Kathy in a slave house
Pink Flamingoes on Bonaire's salt pans
Kathy feeding donkeys in a donkey sanctuary
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Bugs in Bonaire
16/01/10
Greetings from hot, sunny and very windy Bonaire, one of the Netherlands Antilles.
In the last blog, I told you about the cockroaches. Well, they’re still with us in spite of putting down traps and spraying liberally. We have resorted to Boric Acid mixed with white sugar in the hope that we can wipe them out for a while. We check everything we bring on board, which is just as well, because a packet of cereal I was about to open had dead moths inside the cardboard and, even worse, live ones inside the inner package!
Bugs apart, we’re doing all right. We spent Christmas in Carriacou. We went to Midnight Communion at the Anglican Church and sang all our favourite Christmas carols. Although we recognised the service, there were no wardens to greet the congregation and no hymn books or prayer books were handed out. It seems the church did not have many. The microphone did not work so we hardly heard a word of the Sermon and all the singing was unaccompanied.
On Christmas Day, I mentioned to Jeremy that I kept smelling gas. Sure enough, there was a very small hole in the washer inside the regulator and the bottle, which took two weeks to be filled in Trinidad was almost empty. Most of the gas had escaped harmlessly overboard, with just the occasional whiff coming through my porthole. We weighed anchor after a late breakfast and went to one of the best bays in Carriacou called Anse la Roche. Here we met one family and one couple and, amazingly the couple were from the north east of England, where the man had attended the University of Sunderland (Jeremy’s home town!). We treated ourselves to wild salmon fillets for our Xmas meal, with English potatoes, carrots and cabbage. No Xmas pud though, just yogurts for afters.
We had the morning of Boxing Day to ourselves anchored off the beautiful Sandy Island, where we swam and snorkelled. By the afternoon, there were 6 yachts so we left for our night time anchorage in Tyrell Bay. The only other island we visited off Carriacou was the uninhabited Mabouya Island, where we had to land the dinghy in breaking surf, which I don’t like at all, having been ejected from the dinghy twice before. Fortunately, all went well this time.
I had been waiting for some medication to arrive from the UK and it had not arrived but on our last day in Carriacou it was there at the post office. So, we could leave without needing to return. We sailed to Union Island, which is part of St Vincent and the Grenandines (SVG). We checked in with Customs and Immigration, paid our fees and continued to the island of Mayreau. The next day we did a 6 or 7 hour sail to Bequia, where we spent New Year. The fireworks on Old Year’s Night were very good. Jeremy blew loud tunes on his grandfather’s bugle and many boats, including a cruise ship, blasted their horns. Earlier, we had been ashore and I surprised Jeremy by dancing with a Rasta man while he was buying drinks from the bar! A steel band was playing and people were just dancing on the sand. We had no problems gatecrashing an expensive restaurant, where there was a blues singer, although the people at the table were a bit surprised when we joined them as uninvited guests. Everyone had finished their meal, so we didn’t feel too bad.
We left Bequia on 7th January, after a brief trip to St Vincent to fill up with fresh drinking water. Bequia was in the middle of a drought. We had a 3 day passage to the Venezuelan Islas Aves, which are a handful of isolated, scattered islands and reefs in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. We snorkelled in crystal clear water just before sunset. The next day we followed “The Grand Princess” into Bonaire. She was the cruise ship seven of us were on in the Mediterranean to celebrate Mum’s 80th. She beat us into port by about 3 hours!
Here in Bonaire, you have to use the moorings as no anchoring is allowed. The whole island is a marine park. The water is very clear even here in the capital, Kralendijke, where you can snorkel to the shore and see reef fish right next to the sea wall.
Our son-in-law, Ben continues to improve and once again, thank-you to everyone who has kept him in their thoughts and prayers these last two months.
Greetings from hot, sunny and very windy Bonaire, one of the Netherlands Antilles.
In the last blog, I told you about the cockroaches. Well, they’re still with us in spite of putting down traps and spraying liberally. We have resorted to Boric Acid mixed with white sugar in the hope that we can wipe them out for a while. We check everything we bring on board, which is just as well, because a packet of cereal I was about to open had dead moths inside the cardboard and, even worse, live ones inside the inner package!
Bugs apart, we’re doing all right. We spent Christmas in Carriacou. We went to Midnight Communion at the Anglican Church and sang all our favourite Christmas carols. Although we recognised the service, there were no wardens to greet the congregation and no hymn books or prayer books were handed out. It seems the church did not have many. The microphone did not work so we hardly heard a word of the Sermon and all the singing was unaccompanied.
On Christmas Day, I mentioned to Jeremy that I kept smelling gas. Sure enough, there was a very small hole in the washer inside the regulator and the bottle, which took two weeks to be filled in Trinidad was almost empty. Most of the gas had escaped harmlessly overboard, with just the occasional whiff coming through my porthole. We weighed anchor after a late breakfast and went to one of the best bays in Carriacou called Anse la Roche. Here we met one family and one couple and, amazingly the couple were from the north east of England, where the man had attended the University of Sunderland (Jeremy’s home town!). We treated ourselves to wild salmon fillets for our Xmas meal, with English potatoes, carrots and cabbage. No Xmas pud though, just yogurts for afters.
