New Years

Bonaire goes wild on New Years Eve.  We have never seen anything like the celebrations all over the island.

Fireworks are set off by everyone.  Big, booming fireworks fill the sky for hours. They light up fireworks that only the government or professionals are allowed to use in the US. 

It's a spectacular show. This is a view of Kralendijk with fireworks going off all over the island.  This show went on for hours.  It's more fireworks than we have ever seen.  And, yes, it put the US 4th of July fireworks to shame.

The Chinese import these fireworks to Bonaire.  Locals (I recently learned are called Antilleans) save up all year to buy fireworks.

The grocery store was so full we couldn't find a parking spot.  Everyone was lining up to buy a traditional Dutch pastry called a oliebollen (translated to oil ball).  It's a ball of dough with raisins, deep fried and dusted in powdered sugar.  

We found bacon at the store and made BLATs.  Served with Prosecco and raspberries. We had way too much Prosecco and stayed up way too late for old folks.

Way, way too much Prosecco.

We wish you all a happy, healthy and joyful 2022!

 

High Season

I know what they mean about "high season".  The island is packed. 

The weather is perfect: sunny warm days, cooler evenings, light rain at night, bright blue skies and fluffy clouds. 

We couldn't find a parking place at the grocery store.  Everyone on the island was in that building.  They were lined up to get apple beignets.  This must be a Dutch New Years tradition.  They were for sale everywhere.  

The roads are full with golf carts, scooters, cars, trucks, and bicycles. The traffic circles are grid locked because the tourists don't know how to drive in them.  Plus everyone was out shopping today. The liquor store was packed with people buying Champagne, Prosecco and other liquor and beer.  They even ran out of ice!

Cruise ships are here daily and seem to come two at a time.  I have heard that there are no hotel rooms or condos available.  Rental cars are hard to reserve.  Tour buses are everywhere. Tourists fill the streets... wandering around looking like lost lambs.

We are, on the other hand, happy to be at our resort-like house free from the chaos. It is New Year's Eve.  We will have BLT's and Prosecco, take a nap and go downtown to see the fireworks.  The expats told us that the fireworks on the island put our 4th of July fireworks to shame.  We will see.

Happy New Year!

 

First Christmas

Our first Christmas on Bonaire began with a trip to the beach for Prosecco and orange rolls. We were the first ones to arrive at the the "Alice in Wonderland" dive site.  Slowly, diver groups showed up from Quebec, Canada, Holland and America. We all wished each other a Merry Christmas.  It was our dream to spend Christmas away from the snow and cold.  It was the first time in our lives that we celebrated the holiday on an island in the sunshine.

Orange rolls are a tradition for Christmas morning.  Bonaire does not have orange rolls so we improvised.  It seems that no one in the family was able to get orange rolls no matter where they lived.  There must be a container ship somewhere in the Pacific or Atlantic ocean full of Pillsbury orange rolls. We took cinnamon rolls and added orange zest and juice. Perfect creation to fulfill the tradition.

Although we were toasting our good fortune, we were also missing our family.  We spent several hours on phone calls and video calls from back home. We got to see grandson JB open our gift to him and grandson Donnie open his as well. We talked with each of the kids, sisters, brothers, and friends. Thank goodness for technology that allows us to connect with loved ones. We received greetings from many and were so happy to hear from everyone.

We finished the day with a Christmas dinner with new friends. Our group included a retired landman (actually a land woman),  retired geologist from Texas (who did environmental work like Rick), owner of the Bonaire Reporter newspaper (previously a newspaper owner from Oklahoma), and an owner of a scuba gear and tennis equipment sales company based out of St. Thomas and Indiana. We have lots of mutual experiences and even know some of the same people.  It really is a small world.

Merry Christmas from Bonaire.    
 
 

 

Birthdays

We chartered a sailboat for our birthdays.  We took Brenda and Phil (expat friends that live near us) and had a blast!

We boarded at 2:00 pm and it started to rain and blow.  In a few minutes the captain had us out of the rain and sailing the shoreline of the island.

