Underwater in Bonaire

We've had a great time diving this spring in Bonaire. In the past we generally went out in Carib Inn's boat to dive with a dive master. As new divers this was reassuring. In addition our dinghy had difficulty handling the extra weight of the dive equipment. Scott reinforced the sides to keep it from buckling and it's made a big difference. So now we load up and head out alone to explore.

We got a little bit blase and had a rude wakening the other day - YOU ARE UNDERWATER and it can be dangerous! We were following a line leading to a wreck when I noticed some difficulty with my regulator. It was letting in some sea water with my air. I thought well, I'll just switch to my secondary system. Without really thinking carefully about the procedure, I did it. No air came through! I started to panic.

Your first impulse is to take out the regulator and breathe - crazy huh? I managed to get the primary regulator back in my mouth and get it going. Scott was next to me greatly concerned. Now when you're below 40 feet you aren't supposed to go directly to the surface so he was prepared to offer me his secondary regulator if I couldn't use mine. Really the important thing is not to panic. Happily I didn't, although I admit I came close.

By keeping my head more vertical I eliminated the salt water incursion and was able to complete the dive. It turned out the regulator needed tightening. The secondary system worked fine; it just needed to be purged.
Scott and I scheduled a practice session the next day and spent some time going over safety procedures!

The diving has been amazing. We've seen a lot of turtles and a week ago one joined us for several minutes, swimming right beside us. We often have individual fish spend time with us, usually porcupine fish or parrot fish. A huge midnight blue parrot fish follows all the scuba divers near Small Wall, one of the many dive sites on Bonaire. A reddish orange seahorse, about 5 inches long, hung out around our boat for several days. He attached himself to a piece of coral and didn't seem too concerned with the crazy humans watching him.
Another day a line of squid performed a mini Rockette number - actually I thought of those old Esther Williams movies! We often see moray eels of several kinds and an occasional octopus (they change colors dramatically!). The water is very clear here and the fish, vegetation and coral in all colors - not at all like these photos!

We also dove with friends a lot. On two occasions we took Scott Free down the coast or over to Klein Bonaire for a day diving with a group, followed by a meal. Here is Honoree & Walt from "Will O' the Wisp" and Lynn & Paul(shown in his dive gear as he took the group shot) and Ron & Pat from "Kiyana" at a Mexican pot luck following our dive at Thousand Steps. Our last weekend before leaving for Curacao was the Heinekin Jazz Festival.

There were groups from Holland, Jamaica and the Netherlands Antilles. Bob and Barbara hosted us for dinner the first evening before the concert at their beautiful condo nearby. The second night, our last in Bonaire, we had ribs at Bobbe Jan's with Walt and Honoree and then walked down the waterfront to the venue. It was a full moon and the stage was set up almost on the beach.
The next morning we hoisted sail at 7 AM and didn't turn the engine back on until the entrance to Willemstad in Curacao - a lovely final day at sea until next fall. We're hauling the boat at Curacao Marine for the summer, returning September 29.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is celebrated here too. The restaurants are crowded with families out for lunch or dinner. We mothers generally get the day off from cooking. Scott made a terrific breakfast to get the day started.
My youngest son Sean sent a beautiful email and then I spoke to he, James and Josh's family over Skype. We left a message with Zoe but weren't able to talk to her.

Our good friends Bob and Barbara flew back to Bonaire after two weeks celebrating Barbara's mothers 90th birthday on Saturday and we joined them for a brunch on Sunday at Roomer's Resort and Restaurant. It was an all you can eat buffet of local specialties and fantastic.

My favorite was a casserole of baccala, dried salt cod, with veggies and potatoes and a custard like base to hold it together. Other favorites were corn fritters, goat stew and macaroni & cheese. There was a local senior band with a south american beat. Bob and Barbara got a round of applause for a solo number.

