We've moved to another island!!!

Hello family and friends.

Wouldn't you know it... we settled in our apartment, meet all our nice neighbors and finally got used to a routine only to change it all up again.

No worries though, wait to you hear what we have enbarked on.   This has actually been in the works from the 2nd week of arriving here but I never like to talk about things "happening" until it's finalized.  Jinx thingy; don't try to figure me out.  Bob gave up years ago.

Approximently, a month ago Sharon (whom is now a good friend) approached me and asked if I was Bonnie.   We introduced ourselves and she asked if we had any interest in "caretaking" for a good friend's home.   Sounded interesting; we hadn't thought about it but absolutely, why wouldn't we give it our full consideration.   We emailed the couple (Bill and Martha Pullum) who were looking for caretakers and learned of the requirements.  Whoa!  What have we here?   Are you kidding me?   A 4 acre private cay (pronounced key) in other words..their own island.   This place is unbelievable!   We thought we would stay retired and unemployed, but when a job like this comes along, we had no choice but reconsider.  So after a few e-mails back and forth between us and the Pullums and an overnight stay to check out the digs, we decided to take on the gig.    Check it out for yourselves.  Here is their website.   http://www.clarkscay.com/   Go ahead.  Click on the link now, I'll wait till you come back so we can discuss further.

What did I tell ya?  Beautiful isn't it.   We are now living in this paradise as the caretakers since Sunday.   Brian and Maysa are the current caretakers but they have to make their way back to the states for real jobs.   They've been showing us the ropes of how this magnificant place operates.  So far it's been very easy and low key.   We'll be transporting the gardener back and forth each day, handle any misc. errands they may have for us to do and provide maintenance services, take care of any repairs that we (mostly Bob) can handle and look after Hero and Vanilla, the resident dogs.  Yeah, I have dogs again, at least for a while.  More on them later in this post.  Our overall responsibility is to make ourselves present on the island so no unwanted guest make themselves at home.  We also we'll have the pleasure of taking the boat to pick up Bill and Martha from the airport in 2 weeks.  We can't wait to meet them.  Bill and Martha will have guests staying on the cay at various times and they already have a cook and cleaning service in place.   Thanks to Bob, Martha now knows I love to cook.   I've been offered to cook for the guests if I so choose.   Heck ya!  I'd love to.   What a fantastic opportunity for me.   Especially since I'll be running my own small restaurant one day.

So far our week has been very nice.   Bob has driven both boats that are on the property to get a feel for them.   No problem!  He's a natural.   The main challenges are learning the reef and shallow areas around this cay.  Fortunately, things are marked nicely.   What better way to learn the reef than a kayak.   Maysa and I have spent a few hours exploring and kayaking around.   We've made it out to Graham's Place for a cocktail or two.   The resort is very near to this cay in fact you can actually walk the reef from here to Graham's.   This whole area is the place to be for bone fishing.   We've also toured around the Brick Point area.   Brick Point is a massive project Bill is spear heading.   You can find a link to Brick's Point on Clark's Cay webpage.   The dream here is a planned community of large townhomes, nice marina and a shopping/restaurant area.   I gotta tell ya the views are amazing.  I didn't have my camera but next time I will get some pictures to share with you.

Thanks to my friend, Trechell; I've already had my night of nightmares.   Trechell loves scary movies as do I, but she recalled a movie and wanted to share some of the highlights.   Greatly appreciate it.   An island can be so beautiful and yet can be scary.  You're exposed all the way around.   Anyone can come up to the cay and hide in the bushes waiting to ambush you.   You can imagine the nightmares I had.   Fortunately we have Hero and Vanilla.   Hero is so smart but we can't keep him from killing animals.   He loves to hunt crabs, birds, lizards and iguanas.   Maysa thinks he got hold of the last iguana on the island.   Vanilla is an old white lab.    She still packs a great bark though.   We both love them already & we know they'll be our protectors; everything will be just fine.   Guanaja is actually a very peaceful place.   It's not an easy island to get to which really helps keep crime down.    There's no place for anyone to escape and everybody knows everyone which makes it really nice living here.  

As you can see we are doing great here.   We're only a 30 min boat ride from our property.   Let me tell you, 30 mins on the ocean taking in the beautiful scenery beats the hell out of 30 mins driving in Houston traffic.   Did I say that outloud?  Sorry to rub that in.  