We snorkeled at two spots. One on Klein Bonaire, a nice drift snorkel, and one near Black Durgon Hotel. Lots of fish, lots of soft corals, fans and just generally beautiful underwater landscapes. 

Our Captain, Roland, is 20 years old and has been on the island his whole life.  He is Dutch and sails competitively.  His first mate, Melanie, helped with tying on  to buoys (with no screaming or swear words) and served us drinks and dinner.

Our four course dinner was served at sunset. Steak, shrimp, tuna, white fish, salad and chocolate cake.  Throughout the afternoon we drank beers and prosecco.  We watched the full moon rise over the water and saw the reflection of the city lights.

It was spectacular to see the island from the sea instead of land.

Life is good at 69 and 67.

Car Wash

What better time to have a charity car wash then during rain and mud season!

Our next door neighbor's daughter, Quinn (pictured), is raising money for her water polo team to travel to Miami for a tournament. Of course, we bought a ticket and headed off to the kids' car wash.

 

Behind the Budget Marina building a car wash line was assembled and work began.  Power washing was done by the Dad's.  The kids seemed more interested in spraying each other with water.

Soaping-up was the next station.  Again, the Dad's seemed to be working the hardest.  The car in front of us actually had a few kids helping out. 

Final stage was the wipe down.  Our car (not pictured) was sparkly clean for about 5 minutes.  We drove home on the muddy roads and through the mud puddles that cover the dirt roads to and around our house.

But hey...it was for a good cause.

Botica

The hospital Botica (pharmacy) closed.  Apparently they were having some drama with the workers and management issues.  Their solution was closure.

We had to find a new Botica.  There are several on the island.  We chose to go to Botica Korona.  Once again, Rick was standing in line.  

While Rick was in line to get drugs, I walked around the neighborhood.  Next to the botica was a place that makes dentures.  The advertising on the wall were big mouths with teeth.  Thank goodness for pictures...since we are illiterates in Dutch, Papiamentu and Spanish.

I also saw this receptacle for gum and butts. It's a grate in the sidewalk. I don't know where it goes once you put stuff in the grate....humm.

Mud

Rainy season, which has lasted a week (so far), left mud everywhere. Not just puddles. Every dirt road is a mud slick, pot holed, slippery mess.  The entire island is muddy.

This is our first rainy season.  It rains several times a day. The wind blows in a rain cloud.  It dumps its load and is blown to the next island. 

We used to see photos of Honduras, Costa Rico, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Dominican Republic having gushing storms that created mud slides and washed out roads.  Now I understand. When it rains it pours and turns the fine soil into mud. It also makes the islands green and lush.

The sun comes out and it is glorious again. 

 

Nothing is worse than having muddy flip flops.  We have to wash off our flip flops after every excursion.  

The car on the other hand, will stay dirty until the roads dry up.

When the snow melted after ski season, it created mud season in the Mountains. We have the same season just a different locale.

Welcome to mud season.

 

Views

We drove up to Seru Largu (means large hill) a 300 foot high hill on Bonaire.  It's a big tourist attraction because you can see a 360 view of the island.  We picked a day with no cruise ships so we could enjoy the solitude and the view without tourists and buses.

At the top of the hill is a religious monument, a big viewing plaza and benches. The monuments reads: "Kristu Ayera Awe Semper" in Papiamentu, which means "Christ, Yesterday, Today and Forever". 

What a grand view we had of our island.  We could see all the neighborhoods, downtown Kralendijk, and all the undeveloped land. Klein (little in Dutch) Bonaire is the little island off of Bonaire.  We could see all of Klein Bonaire from the summit of the hill. 

There were these crazy big trees on the hill.  We have never seen big, gnarly trees like this on Bonaire.

The road to Seru Largu was newly paved. This road doesn't get much traffic.  For some reason, it got to the top of the re-paving list. All the other main roads in Bonaire have crappy pavement, pot holes and crumbling edges.  We never know how they decide what to pave.  It is not based on need or usage. Rincon, a small interior island town, also has a lot of new pavement.  I am thinking the government officials must live in these two areas and that is why they get new roads.  Just a thought.

