Hi All,
Many of you know some of the details of my trip to our shared favorite place which started on the 16th of February. The following is an attempt to fill you in on what happened on the 16th and the 17th. I have tried to keep it light. This is just the “Getting There” portion.
Before it starts, I want to again thank Michael Gaynor for his sage advise to me last February, when 7 of my traveling companions were “Lost Travelers” for a while. I remembered his word of wisdom and repeated it to myself several times—heck no, a whole lot of times during the first two days of this years trip to Bonaire. It was better for me and less annoying to those around me than my chanting or humming would have been.
Michael said “Relax!”
Thanks Michael!!!!
WE ARE GOING TO BONAIRE. WE ARE GOING TO BONAIRE, WE MIGHT BE GOING TO BONAIRE.
On 16 February 2004, 5 of my friends, John (Smack) Anderson, Peggy Langlais, Henry Schaefer, Peter Schaefer, John Sonnick and I left the warm weather (-13) of Burlington, Vermont anticipating being on Bonaire that evening, diving the next day and meeting up with other Bottom Talkers’s at Gibi’s the next evening. Except for Peter the rest of us are repeat visitors with Peggy having traveled to Bonaire with me on six previous trips. In addition to the normal clothing, dive gear etc. we normally take, we had extra luggage with us containing items which were either donated or sold to us at drastically reduced merchants for the Maria Hoppner Foundation. See:
http://www.infobonaire.com/hoppnerfoundation/index.html if interested.
I want to thank Cynde Lee for the suggestion of doing this in response to a thread I had started on the “Everything Else” page. She has started a new tradition for me and my traveling friends for our future trips to Bonaire.
Unfortunately for us the first two flights of that day were booked on U.S. Idontcare Airways (feel the love). Also unfortunate four of us were stranded in St. Thomas that evening. The day was an adventure of downed aircraft, rude airlines employees it also was an opportunity for us to meet and get somewhat personal with the highly qualified staff of the T.S.A.. (Note to self: Do not carry foot powder in carry on ever again!) RELAX . Fortunately for us “Lost Travelers” that evening we enjoyed the warm weather of St. Thomas and had a enjoyable meal at The Greenhouse. My friend Peggy and I enjoyed a nice walk along the harbor. We were looking for an internet café, which was not to be found within a mile of our hotel.
I called my wife “The Boss” that evening and asked her to post on BT what was up. Now to go off subject for a minute. My wife and I just celebrated 16 years together February 1st and with luck will celebrate our 14th anniversary on May 6th. We work together an average of 6 days a week and yes, at work (o.k. everywhere) she is the “Boss”. When this “Boss” had one of our instructors take me away for some rest and play years ago last fall, he took me to Bonaire. When I returned from that trip she was amazed at how relaxed I was, as such, my “Boss” requires me to take vacations to Bonaire alone with friends every year. Would you argue with your “Boss”?
Peggy and I shared a nice clean room and were serenaded by animals as we fell asleep. RELAX. We did not get much sleep that night, due to the darn barking of dogs and then early in the morning, the soothing crowing of roosters and the squaking of chickens. Yup that is no lie! Looking out of the hotels’ front terrace we were looking at multi-million dollar yachts and sailing vessels while out of our back window was what looked to be a fenced in junk yard complete with several mean looking dogs and a whole flock of chickens. Gotta love the diversity.
Well anyway, we got up early in the morning, made coffee (hotel stuff-yuck) cleaned-up (wish I had a razor) and put on what fresh clothing we had in our carry on luggage and headed for the airport. Our taxi driver, at no added cost took us on a ride up the hill on narrow two way streets. The view was beautiful, two story buildings lining the streets, complete with gashes in their walls where other roller coasters’ cars, I mean vehicles, had hit them. RELAX. Up, up, up, up. At about the same time I was crushing the handle above the door and the fabric of my seat was meshing with my underwear in the place you never want your undergarments to go, we got to the top of our climb. Ahhhh, we are o.k.. RELAX. We travelled along the side of Mount St. Thomas (my name for it) for a few minutes enjoying the view of the harbor, when I noticed the road ended between two buildings. Well it did not end, its’ bottom just fell away. Down, down, down we went between buildings (they use them instead of guardrails you know). Being a “Macho Man” I gripped the handle as well as seat cover (I swear springs were joining the upholstery now) harder. All the time saying RELAX, RELAX to myself. O.K. I admit it I was not saying relax, I was silently crying like a little boy afraid of the Boogey man and swearing to God that if he/she got me out of this without too many injuries, I would give up all my possesions, leave my family and treat the sores of lepers all over the world!!!!!! The next thing I knew we were at the bottom of the hill. I wondered if God heard my screams/prayers, was going to hold me to a contract and tried to remember if I had another pair of boxers in my carry on bag.