We had the morning of Boxing Day to ourselves anchored off the beautiful Sandy Island, where we swam and snorkelled. By the afternoon, there were 6 yachts so we left for our night time anchorage in Tyrell Bay. The only other island we visited off Carriacou was the uninhabited Mabouya Island, where we had to land the dinghy in breaking surf, which I don’t like at all, having been ejected from the dinghy twice before. Fortunately, all went well this time.
I had been waiting for some medication to arrive from the UK and it had not arrived but on our last day in Carriacou it was there at the post office. So, we could leave without needing to return. We sailed to Union Island, which is part of St Vincent and the Grenandines (SVG). We checked in with Customs and Immigration, paid our fees and continued to the island of Mayreau. The next day we did a 6 or 7 hour sail to Bequia, where we spent New Year. The fireworks on Old Year’s Night were very good. Jeremy blew loud tunes on his grandfather’s bugle and many boats, including a cruise ship, blasted their horns. Earlier, we had been ashore and I surprised Jeremy by dancing with a Rasta man while he was buying drinks from the bar! A steel band was playing and people were just dancing on the sand. We had no problems gatecrashing an expensive restaurant, where there was a blues singer, although the people at the table were a bit surprised when we joined them as uninvited guests. Everyone had finished their meal, so we didn’t feel too bad.
We left Bequia on 7th January, after a brief trip to St Vincent to fill up with fresh drinking water. Bequia was in the middle of a drought. We had a 3 day passage to the Venezuelan Islas Aves, which are a handful of isolated, scattered islands and reefs in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. We snorkelled in crystal clear water just before sunset. The next day we followed “The Grand Princess” into Bonaire. She was the cruise ship seven of us were on in the Mediterranean to celebrate Mum’s 80th. She beat us into port by about 3 hours!
Here in Bonaire, you have to use the moorings as no anchoring is allowed. The whole island is a marine park. The water is very clear even here in the capital, Kralendijke, where you can snorkel to the shore and see reef fish right next to the sea wall.
Our son-in-law, Ben continues to improve and once again, thank-you to everyone who has kept him in their thoughts and prayers these last two months.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Christmas Greetings
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers! We hope the snow in the UK has added to the Christmas spirit and not prevented family and friends from being together. We miss our family and friends at this time, particularly Emily and Simon, who are having a second Christmas without us.
Ben is much better now and has been given the all clear from cancer and from the infection which followed the operation. Thank you to everyone who gave their support during the last few weeks. Simon and Erin have finished their contracts in South Korea and started their honeymoon/travels. They are somewhere in Thailand and, like us, they will be enjoying a tropical Christmas in shorts or swimwear, sipping cold beers or rum punch, taking a dip in the warm sea to cool off and watching the sunset over a distant and vast horizon, perhaps sheltering from the heat in the shade of coconut palms. No sledging for us!
Unfortunately, paradise was very nearly spoiled with the return of the cockroaches, the first ones being caught and killed on the day before we were launched in Trinidad. We suspect they crawled up the electricity wire or hosepipe, but they could have hitched a ride on our vegetables. They are much smaller than the Canary Island variety and harder to see. There was one in the fridge which crawled over my hand when I thought I’d squashed it – ugh! I made sure it was dead and flushed it down the sink. We haven’t seen any live ones for a week now, so we hope all the bug spraying we did has been effective.
We have moved on from the island of Grenada to one of her sister islands called Carriacou. This is probably our favourite Caribbean island and is part of the beautiful Grenadines. We hiked over the south coast and along at least a mile of empty white sand beach, stopping to drink milk from a green coconut on the way. We were so sad to see the hurricane damaged and later vandalised Cassada Bay Resort, which once must have been quite exclusive, with a fabulous view across the southern, uninhabited islands. We’ve taken in some local culture by supporting the Parang Festival, where six bands competed against each other and the audience sat for four hours on concrete steps. The Governor General and his wife were just in front of us, but they had chairs and very obvious security guards. We were so tired when the event finished at 2.00am, about 4 hours after our usual bedtime! This time, we have been more adventurous with trying local food such as rotis, doubles, plantains and provisions. We can’t swallow the hot sauce though, which makes Tabasco seem mild! Mum – I’ve started to eat cabbage and Em and Ben – we’ve been eating garlic! Don’t think it’s deterred the mossies, yet.
Today, we had a great time anchored off an outlying, uninhabited island called Frigate Island. The water was as clear as the sea off Isle de Ronde, where we stopped for lunch and a snorkel on our way from Grenada. I used my camera underwater for the first time, so thanks to all my work colleagues who contributed towards it as a retirement present. We will be posting some photos soon.
