My fourth and hopefully not last trip report coming at you. The PBD is raging, so I thought this might help to cure it. (HA! Is there a cure other than the next trip?)

Why the title? Because my niece proclaimed Lover's Ice Cream to be the best in the world. I wish I would have had a video camera the day she went to order her favorite chocolate...."May I have chocolate in a waffle cone?" Response, "No." Very meekly and "Please?" Response, "No, we are out." She of course suffered with another flavor, but the "please" was just to die for! As you can imagine, we visited Lover's a lot on this trip.

Any way....AA/AE there and back. No real problems. We all couldn't fly there together, so Wes and the nephew went to Curacao and took DAE from there...that's when the fun started. In Curacao, as they were going through security, there was a lady who had an issue. Evidently, she was bringing a gun in her carry on bag. Made for an interesting layover as they watched the security guards pull the gun out of the bag and then proceed to arrest the lady. Yikes! The impression this made on the nephew was tremendous because the first thing he says when he arrives in Bonaire was that a lady had a gun in Curacao! The DAE flight hit a snag as well. The plane "broke" so they brought them another one from St. Martins. Other than that, travel went well.

AMEX turned off on me at the end of the trip. When Eden Beach went to charge the remainder of our hotel bill, AMEX went "warning, warning, a larger than usual charge - must turn off card!" To make the situation even more embarrassing, no one at Eden Beach knew how to dial international collect. So off I go to Chat-n-Browse in my bathing suit and towel and Michael came to the rescue. I was able to call AMEX from his store and all was well. Thank you Michael!

Here is "our" breakfast table at Bongos. . I am convinced that getting breakfast with your room is the best way to go.

I got to spend some time with friends, but not enough. The next trip will be just Wes and I so we can take time to visit with all of our friends. (To everyone we didn't see on this trip, you can count on us catching up next time.) We did get to see Tish, Susan, Liz, Ed, Gibi, and hang out with Mercy (on New Year's Eve!). We also went to Jake and Linda's party on New Year's Day and had a very good time. I wish the niece and I could have stayed at their party longer, but that was the day that the flu wiped Wes out and I was a nervous nilly. I was so worried that Liz actually went by our room and checked him out. Thanks to Liz for being such a good friend!

We visited the donkey safari park and I have to say I like the changes. We had a blast! Those donkeys are pretty persistent and will run along side your car for a while, not to mention that they will also try to stop your vehicle. We got the flag out to take a picture and the donkeys were a little disappointed that we weren't bringing out more food. We did bring food with us, but Marina is also selling donkey feed if you forget to bring food. We found the largest carrots I have ever seen at Cultimara and donkeys really liked them. This is the feed area and donkey cam. You can stand inside a protected area or venture out. But please be careful if you venture out for a web cam pose. There were some excited young males and some pretty active kicking.

We also went to the park (with our brand new rental truck) because Wes wanted to spend the whole day climbing and swimming. The niece had other plans though, she wanted to go shopping. We split the day - half in the park, half shopping. We did get to do some fun climbing. This first series of pictures are from Kora Kara.

This series is at Bentana.

Of course, Wes' favorite spot is the blow hole. It was VERY windy that day.

And yes, we did meet up with the general at Mengel.

Here is my artsy shot for this trip. Can you guess where this was taken?

And this is the one that scared the begeezers out of me, but I still held my ground and took the picture.

For meals we ate at: Last Bite Bakery (nothing like chocolate lava cake for lunch); Casablanca (fabulous); Patagonia (wonderful and Pablo had as rolling on the floor as usual); Gibi's (wonderful and we met several other BTers - please forgive me for forgetting your names ); Pasa Bon (fish pizza rocks!!!); Swiss Chalet (they will be sooo missed); La Guernica (great tapas!); and Bobbejans (unbelievably swamped, but worth the wait!).

I know I am forgetting people and I do apologize. Everyone was so nice when Wes got sick. We do appreciate how kind you all were.

Our diving was with Wannadive - nuff said! They rock! Our truck was brand spanking new and came from Total Car Rental. All went well with that, but we were very cautious.

Diving highlights (still just a diver and not a photographer, sorry): the kids did a shore entry for the Hilma Hooker and all went well. We especially enjoyed the very large free swimming green moray that greeted us at the ship. Nephew's favorite site is Oil Slick, niece's is Angel City. Took the nephew deep on two dives and he did exceptionally well. Hoping to get him Advanced Certified in the future (and we are bringing him back to Bon for his high school graduation present). We did one night dive and I buddied with the niece. She rocked! She found a green moray and I found a sleeping turtle. Charlie joined us and we also had a very large grouper come hang with us as well. I was pleasantly surprised with Eden's Rubble. I dove that a lot last May/June and I noticed new growth on this trip. We only got hit with current there once and of course it was on our check out dive that was the niece's first ocean dive. We aborted because she couldn't even remain stationary. She was kicking and still flowing with the current. LOL! All in the all, the kids are turning out to be great divers.

