Today was a full day for us.  The International Bible Church meets at 9 am and the pastor’s message was on the church at Ephesus from Revelation 2.  Sunday School was at 10:45 with a long fellowship time between.  We met about 3 people that were here 40 years ago when we were here.  Sue Felix confirmed that the strong trade winds are less than then, so our memory of stronger winds was correct.  The same is true that the humidity is higher.

Our first animal encounter of the day actually occurred during the pastor’s message when a pigeon walked across the floor in front of the pulpit.  No one seemed to be paying attention and we found out that this a regular occurrence and usually it is more than just one.

Joe Barker and family took us out to dinner at Rum Runners Restaurant at Captain Don’s Habitat.  I had a quesadilla and Virginia had a Ceasar Salad with grilled tuna.  They both were quite tasty.

On the way into the restaurant there were two parrots in a large cage.  While we were waiting to go in for dinner, one of the parrots said “hello”. Just before dinner we saw a several dolphins swimming past a couple hundred yards off shore.  After dinner we saw two tarpon fish about five feet long about 3 feet from shore and then, when walking out of the open air restaurant, there was a small 2 foot long iguana crossing the ceramic tile floor.  Maybe they were waiting for it to grow bigger before putting it on the menu!

From the restaurant, Virginia and I decided to drive around the north end of Bonaire.  After passing through about 3 miles of housing that has been built up in the past 40 years we began to see scenery that was much the same as we remembered.  It was here that we saw the first of several of the wild donkeys that inhabit Bonaire.  We also saw some flamingos at Grooto Meer on the way to the small town of Rincon.  We passed the only source of fresh water on Bonaire, a well with windmill, just before entering Rincon.  [Today virtually all the fresh water for the island is distilled from sea water]  The town of Rincon has not changed very much from what we remember.

In Rincon we saw goats roaming around town eating any vegatation that was available.  This used to be normal, along with grazing donkeys, in the capital city of Kralendijk where we are staying.

After passing through Rincon, we returned to Kralendijk via the east route that passed close to the east coast.  On this road we saw a huge iguana over five feet long.  We tried to get a photo, but he took off like a shot when we pointed the camera at him.

After a short rest at ‘home’ we decided to go around the south end of the island.  Again, new housing extended for several miles to the south before we saw familiar terrain.  We briefly stopped by the transmitter site and saw the familiar large transmitter building and diesel building with the same old familiar engines, but they had been cannibalized for parts and were rusting away.

South of the transmitting site were many square miles of salt flats and huge ‘mountains’ of salt ready to be loaded onto ships for export.  All along the coast we saw snorkelers and scuba divers.  At one point we saw two men surfing with what looked like parasails.  Further one we saw the old slave huts (now refurbished) that housed slaves for harvesting salt and loading salt in early Bonaire history.

After getting out of the high traffic area, I let Virginia drive to get used to the manual transmission of the car that has been loaned to us.  She learned to drive a manual 4 speed in their family’s Suburban that was used as a school bus, but it has been nearly 20 years since she drove a manual transmission vehicle.  By the time we got around the southern part of Bonaire she was ready to drive in town and did a good job!

Tonight we again went for a 30+ minute swim at sunset (which occurs within a few minutes of 6pm year round).  Until we get the shower fixed we will have to rinse off or bathe using a pitcher.

We plan on being in the office in the morning for devotions at 8am, so need to think about getting to sleep.