beautiful music and sang in Papiamentu and Spanish. Our favorite tenor performed a fabulous "Ave Maria".  The evening ended with and audience sing-a-long to "Angels We Have Heard On High". 

The concert was held in the biggest Catholic church on the island called San Bernardo. It a beautiful, austere church with wood kneelers, hard wood benches and no air conditioning.  We sat for two and half hours with the other 300 attendees.  It was a miracle that we could still walk when it was over.  It brought back memories of going to church and suffering through kneeling, sitting and long sermons. Lightning didn't strike me down so I feel lucky about that.  After spending that long in church we certainly needed an adult beverage. So we ended the evening with beers at Little Havana bar.

All the round-abouts (all four of them)  have lighted decorations.  This roundabout is in front of the church where the concert was held. You know us, we can't pass up an opportunity to take a selfie.

 

Happy Birthday

We treated ourselves to a private birthday dinner at the house with a personal chef. It was so perfect to celebrate our birthdays with "At Home" ( name of the private chef company).

The chef brings in table settings, food, wine, pots and pans and cooks everything on site. Then cleans up everything and leaves. Manouk is the owner of At Home and she made a 6 course dinner, served us and selected wine pairings to go with each dish.
 

We ate tuna tartar, shrimp and clam soup, Wahoo (fish), steak, and creamy cheesecake with blueberries for dessert.  The dishes were super interesting and very tasty. We ate, we drank, we looked at the stars.  We thoroughly enjoyed having a meal prepared just for us.  Great way to celebrate our December birthdays in style.

This is our birthday picture. I am 69 and Rick is 71.

Inside/Outside

Indoor/Outdoor living is our style.  We love having the doors open and the breeze blowing through our house. We seamlessly move throughout the house and outdoor space.  The weather in Bonaire is perfect for our life style.

However there are a few draw backs.  The precious trade winds that keep us cool, also blows leaves and dirt into the house. This requires continuous cleaning. There is also a continuous flow of insects and critters in the house.

We recently had a huge (eight inch span) crab come into the house. We have an 8 foot wall around the house so we are wondering from where did this crab come?  Surely if he was living inside the compound we would have noticed him before now.  He/She was big enough to eat! Now I worry what else is out there that may enter the house.

Rick, the crab wrangler, easily moved the crab to outside the compound.

There has been a recent bloom of frogs at the house. We have found the smallest of baby frogs all over...inside and outside the house. This one is less than an eighth of an inch...tiny!

We also had a recent influx of geckos. Tiny tiny baby geckos that run on the walls and hide as soon as you see them (that's why I have no picture of them). 

It sounds like the house is full of unwanted creatures.  Yes, that is true, but they only stay a short while and then they leave to live their life on the outside. Inside/outside living means you share it with everything.

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Christmas Market

We visited the Tera Cora Christmas Market.  It's open only two evenings.  It was full of booths selling handmade Christmas ornaments, decorations, lotions and potions, food and drink. There were stage acts, singers, dancing and musical groups that entertained the crowd.

Oliebollen, a Dutch doughnut, were begin sold and so we had to have a few of them.  They went great with the beers we purchased at the bar.

Since I had recently downsized my Christmas collection, I was in no hurry to build it up again.  However, I did buy a plastic star for our tree. I thought it would work but it was too heavy. 

Sinterklaas arrived by boat and came on the island a few weeks ago.  He and his Petes attended the market and, as always, were a delight to the children and me as well. Although he looks like a Catholic Bishop he is the equivalent to the American Santa Claus.  He brings with him, his Black Petes.  

The Petes dance and sing and throw candy to the crowds gathered to see them. The traditional story about the Black Petes is that they take the bad children away to Spain at Christmas time.  I imagine that's enough to scare any Dutch child into obedience.  I, on the other hand, would love to be taken to Spain at Christmas time.

The Petes are covered from head to toe with pitch black makeup and wear brightly colored costumes and wigs. They are a very lively and happy group.

The selfie today is me and a Pete.  Yes I look dumbfounded but it was only me trying to figure out the phone camera.  I was just so excited to get a close up with a Pete!