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.