The celebration of my Lifetime Achievement Award on Bonaire was a week-long festival. It even made the local newspapers! Here I am with two lovely representatives of the government, Lillian de Geus on the left and Director of Tourism Lara Chirino in white.
What a souvenir! The event was attended by a group of travel journalists and Leslie Leaney of the Historical Diving Society: The reporters were used to the kind of non-stop pace in the heat, and managed to get in two dives most days!
The airline lost the suitcase with the real award in it, so a framed certificate to use for the ceremony was quickly created:
In addition to presentations in the evening, our days were filled with land tours and (except for me) of diving.
On the last day we enjoyed our final tour, to the salt pans and the flamingos at the South end of Bonaire
These are the immense piles of sea salt harvested from the pink-colored evaporating pans.
Of course, salt pans mean breeding flamingos, and we were lucky to approach a few
Then we drove on to the group of red slave huts from150 years ago, complete with slavemaster's home and navigation pylon
Ah, memories! In the past few posts I've tried to suggest how magnificently varied and colorful the island is, but I guess you just had to be there. Despite that, I hope you will browse down the page to see the earlier scenes.
I'll never forget the hospitality of the government of Bonaire and my return after three and a half decades to my 'home island!'
(Photo by Paul Roessler)
One of the best weeks of our lives!!! Thanks so much for letting us participate in your latest adventure... and what a setting!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Paul and Sarah