Ok...way too long! PBD still very bad. I could go on for ages. MUST STOP NOW!

Very Nice Jah-neen, thanks...we do need to get you a housing for your camera though!

oh yah what the heck is in that nest up there in the corner ???

(Message edited by muddysoapfish on January 12, 2007)

Jeanine, thank you very much for sharing with us. I am so happy you folks had a great time.

Loved seeing all the smiles

Loved these pictures, was that a wasps nests?YIKES! the kids look so happy, you are one wonderful person to have brought them to "our" paradise! Isn't Mercy awesome, we met at the west coast mini-meet and she is a crack up, love her! We had a very warm/no snow visit to Chicago! Wish we could have met up, maybe next time?

It doesn't get any better! Thanks!

Sounds like you guys had a great trip Tribs! Too bad about Wes getting sick, at least it wasn't his first trip to the Island. That would have been a bummer. Thanks for the pictures and we are going to have to get a housing for your camera... Ron

(Message edited by ronindiana on January 12, 2007)

Yeah Jeanine!!!!
I love the pic of the General
I can't wait to show Guy your pics of the climbing... that's the first
I've heard or seen about such rompous fun!!!
Good Times!!!

My guess is that the nest contained termites.

Ok...so the nest. We were guessing termites as well, but it turned out to be a wasp nest. There were tons of wasps. The nest was pretty impressive.

I did forget to tell you that we met Art La Mour. He was so wonderful to tell us stories. He also had his pet monkey Pepe with him. I've done some research on rainforest ecology, but never in my life had I petted a monkey. Pepe was only three months old and more than friendly and very curious. Quite the adorable little guy. Any way, we are chatting with the "man with a monkey" and he tells us how proud he is about his dive number. He pulls out the card and I think it was 729 or 769. And that is when I saw his name. I just about fell over and said "You are Captain La Mour!" He was pleased as punch that I knew of him and then the stories began. Wow! That man has a lot to share. If you see the man in the jeep with a monkey on his shoulder, try to get a chance to speak with him. You will not be sorry.

Boom....the climbing was a riot! I suggest good shoes, Merrels or something like them, but I actually did the climbing in a pair of off brand all-terrain sandals and it worked out. I liked the sandals because when we got to the plantation house, I could walk straight into the water with them on.

Mercy is a wonderful person. If you get a chance to meet her, you will have a blast!

I think before I get a housing, I should get a new camera. Daryl, my sweet but curious African Grey, broke the door that covers the chip. I have it held together with tape. Ooops!

On the bird topic, I LOVED Linda and Jake's bird Spirit! She is so beautiful! On my next trip, I am going to try and meet Liz and Ed's bird.

Tribs,
Thanks for the report. It was my pleasure to meet you, my first face to face with another Bt'r. I also met the man with the monkey. We were dining on the waterfront on New Year's eve and had a chat with him. Poor monkey was freaking out with all the firecrackers going off. Interesting dude that's for sure.

Ok...a few more pictures.

Marina is doing a wonderful job at the donkey sanctuary. Here is another angle of the feeding station at the end of the safari ride. Also, here is a shot of one of the watering troughs. It is the one in front of the web cam.

I am just fascinated by the cacti on Bonaire and usually take way too many pictures of them. This shot is the top of Bentana.

And finally, a picture from our bedroom window. Do you know who this is?

See...now I feel horrible! I knew I would forget to mention some people. I met Tom at Chat-N-Browse. I'm glad your trip went well. I could just imagine the "color" of the stories he would tell with a few drinks in him. Poor Pepe! He was not the only critter on the island freaking out that night.

Chained shutters - Karpata.
Man looking at sea gulls - Bart.

Happy to read that Spirit was kind to you

Great job Jeanine. Tremendous pictures and narratives with them Thanks.

Since meeting me and since I have Aurora in my blood history you can probably guess I am easily confused.
Were you referring to the color of the stories I would tell - the color of the stories Monkey Man would tell or the color of the stories we would tell each other and anyone unlucky enough to be in the vicinity?

Congrats Tom C - both are correct. Tom B...well, I'll let you decide what was meant by my poorly written sentence with too many pronouns.

