A Birthday in Bonaire

My sister thinks I've spent my birthday in more countries than she's visited, and that may be true. This year it was Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles. The governing body will change later this year, but the island will still maintain its devotion to environmentalism. I'm staying at Captain Don's Habitat. Captain Don is still alive, and though he looks like a one-legged pirate, he's done much for the conservation on Bonaire, and the world. He apparently was the force behind mooring buoys to save the reefs here, and that has extended to many other parts of the world. I've heard several lectures here, even from a Harvard professor, about ocean sustainability and how to better relate to sea creatures. Now I want to "pet" on octopus, and maybe an eel.

My fish sitings are getting even better. Yesterday alone, maybe because it was my birthday present from the sea, I saw a midnight parrotfish, an intermediate French Angelfish, a scorporionfish, some shrimp and a walking shelled crab. Guess I need to study up on those latter ones.

Shore dives are the mainstay here so I'm trying to get to as many as I can. Names might not be appropriate, like all those things I saw yesterday at a site called The Invisibles".

There's to be a full moon tomorrow night so the currents and tides are kicking in, so strong they wiped the stairs out from Captain Don's docks. They're attempting to reinstall them now so we can get back in the water shortly.

All's well near the deep blue sea.

BVIs to Bonaire Feb. - March 2008

An uneventful ride home from Cordoba, Argentina. 48 hours in the Twin Cities, and it was off to the British Virgin Islands. I finally had a weather delay so spent the night in San Juan rather than get to Beef Island in one day. Provisioned a 37-foot boat for four people in record time, ran over budget big time but got off without too much delay on my part, cuz we had to wait to be checked out by TMM. Off we went sans one crew member who got sick from diving, but we all had dinner together the first night at Soper's Hole. The crew went ashore for the night and joined us the next morning. Stiff winds of up to 30 knots for the first half of the week so the charter class of 2 learned how to put in reefs, and luckily the second half of the week learned how to take one out. Lots of tactical manuevers, tacking and jibing, man overboard drills, heaving to's, docking, catching mooring balls, etc. Great experience. Now they need to go out sailing in light winds to see how they do.

I flew from Tortola to Bonaire for a couple of weeks of diving. I might have to say diving is fast becoming my favorite sport. Just hanging in the water looking a eels, sea turtles, frogfish, spotted drumfish, tarpin almost as big as me, and more. Life if good. There are over 50 dive sites on the island--Ole Blue, Witch's Hut, Alice in Wonderland, and more. Lots of shore dives, and boat dives of course.

Cargill Salt is here so thoughts of home are close by.

Six Weeks in Córdoba

Did I really just spend six weeks in Córdoba, Argentina, and the two weeks before that in Chile and Easter Island? I saw Moai statues in the Santiago airport last night and felt like it was ages ago that I was looking at the centuries old eye-less statues.

My time in Argentina was spent working on the marketing plan for a non-profit organization, learning Spanish and touring. I successfully finished the marketing plan that focused on fund raising and my translator/college student translated the marketing plan into Spanish. That was more than was expected of us. We presented it to the client who read through it quickly with nods and smiles, then said it was approved with a thumbs up signal. Anyone who has worked with a small non-profit knows that’s not the final approval. It still needs to be approved by the board, which we were told would happen within the next two months. As long as it spurs them on to taking action to raise the funds necessary to finish and equip the new building that’s partially constructed, I’ll be happy. Their goal is to finish the building by the end of the year, and while we learned at this meeting that the government is going to pay for the construction, they still have to raise the money to complete and equip the interior.

I learned some more Spanish, though am wondering if/when I’ll really be able to speak the language. Learning a new language at my age and with a brain that doesn’t adapt to new languages well is a challenge, but I brought back the second book to continue my studies, and plan to devote time to this daily, after my next trip to the BVIs and Bonaire.

And, of course, I toured some. The Sierras--Grandes and Pocos, are very pretty. I did several weekend joints—to the Sierras, Alta Gracia, and Mendoza. I hiked to see condors, rode a horse and enjoyed an asado (an Argentine BBQ), went to Alta Montańa outside Mendoza, and saw the insides of numerous churches in Córdoba, as well as the University of Córdoba, the third oldest university in the Americas.

This was the first time I felt my age with fellow volunteers. They were all young, into the party life that Argentina promotes. Maybe it was because Córdoba is a college town, so the students go out about midnight or 2 a.m., and come home around or 9 a.m. That’s about the time I was getting up. The circles I had when working have come back. Now let’s see what happens on my next trip. Have 48 hours when in the Twin Cities, then off to the BVI’s for a week of sailing, and Bonaire for scuba diving. I hope to earn my dive master’s certification on this trip.