Saturday

This morning we're heading out to rent scooters and tour the island
(marine park, donkey preserve, and miles of cactus and coastline).
Will hopefully post pictures tonight, if not will update the blog as
we travel home tomorrow. Liz

Hi

Just wanted to say hi. Will post more tommorrow (our last day). I am
off to do a night dive and leaving liz with mom. I am far more worried
about liz's safety than my own . . .

I just can't seem to get over the sunsets here . . .

As you may have noticed, I like these guys. It seems however that she
was just using me for my lettuce. When it ran out, so did she. While
it lasted, she was very petsistant however!

Ps- don't mind liz's finger, she's still getting used to the iPhone
camera.

Breakfast

It's often a little rainy at night here this time of year. But check
pit this rainbow that appeared at breakfast!

At Last - underwater

Well, there's no videos. We'll see how many underwater pics I can do - they are very high res. . . .

These guys looooove lettuce

They are about 3-4 feet and come running if you dangle salad bits!

Sunset down at the slave huts.

Unfortunetly I got none with the flamingos. Hopefully liz did. We'll
see.

Nate

Pre sunset at the slave huts.

This guy has become a regular!

A word about the weather

So the weather here is amazing. NEVER again will you ever hear me say that 85 degree weather is anything close good. But here it is different. We sit at 12 degrees north of the equator, smack dab in the middle of the trade winds. This means that every day, all day, there is a 10-15 mph wind blowing. It is a little humid, and god the sun is bright, but the sky is always checkerboarded with ample clouds to give you little moments of shade, and that steady cool breeze from the ocean really does the trick.

All right, I am off to find liz fresh from her first day of dive class. I hope the videos weren't too boring.

Here is where we dive from. The room is about 150 feet north. Breakfast is 100 feet south. The dive shop is 30 feet away. Never has diving been so incredibly conveniant. Dad and I rented a camera today for the rest of the week. I just need to see if they will give us a cd before we return it of individual day's photos.

Another sunset has begun.

Sun is getting lower . . .

On this Sunday. A good day underwater with my rented camera. I think
I'll try a strobe flash tommorrow.

Tomorrow I'll get a cd of the pictures I took today and post a few.

Nate

As promised... pictures of Bill Gates' boat

This is not your typical yacht - it came fully equipped with a helicopter, submersible (a diving vehicle that can get you to the bottom of the ocean), and a large crew. He is docked at the peer in town and has only had to move his boat a few times for cruise ships to come in - this boat (Octopus) is about a quarter the size of a cruise ship! Haven't seen Bill or Melinda yet, rumor has it that they may have taken the helicopter to one of the other island hotspots or South America (we're only 60 miles from Venezuela).

Greetings

Sorry for the delay in blogging the past few days - we were mourning the loss of our beloved Flip video camera. It seems as though the seas were too much for it to handle and within moments of submersion it tooks it's last video... so much for "good to 30 feet"!! Nate is thinking about renting a camera from our local dive shop and hopefully we can bring some underwater pictures to you soon.

The water and sea life are incredible. I've mostly gotten over my fear of water and have given up on the notion that a shark will sneak up and eat me (sorry Jake, you're on your own now!) - this was accomplished through the help of Nate's dad via snorkling lessons. I start my diving classes tomorrow morning and am sooooo excited even though it means giving up my next three/four days and nights, devoting them to the study of self contained underwater breathing apperatus(es) - question #1 check!

We've driven the length of the island over the past few days - seeing beautiful "beaches," wild donkeys & goats, flamingos, cactus, and lots of salt (one of the primary products of the island - must give a shout out to the quality of the drinking water here - it's completely desalinated).

Well that's it from my end for now. Enjoy the pictures that I've attached (sunset, salt production, the wavy side of the island, and the slave huts used during the early years of salt production). Cheers!

So, this guy keeps flying back and forth over us at breakfast this
morning. Hopefully he has good "retention" if you know what I mean.
Another beautiful sunny day! Diving today. Got liz signed up for a
dive course starting Monday am. Turns out if you answer "yes" to the
question "do you have asthma?" then you need to go pay the local doc
$50 to say you can dive. Liz needs to learn to not be such a "rule
follower"! :-)

Later folks!

Ps - seems bill gates is here on the island in his yacht/ ship for his
birthday. What do you get who can buy everything - literally.
Including some not so small countries. I'll try to get a picture of
the boat later.

I was being a boring ol' fuddy duddy doing some work, so Liz had to do something (she made this brief video). This is our first attempt to put some video up - let us know what you think. (btw - don't think we edited that sappy muzac in, it was playing in the background while she was recording.)

Liz is not quite sure how she feels about these guys. But I can say -
the iguana (a she) has a boyfriend and love is in the air! If you
ever want to know what iguana "love" looks like, just ask liz!

We just went in the water for the first time. I dove - 27' max, about
20' average, the others snorkled above. Awesome fish - nothing big but
some cuttlefish, flounder, parrotfish, and countless little other
ones. There is a ledge in about 30 of water that drops off to about 80
feet - so finding nemo ish. I'll try to use the flip camera next dive!

Breakfast

Here is the view from our breakfast table this morning. I've shot some
video but we don't have Internet in the room, so e-mailing these in
from my phone is still the easiest. Wich for some weird reason means
only one picture per post. And probably some static spelling from
phone typing. Liz says "hi". We'll get more out in a bit.

Our other travel companions

Mom and dad are staying at a different resort, and coming back later,
but they are going down with us.

5:15

It's way to early. We are awaiting our plane to Dulles. We've been up since 2:30 am. The only reason someone should ever be up that early is if they haven't yet been to bed.

The night before the trip and all through the house...

So it's 10:30 pm and we'll be on the road to the airport in 4 1/2 short hours... sleep would be good but I'm far too excited for that so I decided to write my first post. There is something about travelling that has always kept me up in wide-eyed anticipation. It didn't matter where I would be heading too - just the thought of being able to go away was enough. So now that I'm heading to a place that I've never been, sleep is just a dream. Maybe counting suitcases and pairs of packed socks will help me to drift off...

Well seriously folks, our first flight leaves Hartford at 6:00am and we will arrive in Bonaire sometime around 11:00pm (with layovers in both DC and Aruba). After a brief rest we'll write our official greeting from island paradise (should internet on a small desert island be willing) sometime on the 22nd.

where we are headed this time

We are going to a little island in the southern Caribbean named Bonaire. It's world renowned for . . . well nothing really. Nothing except diving that is. No big battles were fought there, no fun revolutions, no major industry or even really much history of colonial settlement. Just some salt works, some beaches, and friendly people. Now it's a great diving destination and a wonderful place to go and do . . . well, very little actually. A great place to go and do nothing. Liz is getting certified to dive. I'll try to get good pictures for you all!

For more on the Island, check out this link

For more on the place we are staying, check out this link

And to catch a glimpse of us (maybe) look here

That's it from me for now - we leave wednesday. At 3:30 am! I'll try to send an update from the road.

We have planned ourselves a vacation - or rather I planned one and browbeat Liz into going with me. These pictures may give you a little glimpse as to why I wanted to get away. So get ready sun, we're coming for you! Please stay tuned for updates of our travels. We'll see just how regular we can make this. Oh, and thanks to my Bro Jake for watching all the little critters - from the two cats and dog to the 5,000 little fishes for the next 12 days straight.