RELAX
When we got to the airport I wanted to find a restroom. Instead we first had to check in with the airlines, get our boarding passes—Hey, they gave us all of them this day, and were welcomed to fill out customs forms. We passed through customs each of us being questioned about why we only stayed a night in St. Thomas and then for our safety we were screened by both the normal security people as well as the highly trained staff of the T.S.A., which by the way I am sure is the place the U.S. Government is now putting people when they try to trim the welfare roles. I swear one of the guys had a “Beer Makes You Smart-It Made Budweiser” tee shirt on under his uniform on—giggle, snort.
Once inside the airport, I went to the restroom to remove the once comforting, now uncomfortable taxi sea, checked clothing, and headed for the gate stopping only long enough to throw some money in an internet access booth which operated at a speed slower than earthworms. Posted a short “Love you, will call tonight.” letter to the Boss and went to the gate to see if they needed any help getting the plane loaded or to the gate. Forgot to tell you that my buddy Smack is a lead mechanic for a major airlines. I was going to volunteer him to check/fix any problems our AE plane might have. There were none.
Our flights on the 17th were without issue. As a matter of fact when we arrived in San Juan I went to the customer desk and a lovely lady attempted to look up where the Schaefers and our luggage might be. She was not able to locate either our companions or luggage, however, this lady upon my request, remembering one of you had posted on BT in the past to check on this, did find out that since we had not made the AE flight the night before, we had been eliminated from their system for our scheduled Bonaire departure on the 24th. This clerk made an entry and corrected this problem. On to Aruba (note to self: Next trip, deodorant in the carry on).
When we reached Aruba, we were invited to clear customs, the secure area of the airport and enjoy the island’s charms. Well actually we had to do this to go to a little building, and buy our Bonaire Excel passage for later in the day. I have to admit it I was impressed when one of the ladies (there were three in the little booth) offered to open their boarding pass office early to allow us to check in. This kind act would allow us to sight see all of the airport’s fine site; eateries, taxi stands, dead internet booths, rest rooms, meditation area and duty free shops where you can buy barrels of booze, old books and truckloads of ciggarettes all the while not having to pay taxes on these items. Wish they had deodorant there. Not just for me, but, judging by the aroma of other travelers, I bet a fortune could be made. Could you imagine being able to buy 10 years worth of deodorant for only $17.95, along with a 1972 March copy of Playboy or Cosmopolitan, tax free?
Well anyway, realizing that we were hungry we decided to sample the cuisine and enjoy atmosphere of a fine out of doors eatery. I believe this place was called “Eathereitprobablywontkillya”, I am not sure if I got the complete so do not look for it by name, it is the shack in back of the Bonaire Excel ticket office. You can probably find it by following the fine aroma of rancid grease. Now when deciding what to eat I recognized several names and decided to settle for conch fritter with fries and a coke. After I bit into that wonderful meal, I promptly verified that they had not stolen and cooked my sneakers (note to self: Next trip, new odor eaters prior to departure) I ate what I could, threw away the fries and drank the coke. Time for our flight on B.E..
WE ARE GOING TO BONAIRE, I THINK WE ARE GOING TO BONAIRE, DO YOU FOLKS ACTUALLY FLY TO BONAIRE?
Relax! Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!
Since our tickets said that our flight was supposed to leave Aruba at 5:40 we went through security, passed a “Meditation” room and got to the gate about 45 minutes early. Wondered where the other passengers were?
Wondered where the airlines staff was?
Wondered if Gibi was going to have fresh wahoo to go with my funchi tonight?
Wondered why is there a meditation room right next to our gate?
And after a reminder of my earlier lunch—Burp, wondered if that Duty Free Shop had Tums.
After a while a couple of other travelers showed up. Then a security guard with a dog came in. I was worried that the dog was going to to “Alert” on my sneakers they love rolling on carcasses you know. Instead after a close look at the dog, I was worried that I was going to get fleas.
In short order, more people came in and we all thought, the plane would be here soon. Nope they were escorted to a small plane a long way from the gate. When we questioned the lady in uniform where they were headed, she said Yabbada Dabbada Goonie Goo Goo or something like that. I asked where our plane was and she shrugged her shoulders.
About then, one of my traveling companions told me the electronic flight information advisor (blinking light thingy) now said our flight was delayed (no kidding) and for us to see the clerk. John Sonnick went to seek a clerk, after about 30 minutes, he came back and told us that our flight and the next Aruba to Bonaire Flight scheduled for about 6:05 were being combined into one flight at the later time. BREATH, RELAX
Some of us went for a walk upstairs, found a closed Ice Cream Stand, returned downstairs, looked into the Meditation Room realizing why it was where it was, left the secured area, some had a smoke, some thought of starting to smoke, some of us went into the Duty Free Shop and looked around. I found some Tums (take that).
