Hello All

Just back from trip #4 to Bonaire, another wonderful stay, another bout of PBD sets in.

A few notes from the latest excursion: This was the second trip this year, primarily because we purchased a piece of property in Santa Barbara and the closing date created a great excuse to visit once again. We decided to use Membership Rewards miles for the plane tickets, and stay in a less expensive location to cut costs.

We flew AJ both ways, no problems, their 1st class is now called Top Class, so I guess we were seated in Bottom Class. ;-) Food didn't look so good and I forgot to request Patty's vegetarian option, so the nuts we brought staved off the hunger long enough to make it to Bonaire.

This time we stayed at the Windsock Apartments, having stayed at the Plaza and Divi before. Only 2 small faults at Windsock - there are no screens except for the bedroom window; it's all or nothing in the rest of the spacious apartment. Beautiful patio. Well stocked kitchen, comfortable furniture, nice pool (comes with iguana - more later on that). Note - if you stay here bring about 10 business cards. The bedroom windows have a closure on them that is not very tight (by design I think), so during a strong gust, they bang enough to wake you up. Solution -
stuff a few business cards in the gap and you'll be set.

The two faults - the 2:45 am KLM flight to Amsterdam. The Windsock is very very very close to the airport. When that plane takes off - and you can practically see the runway from the apartment - the place shakes, and although it is a cool sound, a jet plane in the bedroom at 3 am
is not so cool. But with the a/c on and windows shut it is just the building shaking a little for 2-3 minutes that might pose a problem for some. The other thing is the screens, but we encountered few problems with bugs this time out.

Saturday night involved a wonderful dinner at Garden Cafe, Patty's favorite spot for the vegetarian fare. The thread under Dining on BT will tell you more about this great little place. Even the salads are made from scratch to your order when you arrive, so you can tell them to leave out peppers, etc. if you don't like them. They are very accomodating. We ate there on Monday as well with some friends from the island.

Sunday was spent in Washington Park. Since we rented a pickup truck from Ilka at Everts Car Rental (also recommended), we decided to take a leisurely drive through the park. Ha. This drive, even at the encouraged 20kph speed limit, will rattle your bones, shake your teeth, take you to the outer limits of controlling a vehicle under European off road rally conditions. Barely qualifying as a 'road', it was a hell of a lot of fun. Patty hit her head on the roof more than once as we experienced one of the last bastions of all out driving and nature excitement known to man. It is worth it to rent a truck or 4wd for the day and see this natural wonder. There is a great blowhole (very load), coral millions of years old, wild water, birdwatching, etc. Just be prepared for a rough ride and bring water!

Sunday night we ate at Donna and Giorgio's, the special was Barracuda with cheese and eggplant. That seemed a rather odd combination, so we ate more pedestrian fare and enjoyed the local musicians, who regaled us once again this year with 'You are my Sunshine'. A nice experience all around.

On to Part 2.

very nice to read yr report.
I've been recently to the Washington Park and enjoyed it very much.
We enjoyed the wild water, but were very careful not to go to deep:


\image {golven2}

The road is indeed a bit bumpy, but everybody stayed aboard:


Did you feed the iguana's at Pos mangel?

WHOW!!! Great shots Bob!!

Bob-

I should have known better, but I gave a large iguana a sugar cookie which was far too big for his little mouth. He ate it, then realized it was too big to swallow, and struggled trying to spit it out. Patty was yelling 'You're killing him! Do something!' As the poor thing squirmed and rubbed his mouth on the ground, I had that horrible feeling like, ok, I did something stupid, but I have absolutely no idea how to help. Eventually, I suppose the saliva dissolved the cookie and he swallowed it and walked off. One of life's lessons. <sigh>

You animal lover :-)

This is how you do it:

Nice place, santa barbara.
A piece of land or with a house on it?

"This was the second trip this year, primarily because we purchased a piece of property in Santa Barbara and the closing date created a great excuse to visit once again. We decided to use Membership Rewards miles for the plane tickets, and stay in a less expensive location to cut costs."

Did you cut enough cost to cover the purchase LOL