Author: Bill

After our usual morning routine, my Queen and I headed out for  Washington Slagbaai National Park  — took the long route of a driving tour of the park.  It was first for both of us (case of beer) to actually tour a National Park. We were not disappointed. Pure absolute beauty every where you looked. I took well over a hundred pictures and have  got it trimmed down to around a 100. Not going to ramble on about everything – I’ll let my pictures do the talking this time. I will say we have a kayak / snorkeling tour scheduled for the park next week – and after seeing what we saw today  – I can’t wait~!!

Enjoy~!

Got up and ready for a scheduled one tank dive for today……… moseyed over to the dive shop (literally a couple of doors down from us)…… They already had my gear loaded in the truck, so I jumped in and off we went. Our dive location today is called the Salt Pier dive, because we were diving beneath and through the legs of the large pier used to load barges of salt   (Pictures on a previous blog). Again, sinking into that amazing crystal clear blue water……. it is mind bending….. you almost cannot believe what your eyes are seeing……. I wish there was someway to convey that to you all if you’ve never seen it.  Like a Vulcan mind-meld or something…… my limited vocabulary will never be able to do it justice in words. As we worked our way out to the main pier, the large legs of the pier started coming in site. Amazing. I hate to keep using the same phrase – but it almost looks like another world….. and soooo many fish.

I’m getting ahead of myself though….. this dive started out with 2 new ‘must sees’… first were 2 squids~!! Sadly, they were moving fast enough, that they were long out of range before I could get my camera up for a shot….. not very big, but most definitely squids~!!!  Didn’t get much past them and my Dive Master motioned toward a small fern coral. She was obviously excited about what she was pointing to~! Once I got a glimpse of it – I became equally excited. My first Octopus~!!! I spun my camera around and set it to what I hoped was ‘video’ and tried moving in for the shot. There was a pretty good surge going in that area, so I didn’t get to stay in one place very long – but got what turned out to be a fairly decent video. Sadly this PoS web site won’t let me load anything bigger than a picture – so you’ll have to go to Face Book to watch the video. I just learned today how to pull a picture out of a video – so at least I can get a picture of it on here. Dive continued out one of the branches off of the pier – where I hit my half way point of air and turned around heading back for our exit point. Dive Master once again started pointing feverishly, and while it took me an extra minute, finally found another Octopus hiding in under a rock….. What a great, great dive~!

Came back and loaded up my Queen and we headed into the big city in search of a Liquor store. Through some trial and error, finally found it. Store was closed for lunch, so we found a nice little Bistro and set down for some lunch of our own. Angie had a BLT and I had a sammich called a super sub… both very tasty~! Washed mine down with a cold Heineken and Angie had a Rum Punch. We split a wonderfully delicious piece of apple crumb pie with avocado ice cream ( I thought the ice cream was wonderful – Angie didn’t care for it) – and washed it down with a Mudslide. Settled up our tab, took a ‘tourist’ stroll of the main street looking in all the shops (finding postcards for Grandkids) and then headed back to the Liquor store to replenish our stock of our beloved Crown Royal.

Dang….. did it again, rattling on about the day. I’ll stop here and let you look at pictures. I’d give anything if each and everyone of you get to live at least one day like the day we had today……

Sweet dreams~~~~

Octopus~!

Octopus

Had an off the cuff two tank dive today…….. showed up at the dive shop a little before 9:00, loaded gear and headed out to Bachelor Beach. Although the weather was perfect, there was a very strong unexplainable surge, creating very large waves crashing into the shore. We (dive master and I) discussed it and decided to go ahead and make the dive. Awesome, awesome water~! First time underwater since we’ve been here and it did not disappoint~! I know I’ve said it before, but these pictures just do not do justice to how absolutely blue and beautiful that water is. Wow~ Dive master was very patient with me as I got weights situated, masked cleared, ears cleared and generally settled into the dive and looked around before starting. Saw some new coral that I’ve never seen before. A beautiful green. Dive master told me the name of it, but I have long since forgot it. Sadly, it’s true beauty did not come out in the pictures. The new filter that I ordered for my camera, does not fit…. Dammit Emmit~! Got to see trunk fish, flounders, a couple of huge tarpons. Just a very good dive that seemed like it only lasted a couple of minutes, even though we were down there for almost 50 minutes.

