OOPS, Sorry Marsha and Jack, gave you the wrong name: I know it's LaManna (now I remember!). Anyway, nice to meet you --- we have to have lunch when you get to Rochester some day!
To continue the saga:
Alan, Bill and I attended the Feb Turducken dinner at Jake and Linda's and enjoyed renewing our relationship with Jake and Linda and the kids and the dogs. What a spread, and thanks SO MUCH to Kay for the Turducken, which was a real treat. We ate ourselves silly. I brought my world-famous chocolate mousse. I had to borrow a blender from Ester at BTH, and kept it for a week or so afterwards to make fruit smoothies (from the wonderful mangoes I got from the waterfront fruit stand --- stopped by there almost daily to replenish the fruit supply). Unfortunately, I dropped the (glass) blender jar and smashed it into MANY pieces on the tile floor. Horrors!!! It's bad enough breaking your own stuff, let alone your hosts. Anyway, Benzers on Kaya Grandi sold spares, so I was off the hook and could get over my guilt. Jake gallantly escorted me on a dive at Small Wall, and I was MUCH more comfortable than I was the first time there --- when he had to practically hold my hand.
Tuesday nights at Gibi's Terrace meeting other BTers was great. Got to meet Diver Debbi and Adam and their two groups of visiting friends, as well as Chet and Jean Wood, Bob Liguori and Maida, and others. Bob even popped over to BTH our first day to greet us and welcome us to the island. What a nice surprise! The food at Gibi's is excellent, and Gibi and all his staff are so pleasant and welcoming --- we'll be doing that again next year, I bet!! Right, Debbi, Chet, Jean? Anyone who'll be there next Feb/March, mark your calendars now --- 7 pm at Gibi's Terrace every Tuesday. I can still taste the New York strip steak I had my last night there: close to the best I've had ANYWHERE in the world (and for only 20 Naf).
Diver Debbi held my hand on my FIRST night dive (Bari Reef). How neat that was! Such a different experience from being underwater during the day. It was a full moon, and we could look up and see the glow from the moon. I was very comfortable with Debbi.
I had the pleasure of meeting Susan Porter and Lisa, and Susan and I did several dives. Again, another great buddy for me. Another sunset/night dive (from Captain Don's dock), a day dive there (we saw some of the filming for the Outdoors Channel shows they did there) and a day dive at Calabas Reef. There, we saw a HUGE dog snapper and it hung around near us for a while as I was trying to keep my jaw from dropping.
Susan also introduced me to my (current) favorite snorkel site: the customs pier. I know, loads of junk, etc., but it's a VERY neat experience and just LOADS of fishes… I am NOT good at remembering everything, but here's what I do remember from several snorkels there (including a night one, which was way cool): at least 5 scorpion fish, including a very small one; a school of 16 reef squid, baby and intermediate and adult French angelfish, a banded morey wrapped around clusters of orange cup coral (that's half open even during the day because it's so dark there), a green morey hiding in an old tire; schools of glassy sweepers -- just sweeping away around the pilings; lots of banded coral shrimp; an large schools of other fish that I''ve forgotten the name of. BTW, fish ID isn't my strong point --- I just like to look at them, and don't always have to know what they are. There were also juvenile and baby spotted drum (which are my absolute favorite fish, I think); all sorts of trunk fish, including TINY baby ones. This is still all at the customs pier, and I pretty much saw all of this each time, not just a total for all the snorkels there. I also like the easy access from the tiny beach alongside ChaChaCha Pier (in front of the Dive Inn). I even found (with direction from a divemaster from PhotoTours who was on the beach there) a seahorse on one of the mooring ropes of the little floating dock off the pier. Very well camoflaged, and I'd never have found it if he hadn't told me exactly where to look --- even then, it took me about five minutes to see it.
We also had the pleasure of meeting Alan Gross and Jane Townsend, who are very involved with Jong Bonaire. Such nice people, and Jong Bonaire is a great organization. Just before we left for Bonaire, we found we had won a week at the Deep Blue View Bed & Breakfast in the Jong Bonaire sweepstakes, so Alan and Jane met us there and gave us a tour --- VERY nice place, and we'll be staying there for our first week next year. We met Esther who manages DBV with her husband Menno (a divemaster at Wanna Dive). She's a gourmet cook, and we're looking forward to the breakfasts there..., and relaxing by the pool and in the hammocks to really get on "island time".
Alan and Jane also took us to their lovely house in the kunuku (waaayyy in the Kunuku) and we enjoyed the view to the ocean on both sides. A totally solar home that they put enormous thought and planning into building, and it's just marvelous.
Alan went to Jong Bonaire to give some table tennis lessons to some of the boys there who were planning on playing in a tournament. He'll be back to do that again next year. He also played table tennis a couple of times with Henk Roozendahl (who's the artist who did the marvelous mural on the front of It Rains Fishes). It's hard playing table tennis on an outdoor balcony, with the wind on Bonaire, but they have fun...
Watch this space: Still to come: Visit to Lac Cai, picking up strangers on the road out of town, more on diving (including night dive at town pier with the incomparable Erwin), restaurants, etc. etc. |
By Josie on Wednesday, May 15, 2002 - 11:05 pm: 