We really miss seeing our children and grandchildren. Happily two neighbors came over to visit and reminded us how much fun kids can be. Brawny and Adam sailed from Sydney, Australia on their comparitively small boat with Jack (6) and Amy (4). We met at the Happy Hour and invited them over. I set up a painting table with watercolors and colored pencils. They are both really great creative and Jack left us fun picture to hang up!

Labor Day in Sami, Curacao

I LOVE A PARADE!



Luckily for me there are a lot of them around. We saw the small notice quite by chance, that the fishing village of Sami north of Willemstad was having a celebration on Labor Day, May 1.


There were no other details so we just hopped in our rental car and navigated our way up there. On the outskirts of the town traffic came to a halt and costumed families walked down towards the water, so we just parked the car on the verge of the road and joined them.


The costumes were really beautiful and clearly all hand made. There was a lot of applicaye work with pictures of the harvest and the small colorful houses of the past. The costumes are modled on those actually worn a century ago. Several of the groups performed traditional dances during the parade.

The men were really wonderful - very much into the moment. Can you imagine those handsome men at the top left marching in those costumes in the U.S.? Well, maybe in Key West...
We had a brief shower mid way but very few even bothered to use umbrellas or get under cover. These children however caught my eye!
Later we walked along the small harbor. It was packed with local stands selling food and drinks


Two men provided music under a tent. One turned the handle of a huge "hurdy gurdy" machine while the other did the percussion.

Queen's Day "Koninginnedag" in Curacao

It's an Orange Thing!

This national holiday is celebrated not only in the Netherlands but on the islands of the Netherlands Antilles; St. Martin, Aruba, Saba, St. Eutstatis "Statia", Bonaire and Curacao. It is the actual birthday of former Queen Juliana but Queen Beatrix, at her Ascension in 1980 wished to continue the holiday on that date as a mark of her respect for her mother.

It was first celebrated on August 31, Queen Wilhelmina's (Queen Beatrix's grandmother) birthday, when she was only a princess, but at the death of her father King William III it became a national holiday. That was in 1891. The color orange symbolizes national and royal pride in the family name - The Family Nassau - House of Orange. The Netherlands has been a monarchy since the French were driven out of the United Netherlands in 1815, but royal powers were limited to a parlimentary constitutional monarchy in the 1848 Constitution.





Most people wear something orange and some people wear everything orange. The holiday is celebrated with parties, street markets, concerts and special events. It's a combination of giant flea market, state fair (without the animals) and non stop live concerts. Fun, fun and more fun!
For the children there are amusements, games, and street food. For the adults there are open bars everywhere and shopping of every kind. Stalls with food, drink and a multitude of goods line every street in Willemstad. Cars are not allowed in town. Stages are set up in various locations for bands.

There's nothing like a little green to set off all that orange and our favorite was the Mojito stands. To find one just look for the long lines. It takes a while to make these from scratch. Lots of fresh mint gets muddled in the bottom of the glass with sugar syrup, then ice and rum. Delish!

After a few of these, while watching some great drum bands (lots of choreography), we were ready for some lunch. Luckily a local "food court" was nearby. Lots of choices! Scott had conch meat with "funchi", sliced corn meal mush fried up crisp, local veggies called "provisions" and salad. I had the mixed grill, chicken, ribs and pork with "moro", fried rice and beans with the same provisions & salad. Happily they added fried plantain to mine. Needless to say we couldn't finish it all - even Scott!

Celebration Week

This was a week of celebrations! Scott and I started it off with our 30 year wedding anniversery on 4/14, then Sean's birthday on the 15th followed by mine on the 17th. Sean and I are 40 years apart so we turned 24 and 64 respectively!

We wish, of course, that we could have been with our family at this time, but in lieu of that we celebrated with cruiser friends. Sixteen of us went out to dinner at "Der Heron" in Curacao and it was a fun evening. Cars were a bit scarce so 6 of us piled into one very small economy car for the ride. Jackie, Hilary, Val and I shared the back seat. Or rather three of us did -

Jackie lay on our laps on the way over and Hilary on the way back. No problem as they are both light as feathers!
We were able to talk to Sean on his birthday. He had celebrated with friends on Saturday night thank goodness as he had to fly to Detroit on his actual birthday, as usual exhausted from work. Will organized the party and James came with some of his friends.