Finished up that dive, loaded everything up in the truck and headed for another beach, aptly named Some Place Special beach. Waited our appropriate time, put on our gear and headed back into the water. More beautiful water, more beautiful fish and more beautiful coral. I’m either going to have to find a good filter for my camera [that fits], or get a better camera.

Came home, washed the salt off, chatted with a Daughter and Grand kids, had a drink and watched the resident bird population doing their thing. Had a new bird show up. Looks like a cross between a pigeon and a dove.  Very unique marking around the eyes. I was starving and my Queen said she wanted a steak, so we ran down the road to Joes….. meal wasn’t as good as last time, but still passable and neither of us had to cook. Got treated to a nice rainbow as we got there as well. A damn fine day if I do say so.

Nou buste mijn knoppen

Our day started off kinda like the past several. Rolled out and had a couple cups of coffee sitting on our patio watching gulls and pelicans swoop and dive for their morning breakfast. It’s easy to sit there watching that aerial ballet and envy their ability to hang motionless in the air until they spot a potential fish breakfast and dive headlong into the water (often from a staggering height), laying their wings back, flat against their body a split second before entering the water. Much as in our life, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t stop them from going right back up and doing it again though.

After our breakfast, we loaded up the mini-bus and headed out for a beach that sounded like we needed to check out. Beach is called 18 Palms Beach. Drove right straight to it – less than 10 minutes from our apartment. Wow – hands down the most beautiful beach we’ve seen since we got here. Settled in under a small shade tree, got my gear and dropped into that beautiful blue water. ( I put a video up on FB of the beach….. this PoS web site won’t let me load videos [[yet]]) so you can get a look at the beach on FB if you want. I will try to load it here as well.

Lots of fire coral, about a half dozen different types of parrot fish, a couple of new fish for me, that I’ll try and identify in the pictures, and, I got to see another Barracuda~! That is one bad looking fish. This one was probably 3′ long, but when he turns and looks at you and you’re within 5′ of him — he looks MUCH bigger. We spent probably an hour and a half  or so there at the beach.  Another gathering rain squall convinced us to go ahead and load up and cut before it started pouring. Stopped by the store for a couple of things we forgot the other day and headed on back to the apartment. Rinsed our gear off, took our showers, made a drink and walked out on the patio. Gulls and Pelicans were still at it. Going for their dinner I guess. I made us a couple of burgers…… got them on the first try~  😉

Dit is echt een geweldige manier om te leven

I have been feeling pretty proud of myself lately for all the planning and effort and everything I have put in to date toward all of the planning and everything that has happened in the last 75+ days since we left the continental United States to start living our dream retirement. Hotels, plane tickets, vehicle rentals, etc.  That feel good has came to an end….. Dammit Emmit~!

I did not think about the yearly ritual of ours of sending out a ton of Christmas cards to family and friends. The time factor I might have been able to work around, (taking anywhere from 10-21 days to get to the states) but I did not factor in that it will cost $3.00 to $5.00 for each card to mail from here, and that’s just the postage. I won’t even go into what it takes to get something mailed from the islands.

I was really looking forward to sending a personalized card of us sitting on a beach or lounging in the pool knowing the bulk of our family and friends were back at home, freezing their collective asses off.   🙂

So, with that being said – I am letting you all know – this year – we will NOT be sending Christmas cards out – to any one. It is not because we don’t love [or miss] you all, it has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans or whether we believe in Santa Claus or the spirit of Christmas. I just plain ole screwed up and did not factor in everything I needed to, to be able to send out our normal ration of Christmas cards. My deepest and sincere apologies. (We’ll make it up by putting you for a little bit if you want to come to visit us in St. Croix~)  😉

If you want to send hate mail, words of encouragement, bags of poop (but please don’t) chain letters, bulk mail, bundles of money, whatever….. our mailing address is on the home page of this blog. So please, please, PUH-LEASE forgive us…… we’ll be back at it next year, and then we can send out those cards of us, not freezing our asses off – So – Here is wishing you ALL –

A very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years~!!