For whatever reason, good things happen to us and we definitely count our blessings.   

Brian and Maysa, thank you so much for showing us the ropes.   We wished we would have had more time to spend with you before you had to venture on.   We both wish you the best of luck in your new journeys and safe travels.   We'll always be in touch!

Bill and Martha, thank you for the opportunities.   We look forward to meeting you both and working closely with you.   

Looks like we're about to have a nice thunderstorm which I absolutely love.   So, I need to be going so I watch it come across the ocean.   

Take care to all,
Bonnie and Bob.

Guanaja update

Hello family and friends!

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day.  Valentine's day has a special meaning to me and not for the same reason as you guys.   Valentines Day 27 years ago my Dad gave up drinking and 26 years ago on the same day he gave up smoking cold turkey.  So, as you can imagine this is a huge accomplishment for my father.   He's a strong willed individual and has stayed true to his goals all these years and some days are harder than others he tells me.  Well Dad, I tell you... "I'm very proud of you and love you very much."

My dad and his beautiful fiancee, Ester.

We spent our Valentine's Day with some special friends.
Sharon and Mike hosted a very nice luncheon at their place.

They have a great island house.  Loved it.

A fantastic garden that leads down to the water.

Both are big animal lovers but Mike has  a special

bond with birds.  He has 4 of them.

Sharon showing some love to one of the 3 dogs they own.

Sharon prepared a fantastic Cuban cuisine.

Hot pressed cuban sandwiches, delicious black beans and

a fantastic cabbage salad.  Amazing!

Also, Sharon is very "Martha Stewart" with her place settings

Name tags, homemade baskets filled with a candle and candies for the ladies

Sharon and Mike, Thank you for inviting us to your home and

making us feel so welcomed.  You guys are very special to us.

 

Bob and I have been on the island for a month now.  Time goes by

fast even on "island" time.

It has been wonderful so far.  We've met some really nice

people and of course we've met some folks that are just out there.

As you can imagine island life brings all kinds and everybody has

a story.

We love hearing everyone's story at our favorite watering hole,

Manatees, a bar/restaurant owned and ran

by a few wonderful Germans.  The Germans have a pretty

strong expat community here

and have been some of the nicest people yet.  Who knows

we may come back to the states speaking German.

Hansito and Bob.

Hans it the owner of Manatees and has been on this island for 23 years.

Annette and Klause

They are the operations and cooks behind Manatees. 

Absolutely lovely people

Jerry and Capt Al.

Capt Al has all the stories.  He is a hoot.

Jerry is a very kind and warm person.

Bob and Andy.

Andy is Capt Al's son.  He spends half his time here on the island

and the other half working in New Orleans.  

Mike and Sharon.

They too have been on the island a long time.

These guys started building their home just before Hurricane Mitch (Oct. 98),

which decided to hang around and destroy most of the island of Guanaja.

They basically had to start over.  Heartbreaking but they hung in there.

Manatees is the place to be on Saturdays.  It looks like it

will become a ritual for us for have yet to miss a Saturday. 

The expats openly welcome one and all, newly anchored sailors,  

yachties and those staying for the day or the rest of their days.  They            serve up excellent food and has great views.

Well, we've hired out the job of clearing our land.. woohoo.

Soon we'll be able to walk the property and design

our layout.

As you can see...it's way over grown.   Bob is assessing

if he can take the project on himself.    I'm telling you,

the boy is tight.

Bob did clear a 10 x 10 area with

his very own machete.  But decided it

best to leave it to the professionals.

Our little piece of paradise.  Can't wait till

we can walk the property. We'll of course

try to keep as many big trees as possible and our

fruit trees as well.   We have mangos, avocados, and

pinepple growing already.

While Bob walks the property with some guys;

I hung out on the dock and basked in the sun.

This is our view across from our property.

Absolutely beautiful and nothing around but a lighthouse.

So, do you think you could live this lifestyle?   I'll be honest,

it's not for everybody.   What's to do here?

Diving (some of the best), snorkeling (this island is surrounded by reef),

fishing (we have deep sea, reef and bone fishing), kayaking, hiking to

some nice waterfalls, and lots of time to read and nap.

Most of the folks here come to "retire" not start a new

job venture.   There are very few restaurants, bars, and minimal

shopping.   Groceries are delivered to the island once a week. 

Thursday's is our big shopping day for fresh produce.

