Life in traveling mode

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Meeting new friends and having to say goodbye: As I’m in bed with my delivered morning coffee (which has now become a delightful habit thanks to Erik), I’m contemplating what to update you on next. Even though our pace has slowed down considerably, the days are somehow filled up with new and exciting experiences. Since we are living at a guest house, we are constantly getting to know new people. Some of them we get to know really well, and its sad to say our goodbyes, like we had to this past Friday with Roland from Germany. He was with Erik on the surf clinic, and we had daily delicious guesthouse breakfasts together and he even came with us to the Donkey sanctuary. The same day we also said farewell to a family from Holland that we got to know through Noah playing with their youngest son. We were invited to their farewell gathering on Te Amo beach with all their Dutch friends living on the island, and the children enjoyed swimming in the waves and playing with all the other kids until sunset. But even though we have to say goodbyes, new friends and contacts around the world are made for life.

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Tuesday night barbecue at the guest house:

Depending a little on the guests that are at the guesthouse, John and Kim host a Tuesday night barbecue every week with fish, meat and salads/dips/bread etc. Everyone joins in in the preparations, and last Tuesday we ate tuna and lion fish (apparently this fish needs to be hunted because it has no own predators due to its poisonous fin), tenderloin and of course they prepared spareribs and chicken for Noah and Mille. John and Kim are truly the best guesthouse hosts that you could want, they really do anything they can to make us feel at home, and they are especially good to Mille and Noah. I would recommend anyone to stay here in a heartbeat! We are definitely returning!

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Too much of something isn’t always good… Mille has been very patient with the rest of the windsurf-crazy family. She’s been reading (all the) books she brought from home (thanks to Farmor we have a kindle and are able to download several books there) whilst waiting for us being thrown around by the wind in the lagoon. (Well, in all honesty it is me who has been thrown round by the wind, Erik and Noah have really gotten the hang of surfing – they look like real surfdudes out there). Noah and Mille got a hoodie each from the surf city boss lady as a holidaypresent, because she loved the way they looked in the jackets . Anyway, after having lunch at the well renown “kite city food truck” (you can find it in the Trip advisor too!) on Te Amo beach (yes, right next to the cool, but unhandy foodpoisonbus!), we took Erik back to the surf place and then the three of us went back to the guesthouse to chill by the pool. We met Kim, who was folding the bedding for changing in our room, and Mille had a long conversation with her, where she explained how fed up she was of the surf beach(quite understandable). Some of the other guests staying here went by and told us they were going diving. Mille had a million questions about this, being our HMS-boss (can the tank explode? is it dangerous? are there whales here?How about sharks?). As it turns out, Kim is a diving instructor, both for children and adults, so she came out to the pool in her swimwear with an oxygen tank with 2 nozzles and a mask, and she took the children through the breathing routine and went in the water with them for an hour where they played around in their masks with the O2 nozzles. Needless to say, she’s by far the childrens star of the stay! They loved it!

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Swimming with big sea turtles at the Salt Pier:

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There are several enormous shallow salt pens on the opposite side of the road to the salt pier. The water evaporates and the resulting salt is piled up in huge salt mountains. Theres a small “railroad” from these to the end of the salt pier where salt is loaded up to large cargo ships to be exported. The water in some of these shallow pens is purplish pink and the flamingos eat the shellfish living there. Our running route comes past these, and when its windy (as it usually is here) salt foam fills the air and blows over the road from the salt pens.

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In the sea beside the Salt Pier, one can oftentimes see sea turtles of different sizes. The day we went there, we saw at least 10-15, and Mille and Noah swam with them and could even “pet” them. They are beautiful animals, so graceful swimming about.

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School Monday through Friday: Well, we’re more than 2/3 into our Bonaire stay, and it is slowly coming to an end. We love it here, slow pace, school and homework in the mornings Monday – Friday and no school on the weekends, surfing and snorkeling by noon and in the afternoon. The school-thing challenging – mostly in a good way both – for us grown-ups and the children, and as the weeks have gone by, all 4 of us are really getting the hang of things. M&N each make a newsletter every week that they send to their teachers, with both English and Norwegian paragraphs, writing about nature around and things they experience and places we go, which seems to be very good for them, as they do actually observe and absorb more and get more aware of their surroundings. I plan the schoolwork a week ahead, and then we work through day by day. On Friday they have a end of week test just as they do at school. Week-ends, school holidays and red-days are of course off, just as for the rest of the students back home!

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After really good and effective sessions, its nice to be able to sometimes reward their hard work with delicious Italian ice cream downtown Kralendjik!

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