Woke up to a gorgeous blue sky this morning. Bride was sleeping in a little bit, so I took off to resume my getting rid of the gut walk. Got to explore the surrounding area a little bit and got some fun pictures for you as well. Came back and bride was up having her first cup of coffee. I made us a small breakfast and we discussed what we would do for the day. My bride said she was feeling really good and wanted to do a little snorkeling. We loaded up the mini bus and away we went. I picked out a beach that said it had fairly easy access (beaches here are more of a broken up coral make up versus the nice smooth sandy beaches most people picture in their mind when they hear beach)

We went to Wind Sock beach (located close to the airport, hence the name) – while not a smooth sandy beach, access was fairly easy. We settled in under a small tree, for the shade, to put our gear down and got ready to get salty.  The water here is absolutely gorgeous and I have been almost slobbering waiting to get in it. I was not disappointed~! The clarity of the water here is almost hard to believe. While waiting for Angie to get in and situated, I cruised out to look around. I swam on out to where the reef drops off into the deeper water. WOW~! I was looking down at what I estimated to be 150′ and could still see coral formations. It was unbelievable~! I just wish my camera could pick up what my eyes actually see. That area did not have a lot of reef to look at, but an incredible amount of fish to watch. Angie finally made it in and we spent close to an hour snorkeling and checking the area out. Finally came back in to shore for a nicotine break and talk about what all we saw. Angie said she was feeling good and not ready to head home yet. Not wanting to stay where we were at, we loaded up and headed down the road a little farther to Donkey Beach (no, I do not know why it is called that). A little tougher to get in and out of, but well worth the effort. This area had a lot of fire and elk horn coral and again amazing amounts of fish. Battery on the camera died (I forgot to recharge it) so no pictures of the fire coral to share with you this time…… (for now)

Put in about another hour of snorkeling and decided to call it a day. A small food truck was there (the one that has the Lion Fish) We decided a snack and a drink were in order, so I got a chicken wrap (they were out of Lion Fish) and my bride got a hamburger wrap. We sat there and watched that gorgeous blue water while we ate our wraps and had a bottle of water (remember this place don’t sell beer)  🙁    Just finished up when a downpour came blowing through. We scrambled back to the mini bus, jumped in and headed back toward the house, stopping by the store for a couple of things first. Sure do miss having our own private pool to throw ourselves and all of our salty gear into, but washed everything off in the tub and settled in for a nice quiet evening…… this retirement stuff is A-OKAY~!!

Geesh…… got kinda wordy on this one didn’t I….. I’ll try and curb that going forward…..

Het is geweldig om weer terug in de zee

Well I guess the big day yesterday was a little more taxing on my bride than she expected. She slept in until almost noon today. By the time she got up and got moving, the day was already half over and there were intermittent rain showers most of the rest of the day, so we spent the rest of the day lounging and taking it easy.

So not a lot write about today, so putting up more pictures from the past couple days.

Did you know toothpaste can expire ???

IMG_3344       (turn volume up)

The mule is actually a painting~!

My Queen is healing up more everyday – so we opted for a longer road trip today. Went up to explore the North end of the island. A much bigger chunk of travel. Beautiful, beautiful island – and the water is just about beyond description….. I can’t wait to get in it. Was almost all travel today, stopping only for pictures here and there and at one little place we found up fairly high in the hills. We stopped there and had a refreshing beverage. Menu advertised a fish I had never heard of, so I ordered it on a sammich. I still don’t know what it was, but it was pretty tasty~! Headed down the path after unknown sammich to see where it would take us. Wound up in a small town that had a distillery in it. Well~ we HAD to stop and take a tour~! They made Rum, Tequila, Vodka and Whiskey and several types of Liqueurs. Naturally had to sample them – found most of them fairly nasty except for the whiskey. Wound up buying a bottle of the whiskey. It’s not Crown – but will do in a pinch. Continued cruising around the North end and finally made our way up to the State Park at the very North end of the island. I knew from reading about it, that it  would be a 3-4 hour adventure inside the park and since it was already 3:00 in the afternoon, we decided to save the State Park for another outing.