Local people would love for the "tourist" to come down.   Some

of the expats would love to keep it as is.

We still plan to continue with our dream of small beach bar and

a few cabanas.

Stay tune for upcoming events.

Hugs,

Bonnie and Bob

Settling down on the island...Guanaja

EDITED VERSION TO LIST CORRECT URL FOR THE REAL ESTATE COMPANY

We spent the last 15 months traveling thru Mexico, Central and South America.  Now starting a new journey of the island lifestyle on Guanaja.  We finally landed here and are very excited about this venture.   We arrived on the island January 15th with the intentions of staying with our friend, Jim for 3 days.   Well those 3 days turned into 13 days.   We had 3 apartments to chose from when we arrived but getting to see those apartments was another ordeal.   We were relying on a guy to show them to us but during this time he had guests/divers to accommodate and tomorrow came 13 days later.   Jim was a wonderful host and very generous man.   Jim, Thank you very much for your hospitalty and all your island wisdom.  We greatly appreciate you.

Jim and Cindy have lived on the island for years.  Unfortunately Cindy is back in the states and Jim will be following her as soon as they sell their fabulous place.  We are both bummed that we won't be neighbors.   If anyone is looking for a wonderful retirement home or vacation place...look no further.   The house was constructed 3 years ago up on a hill and has a fabulous view.  I'll send you the link to their webpage so you can see for yourself...although, pictures don't do it justice.  If we didn't have other ambitious; we would buy their home.  And just think if you did buy it; we would be neighbors!  Wait, is that a downfall?  haha.   The price of the home includes a nice boat, boat dock, kubota, numerous of tools and all the furnishings.  Check it out on http://www.guanajareefreality.com/condoandhomes

As of January 27th we've moved and are living in our 2 bedroom oceanfront furnished apartment.  No addresses here, heck there's really only one road here, so the locals call it the Blue House on Sandy Bay.  We have a great view and nice porch.  Just need a couple of hammocks which they do not sell here on the island.  Crazy right?  Probably the only island in the Carribean where you can't find a hammock to buy.  I guess it's more of a tourist thing & that's one of the beauties of this island, only a handful of tourists at a time visit this unspoiled paradise. We do have a/c but have yet to use it due to the breezy days and nights.   And the bugs have been minimal.  We've been warned that on this side of the island the sand flies can be brutal and boy do they love me.  As part of living the island lifestyle I lotion up each morning with Cactus Juice (non-toxic) that has an SPF of 25.   Keeps the bugs off me and provides a little sun protection.  If anyone comes across this lotion, please buy it for me.  I'll pay you back.  The stuff is expensive here but we found in at Academy in Houston for half the price.  We bought all they had but with our daily routine we'll be out soon.

So what do we do all day?  We have no cable or TV at the moment; which has been nice.  Took a little adjusting to since we are both TV people but now we read a lot and test our patience with the internet.   Here the phone company provides a dial up modem.  Feels like we've gone back 15 years in technology but at least we can surf the web and keep in touch with everyone.  The only problem is that our Skype isn't working.  We were told that we shouldn't have any problems but the error message we get says we need to buy another component to use this free download.   Hopefully we'll figure it out soon, Angela at the internet place is helping us out to find the problem.   We did find this paved road behind our house that is really steep and we walk it for exercise.  It was strange to find this road on the island but its really nice.  Apparently, some investors came down 5 years ago with the expectations of building a neighborhood.  Guess they ran out of money.  There's only two houses built in this neighborhood.  One is being occupied and the other was left totally abandoned.    Let's see if I can download some pictures for you. 

This road is a 25 min uphill walk and it's beautiful.

As you walk along this paved road, you can

hear fresh water cascading down.

The road forks off  and continues up.

Ready for homes to be built.  They already have

the transformers in place and they are humming.

Beautiful views from up here.

Sailboats pull into this harbor and hang out for several

days or longer.  Safe haven for them.

This is the house we found abandoned.

Really nice concrete structure built on the side of the hill.

Why would someone build and just leave it?

The landscape will be taking over soon.

We keep our front door open pretty much all day long

The breeze is just wonderful not to mention, I love looking

at the water.

This is our groundskeeper's dog.  Cori.

He is so sweet.  He's owners are so mean.

They never pet him.  They feel his only purpose is to bark

when strangers approach.  UGH.  I hate that mentality.

We show him lots of love and he stays at our door most of the day.