When we got back to “OUR” gate (we were claiming homesteaders rights at this point), we were told by newly arriving passengers the flight was still on the ground in Curacao. Started to feel the effects of 72 hours with about 3 hours of sleep. Woke up to activity and people smiling at me. Checked to see if my fly was open, wiped my face to see if I had been painted with lipstick (which is something I would have done) and to remove the drool from the corner of my mouth, and was told by others that I snore really loud. Nice of them, for a moment I felt like I was home with the Boss—not!.
The plane was about an hour late arriving from Curacao, once it was unloaded and refueled we were allowed to stampede to the aircraft. If you are reading this, I want to apologize at this point to the person I accidentally knocked down and stepped on. I believe you will heal in time. And if you ever are in a leprosy colony in the future, I hope we can one day have a laugh over it.
RELAX
Anyway when we got on the plane, claimed our seats and the crew closed the doors, the ever optimistic one—Peggy, who was sitting in back of me, rubbed my head, said “We are almost there Buddy.” To which I said “Not Yet!”. We sat on the runway for a long time, the props running before we started to taxi, when we finally took off, she said “Better?” to which I said “Better yes, but, I will be happier when we leave Curacao.” During the flight to Curacao all of our spirits started to lift, we even joked that if we got stranded there we were going to call Patrick of Parasail Bonaire to come pick us up. Could you imagine looking out of your window on Bonaire to see four grungy looking travelers with chutes gliding onto the beach.We reached Curacao in short order and the plane quickly emptied of passengers, I think the pilot wanted to go into the terminal to use the bathroom, but when he saw the four of us glaring at him, he went back into the cockpit deciding to wait until Bonaire, definitely an intelligent man, the product of good breeding and education. A few people joined us and in what is one of the fastest landing, unloading, reloading and takeoffs in history we were off the ground.
When we got close enough to Bonaire to see lights I felt giddy and was worried I was going to pee my pants out of joy. At touchdown I was beyond caring. Leaving the plane I claimed my gate checked carry on and considered kissing the tarmac. Remembering the dog in Aruba and not knowing if Bonaire now had security dogs, I opted to wait until I got to the beach at Eden (hence the name).
Inside the terminal, we could not find our luggage, nor could we verify as to whether Henry and Peter had made it. We did meet Sidney as well as the ever vivacious and beautiful Poppy (who also works for B.E.) of Telerin who had our vehicles. They told us the others had arrived on schedule and that they thought our luggage had not arrived. We had our trucks as fast as we could sign our names. Poppy told us she would keep looking for our luggage for us, I wanted to kiss her. Remembering I had not brushed my teeth since that morning and not sure if my breath smelled like lunch—Burp, shook their hands, thanked them and left the airport.
Now it had been my plan all day to join Jake, Linda and any other Bottom Talkers at Gibi’s when we got to Bonaire, but, by the time we got there, I was in a hurry to meet up with the Schaefers and make sure everything was fine with them. So after a quick drive by Gibi’s to say hi to Gibi, Jake and Linda we headed for our Bonaire home.
Oops forgot to mention, Gibi gave me his card and told me to call him before I returned (that story will come soon).
HONEY I’M HOME
When we got to Eden Beach Olivier rushed out to greet us, gave us keys to our apartments and told us to relax. He also told us they were and would continue inquiring about our luggage. This cordial young man also said there was no need to go through the formalities of check in, just to stop by the office at our convenience to take care of the paperwork. At the same time Henry and Peter joined us and said that our luggage was not there and that they were told we would all have any dive gear we needed waiting for us in the morning.
Smack and I went to our studio, dropped our luggage, took turns cleaning up and went to Bongo’s to meet the others as planned. When we got to Bongo’s we met up with Karin, Paul and Roger of WannaDive as well as Menno of Deep Blue View and young Hans of Bongo’s. The welcomed us like the old friends they have become over the years and then proceeded to pick on me. You see, these folks know I love diving the reefs of Bonaire before most people wake up in the morning. As such, as a favor to me there were weights and tanks waiting in their gear locker for me since the night before I was supposed to arrive. Roger offered to grab a vest and Bob’s fins for me so I could get an early start the next day everything else I needed to dive was with me in my carry on. Being totally wiped out and just grateful to be on a stool at Bongo’s I decided I would wait until the next morning after check-in to start the diving.
RELAX
Henry, Peter, Peggy and John S decided to go into town for supper, so they headed to Donna and Giorgio’s, Smack and I realized that our butts did not want to let go of the stools (lest it all be just a dream) decided to stay at Bongo’s enjoying being among friends and with our feet in the sand. I had a delicious wahoo sandwich, that I could hardly finish and a melon shake mmmmmmm. I do not know what Smack had as I think my eyes were closed most of the time. After a while we went back to our apartment, chose beds and crashed.
Good Night Moon.
To Be Continued………..
|
By Tom Cousino (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #406) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 1:14 pm: 