Decorations

 

It took us a couple of hours to decorate for Christmas.  It took us a week to decorate in Denver.  Our Buddhas and statues all have Santa hats.  I am sure that is blasphemy for one religion or another.  Oh well.

Some of you may recognize the Christmas decorations from days gone by in Denver.  Some made the journey to Bonaire and the rest are in storage. Our Feliz Navidad tree is appropriate here because there are so many Spanish speakers from the Dominican Republic, Columbia, and Venezuela.

Our door wreath was placed on the china cabinet. I wanted it to be on our front door but the door is too tall (think Dutch tall) for the wreath to hang correctly. 

As you may remember, we couldn't get Christmas lights to work at our house.  So I will share the city lights with you.  Only in Bonaire can you find a 10 foot pink Flamingo in lights.

Sailboats

The Royal Clipper showed up at the Bonaire Pier. It's a steel-hulled, five-masted, square rigged tall ship.  It's now a luxury cruise ship flying under the Sweden flag. It's interesting to see the different ships come to Bonaire.  We had a cruise ship that set out after dark that was lit up with neon flashing disco lights. 

Length: 135 m

Weight: 5,000 tons

Beam: 16 m

Owner: Star Clippers

Builder: Gdansk Shipyard

Crew: 106

Capacity: 227 passengers (Max)

We just added this sail boat painting to our collection. We found it in a little Bonaire store.  It was commissioned by the owner.  It's the sailing club boats of Curacao.

And once again, it required Rick to be on a ladder.   

 

Orchid Garden

This is how orchids grow in the Caribbean.  They cling to tree trunks. This one is connected to our mango tree. They bloom during and after rainy season.  Orchids don't need soil, they just latch on to a tree and start growing roots. Apparently, they also get moisture from the air...because I never watered them.

This one looks more like a spider plant than an orchid.  Once I work up my nerve, I will rip it off the mango tree and plant it in my orchid garden.

 

My orchid garden.  I took the orchids growing on several trees and put them all together on a palm tree.  Rick ran a drip line to them and they water from top to bottom...dripping from one pot to another.

These orchids are in pots nailed to a palm tree.  The pots are lined with palm bark.  The bark helps hold the moisture.

When I grew orchids in Denver, they were green and lush.  My new crop are hardy but raunchy.  They are sort-of-green, brown and yellow.  I started fertilizing them as I thought this may boost them into robust bloomers.

Hoping for this.

Thankful

We celebrated the American holiday of Thanksgiving in a non-traditional way. Thursday was like any other day on Bonaire.  Sunny, warm and laid back.  We reciprocated with a walk on the beach and a beautiful sunset.

We texted/called family and friends to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. We certainly missed being with everyone.

We (meaning Rick) made a nice dinner of  lamb chops, roasted potatoes and fresh green beans. I helped by pouring the wine. We really had a wonderful day and counted our blessings...which are many.

We are so thankful that family and friends have made special efforts to stay in touch with us and following along with our adventure.

We are happy, healthy and living our dream in Bonaire.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Wall Art

We moved into a furnished and decorated house.  However, some of the  items are just not us.  One wall in our great room featured two, huge black and white photographs of African women. They had to go!

We located a local photographer and purchased two landscape photographs of the island for replacements.  She ordered the large size prints in Holland and arranged for them to get back to Bonaire.  That process took about two months.

Rick figured out how to get this glass frame off the wall without it breaking.  The photo had adhered to the glass.  We peeled and scraped the photo off the glass.  It took us two days to clean the glue off the glass frames. 

The prints came in a roll. Our home made press system of clips, bowls, boxes and blood pressure machine worked to flatten the the new photos after several days. The prints finally laid flat so they could be mounted behind the glass.  There is no frame just a 800mm x1200 mm glass and four clips that keep it attached to the wall.

Success! We love the scenery photos of the island. The colors are fabulous and fit our island home way better than black and white portrait photos of people we don't know.