Hi Everyone!

My fiance and I have been reading these messages for some time now and everyone seems so friendly that we decided to drop a line.

We are getting married in May (may the heavens be praised, we've been engaged for what seems such a long time!) and after careful deliberation, we've decided on Bonaire for our honeymoon in May. We'll be there for six weeks from May 28-July 15.
We are so excited, as I'm sure you can imagine. From what we've read, it seems like a paradise. We'll be renting an apartment and taking advantage of all the activities from diving to snorkeling to windsurfing to biking to rock climbing to kayaking to playing with the wild donkeys!

Is anyone going to be in Bonaire this Spring/Summer? Perhaps we'll see you there!

Take care, Happy New Year!
Carolyn

Welcome Caroline, Congratulations with your wedding. Angela and I will get married next june on Bonaire. We'll be there from may 28-th (same KLM flight??) for 3 weeks. I think you'll met us then on one of the famous BT-dinners...

Martin

Hi Martin,

Thank you so much for your reply. And congratulations to you! You're getting married ON the island... how beautiful.

What is a BT dinner? We'd love to meet some people on the island while we're there. Asher and I are excited to spend loads of quality time together, but it might be nice to see other people from time to time as well. Six weeks is a long stay!

Have you ever been to Bonaire before as well?

And by the way, we're be taking a flight from the States, on Americna Airlines, as that's where we're from!

Carolyn

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials, Carolyn! Six weeks on Bonaire....does not get much better than that. We will be at the Divi part of the time you will be there, too, so you might see Joe and me snorkeling in that area daily. I think there are plans to attempt to arrange a dinner for everyone on Bonaire around that time, so you are most welcome to join the gang if you'd like. More definite plans will be firmed up as the date gets closer, of course.

You will love Bonaire and her people. YOu will be exploring like crazy and enjoying every moment of it, too. If you are into arts and crafts at all, you might want to consider getting in touch with Janice Huckaby who is an artist who lives on Bonaire and she conducts classes which are very enjoyable and relaxing. I had a private class last year and plan to schedule a few more for this next trip. Something to think about amidst the other activities you will be enjoying. Hope to see you in May/June. Carole

Carolyn, A BT dinner is a dinner with the people from Bonaire Talk who are on the island in the same period as you are. Most of the time it's at a local food restaurant and a lot of fun.

We have been to Bon 4 times now, and we still love the place.

First of all, thank you so much for these messages.

And Holy Canoli! I love art and have been considering taking some watercolor classes before heading to the island. I'm a graduate student in the social sciences so anything to develop the creative side of my brain is always welcome. At the moment, I am mostly into charcoal and pencil but would like to expand. So I will definitely look for Ms. Huckaby when I arrive and find out what "courses" she offers.

And thank you for the invites for the group dinner. Asher and I would love to join you when the time comes. Sounds like fun.

This must be an amazing place if so many of you return time and time again.

A presto!
Carolyn

Sounds like a plan to me, Carolyn! You will definitely enjoy working with Janice Huckaby...she works with all of the above, so you will find something to learn many times over with her. She does have a website and I am going to attempt to place a link in here for you....or at least the address. Drop her a line and she will respond promptly. She is just a delightful person to know and I love her artwork. So glad my tip was a hit with you. See you in May/June!! Carole

http://www.infobonaire.com/janart/

Carole (and Martin) and/or anyone else,

The art "school" sounds like so much fun. I will definitely check that out.

Ok- now I have a substantive question that might affect some plans:

We are both completing our last year of graduate school so we need to be a little frugal on our trip. Just a little- it is our honeymoon after all. Now, we got a quote that meets our budget for a scooter for two people for the whole six weeks and I'm totally excited about that because I love to ride scooters. But we're concerned because we won't be able to take rented scuba equipment with us on the scooter (of course). We have our own snorkel gear so we'll be to go all around the island by scooter and snorkel, but we'll be constrained to dive only where there are dive shops near the shore. So here is my question: will this limit our experience? Can we enjoy great diving where we can rent the eqiupment and then find great snorkeling everywhere else? Or will we miss out on the great diving by not having a car?

Thanks for the help and we're really looking forward to this trip and to potentially meeting some great people! Oh man, we can't wait.

Carolyn

Carolyn, You can go and dive from a dive shop located at the shore, but you can also make boat dives. This means you can see other places you can't walk to.

Carolyn,
We are in the process of setting up a trip for 10-14 days during the 1st part of June 2003 and will invite you to ride along with us on some dives. Another option is to find out the sked of the Pink Dive Bus and ride your scooters to the site where they will be for that day. I seem to remember the Pink Dive Bus having tanks. Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials.
Yana

My sister and I will be on island from May 31 to June 14, also staying at Divi Flamingo. My sister is a snorkeler only, but I am a FOG'd diver, not a dinosaur diver like 'Uncle Bobby', but close. We will probably be on same the AE flight from SJU to BON with you. Watch for two middle-aged dames getting on at SJU, that will be us.

Oh, how wonderful.

Yana- we would love to join you on a few dives... are you talking about going someplace by car or by boat? Either way, I'm sure we'll have loads of fun. And thanks for the tip about the Pink Dive Bus, we'll definitely check that out.

And Linnea, look out for two 30ish lovebirds with silly grins on their faces... that will be us!

Asher and I have started the "workout" plan to get in shape. I start scuba lessons next week too.(Ash is already certified, and has finally convinced me to do it) I can't believe that this is going to be a reality...

I feel like we're slowly becoming inculcated into the web of Bonaire friends!