He won't come in.  That's as far as he goes.

He's so stinkin cute and loveable.

This is our boat slip for when we get our boat.

We will get one soon.  It's a must here on the island.

We do have water taxis but that expense adds up

fast.  Taxis are not cheap. 

We are however walking distance to what has become our favorite watering hole.

Manatees.  Expat hangout and just across from where the sailboats

pull in for the night.

It's a 25 minute walk and normally we work up a thirst by the time we get there.

Here are some pics from the bar.  Well, maybe I can download the

pics next time. I keep getting booted out.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

Much love to all,

B&B

We're Back! Highlights of our Texas trip

Well Hello There!   We've been getting scolded that we've abandoned our blog... Well, we love hearing that.  To us that means you miss us!   We appreciate that.

Bob and I have so much to catch you guys up on.   First of all our trip to Texas was fast and furious.   As soon as we arrived in Houston we had a funeral to attend.  My 13 yr old cousin decided to take his life and you just can't imagine the devastation that decision had on the family.  Chris, where ever you are...we love you and hope you are resting in peace.   Since the funeral was in Portland, Texas that gave us time to visit with family and best of all see my Grandmother.  She's amazing and we love her so much.   She's in a nursing home but is sharp as a whip.  She's had several strokes so she can't walk and has a hard time communicating.  She understands absolutely everything you tell her and you know when she's upset with you too.  (ha-ha).  She adores & loves Bob, so I like to joke around and stir her up by hollering at him... boy, can she jump my butt without saying a word.

I've said it before and I will say it again...Bob and I are blessed with some amazing friends and a tight large family.   Every day and night we shared lunches, dinners, happy hours, and put on tons of weight.  A sure sign of a good time.  

My cousin Tunisia who now lives in California returned to Houston for a few Christmas parties.  During the short time she was in town she made time to cook us a fantastic dinner.   Love you, Tuni!  Thanks for getting the family together.

The one event we miss most is our Texans football and tailgating.   Thanks to my Stepdad, Sandy and my friend, Trechell; we had the opportunity to take in 2 games and experience our tailgating with some of our best buds.   Talk about a spread,  Ina cooked ALL my favorites.   Gumbo, Boudin, Shrimp Etoufee, Grilled Lobster, Porkloins... she asked what I was craving; I just had no idea I would have it all in one sitting.   Fantastic food.  Not to mention we spend several nights at their place.  Thank you, Ina and David!

My friends from high school gathered for a great Happy Hour at one of my favorite hangouts, called Lucky's Pub.   We were a very tight group in the Alief area and still remain the best of friends. 

Alief Hastings Class of 86

My Mom and Sandy host an annual Christmas Eve party.  We were glad to spend a wonderful evening with numerous family members & friends.   Always a good time and a great tradition of ours that unfortunaley we missed last year as we were suffering thru the last days of our 3 month stint in Mazatlan.

We spent Christmas Day with my Mother-n-Law, Edna and our nephews and Keith. 

We cooked up a fabulous meal and played games till all hours of the night.

New Year's Eve was spent with my brother and all his wonderful neighbors

We had such a great time.  Karaoke, jello shots, bonfire, fireworks and good people...

what better way to bring in the New Year.

As you will see our time in Houston was one BIG Celebration.   We love all our friends dearly.  Here are just a few memories of our trip back home.

Ginger and Rick

Eddy and Selena

Cindy and Bob

Trechell and Lydia

All my co-workers at DCP

Michael and Karen

My brother, Ina and David

I have so many pictures that I would love to load but unfortunately internet has me at a standstill.

We do want to thank the following for opening their homes to us and making us feel at home.

My Mom and Sandy, my Mother-n-Law, my Dad, my brother, Ina and David,

Trechell and Terald, Pete and Nancy, Selena, Cindy,

Sam and Barb, Tom and Lien, Brian and Adrienne,

my Aunt Mary Alice and Nacho, & Alma and Wally

As you can see even though we were in our home town of Houston, we moved around a lot and continued to live out of a suitcase.   We miss you guys and we look forward to our next visit.

We just started the next chapter of our life here on Guanaja a few weeks ago.

A beautiful island and we look forward to all the new challenges that come with

living the island lifestyle.

 Although we don't have our place built yet...

you are always welcome to join us at anytime. 

We will be keeping you posted on this new journey of our lives.

Take care!

Bonnie and Bob