Eased our way back through the wilderness and back into town. This island is also much easier to get around without getting lost (or as lost as you can get on an island). The roads are laid out in a somewhat organized fashion and running mostly East and West and North and South. Came in, had a couple of drinks and cleaned up a little bit. Angie said she was getting hungry and wanted to try the place just down the road from us. ‘Joe’s’ – turns out to be a really nice place. Service was very good. My bride had a schnitzel and I had a slab of ribs. Both commendable. Finished it up with a warm brownie and some ice cream. Truly nice meal, reasonably priced and close to home. Perfect~!

Came home to clean up my pictures and see if I can get them loaded on here for you good folks……….

Have a great evening~!

My Queen is finally on the mend and felt up to getting out of the house a little bit. We opted for a travel trip versus doing some snorkeling and getting salty. Jumped into the car and lit out for a road trip around the South end of the island. It looked to be the easiest and quickest for our first real adventure on Bonaire. We were well rewarded for our patience. Bonaire is a MUCH prettier island than Curacao. Much better cared for, and the water is a magnificent blue that words and pictures just do not do justice to.

Swung down past the airport and headed South. Besides passing numerous dive spots (indicated by small rocks painted yellow with the dive site name on them)- our first attraction was the salt fields. Apparently Bonaire is one of the largest salt producing places on the planet, as apparent by small ‘mountains’ of Sea Salt. (see pics) These mountains are moved via conveyor belts to barges and shipped all over the world. Impressive, very impressive. Part of the large salt flats used to harvest the salt – also holds a beautiful flamingo sanctuary. Hundreds of the beautiful pink birds.  You cannot get very close to them because of the sanctuary and the fact it is on private property. Not wanting to test the efficiency of the folks who patrol the area, we opted to take pictures from the safe confines of the road.

Went from the salt flats around the Southern most tip of the island heading for a haven for kite boarders called Lac Bay — nice little place,  huge bay that doesn’t get over waist deep within the entire bay. According to a kite board instructor we know, the perfect training ground for learning kite boarding, sail boarding and stand up paddle boarding. Today was an ‘off’ day as the wind was very untypically not blowing, so activities in the bay were pretty slim. Instructor even said he didn’t have to work today because of lack of wind…… we stopped at one of the local beach bars there for some liquid refreshments and to take in the scenery. It is a very literally a beach bar, as there was not a floor – just sand for a floor. Down home kind of place, but the locals were friendly and everybody there was just chilling having a good time. Finally packed up and headed off to find the ‘other side’ of Lac bay, but I apparently missed a turn and we wound up back in the heart of Kralendijk. We both had just about had our fill for the day and decided to head back to the house. Stopped at the grocery store to restock the fridge a bit and headed back to the apartment.

Came back, made a drink and looked at pictures we took during the trip. Decided we would stay in for dinner, so I made my Queen a cup of Chicken Noodle Soup – while I nuked me a burger and washed it down with a good cold beer. It sure is nice to have my  Queen back up on her feet. She should be 100% in the next day or two – and we can start getting wet and salty~!

Blij dat mijn koningin terug te hebben

Angie is still out of commission…  took her to the emergency clinic and Doc said she has a UTI…. so got the meds she needs and now has been sleeping almost non-stop for 24 hours. Gets up long enough for a bite to eat and more meds and back out she goes… she is getting better, but Doc said gonna take 4-5 days before she is back to her feisty self……

In the mean time, I’m sitting here with some of the slowest, worst internet since we started our travels. I’m going to try and get something….anything.. loaded to share with you all. If push comes to shove, I may try and put it on FB – but even that wouldn’t let me load anything last night …… here goes…………….