Ciao, a presto,
Carolyn

Carolyn,
As of right now there will be 8 of "Us" and 3 rental trucks. So we will be driving. We tend to take off in separate directions with just a few of us entering the water at a time. We tend not to do many boat dives when we travel in such a large group.
Yana

Yana,

Cool. If we can join, we'd love it. It makes sense that you wouldn't want to saturate the water with all sorts of bodies in one place. So if we can complement the passengers in one of the trucks without overloading the whole process, we'd be glad to accompany you. Thank you so much for the offer.

I just got confirmation that my scuba lessons start next week. Hooray!

Asher and I also just solidified our plans for the wedding at an Inn here in Chapel Hill, NC... we're having a small affair with only 25 people so we can spend more time on Bonaire! I think it was the right choice. Big wedding, 2-week trip to Bonaire or small wedding, 6-week trip? What would you have done?

Cheers, a presto,
Carolyn

Carolyn, now I know what we did wrong... 6 WEEKS, I envy you!!!

Grin grin grin!

It's hard to concentrate on you know, WORK.

Good choice, Carolyn!! How about "0" folks and two months??? LOL. Carole

I know a better choice:
0 folks, 4 weeks and let some other BT'rs come over...

Carolyn,
You guys live only 2 & 1/2 hours from us!!! we live out on the NC coast. Has your main man ever been diving around here? This is not my cup of tea diving. I'm not into cold water, deep, or wreck diving. We try to get to Bonaire about every 5-6 months to satisfy my habit. We will also be in Bonaire Jan 14-23, 2003.
Yana

Well, if I had known how cool you guys were beforehand, other arrangements could have been made! We could have been married with the entire BT crew as witnesses. You know, we did consider getting married on one of the islands (this was before we found your little treasure) by ourselves. But on one side we're the "last" (the other two siblings are married with children) and I'm the only girl on my side, so I think our parents really want to be there. Plus Asher and I have been living together for 3 years now, so the family is REALLY looking forward to us achieving "legal" status. I think my Italian grandmother is counting the days! It's quite funny because we've been together for so long, and in many ways we're already "married" but I don't think anyone else sees it that way. Also funny is the fact that we got "engaged" over a year ago (on December 4, 2001) and set May 2003 as the date, but no one called to congratulate us until Asher got me a ring in June 2002! I don't understand people sometimes. It appears that according to my family, it's not official until the girl wears a ring on her finger. That's when the phone calls and the STRESS about the wedding started! We started planning a big gala event, fit for a girl whose family is half Italian and half Jewish and whose fiance's family is very Southern. What a challenge. But in the end, once we began to plan and saw just how stressful the whole process is and really, how much everything cost, my mom saw how messed up I was getting about the whole thing (I'm really not into this stuff), and she said those mystical, magical words that will linger in my mind forever...

"I'm giving you the money anyway and you and Ash can choose what to do with it."

And so, Bonaire... HERE WE COME FOR SIX WEEKS!

Anyway, Yana, really cool about NC. We try to get to Sunset Beach with the family at least once a year. It truly is a small world. I don't think Asher has been diving there... he was certified in Elba, Italy a year and a half ago and I think that's the only place he's been diving. So he's really eager to get to Bonaire. And I'll be getting certified this semester too.

And have a wonderful trip next week Yana! We'll be looking forward to your report.

Take care everyone... have a wonderful day, thank you for the new online friendship,
Carolyn

We went for small wedding (36 people) and small honeymoon (1 week) because that's all the vacation time I could afford from work at the time... But we've taken some great vacations since then, so I don't feel gypped. For that matter, that 1 week was pretty excellent, too (Carmel and San Francisco, CA -- this is -long- before we learned to dive)... And I guess it worked out OK -- we've been married 17 years so far, and still going just fine...

Do have a wonderful wedding and enjoy your trip to Bonaire!

Faith

With Yana and all those vehicles sounds like you guys are in for some shore drift diving!

Ok, true believers, it's OFFICIAL! We just bought the tickets online and the credit card charge WENT THROUGH! This means we are definitely going to Bonaire in May. Woo hoo! It's going to be amazing. Though I'm having heart palpitations at the thought of the bill coming through the mail, I'm sure this will be the trip of our lifetime.

Hooray!

But I must admit that I'm also having heart palpitations at the thought of getting married... someone reassure me that this is normal!!

A presto!
Carolyn

Carolyn, CU in june at Bonaire!!

Carolyn, you will be fine! Joe and I cohabitated for almost 12 years before we finally tied the knot...I always thought it would change things with "that" piece of paper, but it did not. It only made things even better. It's a nice feeling afterwards. You will be just fine!

Congrats on the tickets, too. Now you will be counting down the days until you arrive. Joe is the "official countdown counter" in our household...he has not started the countdown as yet, but I expect he will by the next big snowstorm in our area. Hopefully we can all get together for dinner while we are all on Bonaire at the same time in May/June. Ah, the excitement now begins...Carole

Hi everyone,

Gosh by my count, there are going to be at least 8 people from this particular topic page alone that are going to be on Bonaire the same time that we are. How cool. It might be quite a group. Hopefully we'll run into you guys again and again through diving and other activities and that group dinner sounds really nice. We're making a list of all the things we want to do and it's gonna be tough getting through this semester. But there sure is a big light at the end of this tunnel!

What's really remarkable about this crowd is that everyone seems to be on the same page (PUN INTENDED) concerning their likes...Obviously everyone likes being outside and can appreciate the "finer" things in life, such as blue water, sunny skies and amazing adventures.

By the way, does anyone play chess? Should I bring my board?

Have a great weekend!

And go Tar Heels!

Carolyn