Here is my artsy shot for this trip. Can you guess where this was taken? <----- Jeanine asked
************************************************
I guess that the artsy shot that you took belongs to the window outside my house...
J.K.
I hope it wasn't the window from your room Jeanine
All the picture are awesome.
I would have loved to see more pictures of you having a good time.
What was your favorite thing from the whole trip?

Nice going Tribs, so happy you had a nice trip.

MERCY!!! I'm so glad that you and Mercy got to spend time together - did I miss that trip report??
Tribs - more pics, more pics, more pics - you do a wonderful job even with Darryl's "help"

Definitely, more pictures, please. Only 28 more sleeps til we're on Bonaire. I think I better start packing, unpacking, packing.

Ok...a couple more.

Two more from Eden Beach. The first is Dogcat. Since there are two cats that hang around the webcams, we call the older scruffier one Dogcat and the younger one Catdog. I never got a picture of Catdog, but here is one of Dogcat. The nephew fed both cats every morning. They were very appreciative. The second picture is from our window looking across the old Sunset Beach property at the new Den Laman. I took this one because people ask about the new Den Laman and now I can post a picture for them.

This is from Kora Kara again. I call it "Wes as Spider Man!"

This last one is from the donkey sanctuary. They were a riot. No qualms about sticking their heads right into the truck!

Tribs, great report as usual

I met Art L'Amour on my first trip and he is a riot! Great stories, indeed! So he finally got his monkey? Cool!

So, is Wes doing yoga on top of Bentana or just balancing?

Keep the pics coming... it may not help YOUR PBD but it sure helps mine

Thanks for the report and pics.

Tribs - great report. Never get tired of reading or seeing pics. Glad you had a good time & people took care of Wes while sick - bummer.
Thanks for posting

Wonderful trip report and pictures! I wish I had an aunt & uncle like you when I was growing up.

Yeah. Your niece especially just couldn't be grinning any wider!

Nice trip report, Jeanine! Loved the pics, thanks!

I think this might be the final round of pics.

Here are two from Gotomeer. It was our first time going there and I have to admit it is a little breath taking.

And of course, it was the rainy season and we got stuck in our room for a whole ten minutes one day while it poured. This shot is taken from the front door looking out at the rain...waiting patiently for it to end.

Ooops! I forgot...I was supposed to let everyone know that Gibi said if you cannot make it on Tuesday night, but still want to eat at his place, just call and let him know when. He will prepare meals on other nights of the week if he knows in advance that you are coming. Yummy!

Great report and pics Jeanine! Thanks for posting, but I think you just made my PBD worse.....

Love your pictures. Makes a person feel like they're there. And then we wake up!!!

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Must have been quite an experience for the niece and nephew

Pardon my ignorance...Where is Lovers Ice Cream. I'm bringing a group of highschool kids down in June and I'm looking for some good ice cream stops to fill the void inbetween dives.

My turn!
I know of one next to Chat-n-Browse and think I recall seeing another in town.

(Message edited by Tom_B on January 16, 2007)

Yes it is by Chat-N-Browse. When you are there stop in and say Hi to Michael . Great Ice Cream at Lovers Ice Cream.. Just thinking of it wants me to hop a plane. Yummy

It was great meeting you and your entourage Tribs! We got to hang out even more than we thought we would, eh? And spend New Years together!

I have a ton of pics but I'm so bad at getting to trip reports. I just am so busy..but we'll see what I get done.

Thanks for the kind words Rosanne and Boom!

Hey Mercy - welcome back
I'm looking forward to our next get together!!

Thanks Tara. I'm still kicking around the idea of having an International Mega Meet at my place this year....but will need help organizing it....whaddya think?? Oh Cynde Looooooooooohoooo!

Mercy, I'm sure if you give us the timeframe we WestCoasters can put together a meet... but then again, this year we've got the Keys Meet already in the works... perhaps we can start formulating the 2008 International Mega-Meet
Has a nice ring to it!

LooHoo is where yoohoo just came from... ya'll are just Brats!

Keys meet?? I know nothing about this! Tell me or direct me to that thread please! I've always wanted to go there..if we're talking about the FL Keys.

Kathy Hall has taken the helm and it's moving right along
KEYS Mini Meet 2007

Tribs, Great report and pictures!! Thanks for sharing your great trip! I sooooooo can't wait to be there!!

Tribs,
Thanks for the report. I really loved seeing your pictures! Man, those donkey's are not shy are they.

Tribs, Great report and great pictures,
Really made the PBD worse than it already was.