On my birthday Scott invited our three closest cruiser couples here for drinks on the boat;"Miss Charlotte", "Feisty" and "Angel". He put up streamers and we had our special plastic birthday tablecloth (that's seen a bunch of parties). I made a platter of middle eastern appetisers - huumus, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, feta cheese, olives and pita bread. Again, it was a lovely evening.

Usually when we're in Curacao we're here for work on the boat or putting it up while we go home. So this week we made a special effort to see and enjoy the island. Scott and I drove up north to Daabooi Beach for an afternoon. We swam and lay on the lounge chairs. Nice and relaxing. Scott's demonstrating below.

Tropical Storm Omar played havoc with the beach sand here on Curacao's west coast last fall. It took away the sand at the edge and left coral bones. So it's a little hard getting in the water gracely. But once your there it's heaven.

At the end of the week Jackie & Mel from "Feisty" (that's them at the bottom of the page) invited us to join them on a trip north to the Kura Hulanda Hotel in Westpunt for lunch, swimming and snorkeling. This beautiful hotel is set on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and a small white beach.
We had a wonderful lunch and then lazed about their fantastic facilities.
Business seems very light around the island now so they seemed glad to have us - if only for the day. A lot of the large hotels are very fussy about using their facilites if you aren't a resident but this charming place was very welcoming.

On my birthday I talked with James, Paula and Sean. Sean has set up Skype so he and Will called with the video working. What fun to see each other (ours works too) while we talked! After Shabbat we had a wonderful call with Josh, Michal and the kids. They all sang a fabulous rendition of Happy Birthday and Daniel and Ariella receited poems by heart! I'm a lucky lady!

While talking to everyone is great, it's turning our thoughts towards home. Our time here is running out and soon we'll be back with family and old friends. The two sections of our lives are very different and both are fantastic. We feel very lucky to be living them.

Harvest Festival in Curacao'

If you've been reading my blog entries for any time you know that Caribbean and South Americans love parades - and I do too. Every holiday and occasion calls for one and most people must have a lot of costumes hanging in their closets.
The commen elements are an overall theme and perhaps song divided into smaller groups united by color, pattern and their own band.
In the larger events such as Carnival on a big island like Grenada or of course the king, Trinidad, there is a third or even fourth division. For example the overall theme here was celebrating the harvest.

One group chose to illustrate the planting process and then divided this up into four or five groups in varied costumes. Even within the smallest unit there is some individual choices. Women in particular choose degrees of exposure. Unlike our own country, weight or age has nothing to do with how little or tight your clothing is!

That said this was in general a very mostly dressed crew, certainly compared to Carnival celebrations! The individual groups are led by a "King & Queen" and often a baton struting few men or women. The bands travel in decorated trucks that also serve as refreshment locations. Boys or girls get trays of cold drinks and bring them to the marchers.

The festival here in April is to celebrate the agricultural seasons, mainly the harvest, although spring was the theme of at least one of the groups. The marchers carry baskets of fruit and vegetables or mimic the motions of planting.
Every age is represented from the very old to the very young. The parade started in Santa Maria and ended in Otrabanda, the north side of Willemstad. It lasted 4 hours and they walked about 6 miles from 10 to 3. By the time we saw them at the reviewing stand everyone was looking a bit tired! It's really hot in the noon day sun here.

Thousands of people participated in the parade and thousands more watched. There are only a hundred and twenty thousand people in Curacao!
We had just had a four day weekend holiday at Easter the weekend before

and in May there will be another one around Labor Day (May 1) and the Queen's Birthday - with more parades! Scott and I will still be here then as we've been applying for a 90 day extension on our visa. The process has taken much longer due to the holidays. We hope to have our passports back May 4 and if the weather allows, sail for Bonaire.