In the meantime, enjoy the festive season and the break from work and school. If you fancy a bit of winter sun, we’re in the Caribbean for 3 more months and we have some spare berths, as long as you don’t all come at once!
Ben is much better now and has been given the all clear from cancer and from the infection which followed the operation. Thank you to everyone who gave their support during the last few weeks. Simon and Erin have finished their contracts in South Korea and started their honeymoon/travels. They are somewhere in Thailand and, like us, they will be enjoying a tropical Christmas in shorts or swimwear, sipping cold beers or rum punch, taking a dip in the warm sea to cool off and watching the sunset over a distant and vast horizon, perhaps sheltering from the heat in the shade of coconut palms. No sledging for us!
Unfortunately, paradise was very nearly spoiled with the return of the cockroaches, the first ones being caught and killed on the day before we were launched in Trinidad. We suspect they crawled up the electricity wire or hosepipe, but they could have hitched a ride on our vegetables. They are much smaller than the Canary Island variety and harder to see. There was one in the fridge which crawled over my hand when I thought I’d squashed it – ugh! I made sure it was dead and flushed it down the sink. We haven’t seen any live ones for a week now, so we hope all the bug spraying we did has been effective.
We have moved on from the island of Grenada to one of her sister islands called Carriacou. This is probably our favourite Caribbean island and is part of the beautiful Grenadines. We hiked over the south coast and along at least a mile of empty white sand beach, stopping to drink milk from a green coconut on the way. We were so sad to see the hurricane damaged and later vandalised Cassada Bay Resort, which once must have been quite exclusive, with a fabulous view across the southern, uninhabited islands. We’ve taken in some local culture by supporting the Parang Festival, where six bands competed against each other and the audience sat for four hours on concrete steps. The Governor General and his wife were just in front of us, but they had chairs and very obvious security guards. We were so tired when the event finished at 2.00am, about 4 hours after our usual bedtime! This time, we have been more adventurous with trying local food such as rotis, doubles, plantains and provisions. We can’t swallow the hot sauce though, which makes Tabasco seem mild! Mum – I’ve started to eat cabbage and Em and Ben – we’ve been eating garlic! Don’t think it’s deterred the mossies, yet.
Today, we had a great time anchored off an outlying, uninhabited island called Frigate Island. The water was as clear as the sea off Isle de Ronde, where we stopped for lunch and a snorkel on our way from Grenada. I used my camera underwater for the first time, so thanks to all my work colleagues who contributed towards it as a retirement present. We will be posting some photos soon.
In the meantime, enjoy the festive season and the break from work and school. If you fancy a bit of winter sun, we’re in the Caribbean for 3 more months and we have some spare berths, as long as you don’t all come at once!
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Kuoni Swamp Trinidad
On our way from Asa Wright Nature Reserve to Kuoni Swamp, the road was blocked by a huge tree. The men in the car in front produced a chain saw and machete. We pulled branches away until we realized that they were covered in ants. The ants were biting ants!!! Afterwards Jeremy had to undress in the taxi and removed several of them which had become attached in the the most sentitive of places. The taxi, the size of a small mini bus, managed to pass on the right of the picture with 2 inches to clear. The other way round was five hours longer.
As we passed through the swamp, we had this lovely snake pointed out to us. He/she (how do you tell?) was just above our heads.
The view down the swamp from our (hired) boat.
These red dots are scarlet ibis roosting for the night. Believe me we were a long way away from them and it was not possible to see even red dots with the naked eye! Chacachare Island and Bird Watching
Jeremy next to a deserted leper beach hut in the idyllic Island of (say it slowly) Chacachacare. There was a whole community of houses, most of which were overgrown by the jungle. Curiously about 200 yds up from the beach and the main colony was a recently renovated area with a temple to Hare Krishna.This the view from the lighthouse across Chacachacare
which is about 900 feet above sea level. Kathy and I managed to hitch a lift up to the lighthouse with one of the keepers which saved us a three mile walk uphill. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and relatively few trippers came to the Island from "mainland" Trinidad - about as many as you'd find on Piel Islands on a good Bank Holiday.
The lighthouse was built by the British in 1897 and is still in good nick. The road up is narrowed by the vegetation and a small 4x4 can only just squeeze past the tight places at 40mph! Kathy and I were in the pickup part of the vehicle and once or twice we were swoshed with vegetation lashing past. The big shock came (Indiana Jones Style) when we had to pass under a fallen bamboo. I was looking ahead and cleverly ducked as the bamboo passed over our heads with about 6 inches to spare.
We went on a day trip with Jesse James Members Only Maxi Taxi Service. Jesse is a mine of information. He kept us entertained and well fed; doubles for breakfast, 3 course lunch at the Asa Wright Centre and ice cream on the way home. The only downside was it rained all day apart from a short time when we were on small boats exploring the Kuoni Swamp. This is Woodie Woodpecker in the Asa Wright Nature Centre Trinidad. Now as Picasa will only let us Blog 4 photos we hope to upload some more.
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