Jan found this guesthouse while making plans for his business trip to Bonaire. He booked it on a hunch that it would be perfect. We started the adventure with our traditional toast of champagne! It turned out John and Kim, owners of the Oasis Guesthouse are amazing, knowledgeable, charming hosts. They bought this place 5 years ago and added all the warmth and beauty we could possibly want.
Oasis Guesthouse Bonaire by the pool and Buddha
2 ½ years ago we sat in Aruba and made a crazy statement, “Let’s both sell our houses and move to Aruba.” A seed was planted. Covid came along and planted a little bit of common sense. Where we are now is that Jan sold his home of 40 years and renovated a tiny vacation house not far from family in the Netherlands. Maggie is preparing for the construction of a tiny house concept in Delaware next to family including her two darling grand-girls. It’s a lot of moving pieces. Slowly, surely, the dream is coming into reality.
Finally we got some in-person kissing moments. The last ones were during Date #10, six weeks together in the USA. Departure was January 10, 2022.
Bonaire is interested in solving it’s waste problem. There are representatives from university research, technology ,and industry beginning plans to create the best solutions. Of course, as an expert in that field, Jan is included.
We have had a week to do some exploring together. Traveling south we saw the wild flamingos. It turns out the owner of our guesthouse, John, rescues flamingoes. Several factors make them vulnerable even though they are protected. Soon after we saw these flocks at the reserve on the southern end of the island, he showed us this little one who could hardly stand. Happily, by the next day it was doing much better. Did you know under ideal conditions flamingoes can live 60-80 years?
A feature of Bonaire are the wild donkeys. There is a Sanctuary for sick, wounded or orphaned donkeys. They love palm leaves so John and Kim, owners of the guesthouse, trimmed their coconut palms and filled our pick-up truck. We were immediately surrounded by donkeys looking for a treat!
Donkey Sanctuary Bonaire
We brought our snorkeling masks and ventured out once. It is one of the attractions here, along with all kinds of surfing and scuba diving. Ok, truth, we need a little more time to get in the groove of this. This project will go on for a couple more years so we can revisit this activity next time.
Maggie is only here for a week and sad to leave before Jan but she needs to hustle back home to work on the tiny house project details. We are just so happy we could have these days together. Date #11! A sunny success in Sweet Paradise, Bonaire!