Rumrunning

Yesterday was Independence Day in the states, or as Bonarieians call it, just July 4. Since we had no plans for bbq or fireworks, we made a repeat visit to Cadushy with the neighbour. 

I met my first Bonaire cat there, she was tiny and had a coat that looked like it was stolen from a pitbull.

Once i petted her, she became my bestest friend, and was running around the courtyard between my feet. It was a lot like dribbling a soccer ball made of cat, which is appropriate since the world cup is in full swing.

The cat has some rough patches because she is allergic to cat food. So they mostly feed her dog food. I am not sure how any cat could be so skinny on an island with the fish-and-bird population that Bonaire has... but my judgement may be skewed by fat american cats with unreasonable body images.

Anything we do here is bookended with dips in the pool to cool down. The weather is in the mid to high 80s, but with 70-80% humidity it feels hotter. Generally the trade winds keep things feeling cooler, but they seem to have died down the last few days, which is unusal. even the locals are complaining about the heat.

After the post Cadushy dip, we went to another resort rum punch party. These parties are held by the big resorts once a week, and are for hotel guests only. Once my parents discovered that people are rarely asked to prove their guest status, several were added to their social calendar as weekly events. My mother approaches free stuff with the same type of enthusiasm that you would see if you released a gaggle of starving refugee children in a Costco on sample day. Free rum, my family assures me, is a basic human right, and woe betide anyone (ie the unusally large crowds at Buddy Dive this week) that stands between us and it. 

At one point, I was sent in to the punch table as a decoy because my mother thought they were on to her, and didnt want to be recognized taking her third set of cups. I was instructed to not come back to the table without at least two cups, even though there were already four full cups on the table and I was done after one. The rum punch is the cheap, local rum ($7 for 750 ml) added to fruit juice (which probably has a higher price per liter than the rum) and it is served in small plastic cups. You can drink as many as you want, at least until they run out of rum (or until you get caught, i suppose.)

There is also live music from one of the local musicians, who mostly covers Bob Marley songs with the backing of a karaoke machine.

This one was at Buddy Dive, which is the biggest resort on the island. it is geared to American travellers. Our cover story was that we were staying at the BelMar, which is their southern location, and the place we drank rum punch on Wednesday.

As we left Buddy Dive and headed to pick up pizza (apparently a parental tradition), we found ourselves in the literally in the middle of the "parade" to celebrate Brazil's world cup quarter final win. (We also passed the somber-looking Columbia supporters, who looked more organised and had balloons ready to celebrate). Everyone in the parade was hanging out of the windows, waving whatever green clothing and/or Brazil gear they had at hand out the window.

The honking, shouting, crowds were headed to the soccer stadium for a party. 

In an attempt to fit in, my mother grabbed a shopping bag, and shouted random things out the window until we got to our turnoff.

Today Netherlands plays Costa Rica, which will be a huge game for the island, which is governmentally Dutch and full of Dutch expats. Some of the stores have signs up declaring that they will be open for the game, because the assumption is that everything will be closed. During the last game Netherlands played, everything was dead... even the popular beaches were empty.

My dad is going into town to watch the game with the neighbour. He has heard tales of free beers when Holland scores. He wont even have to pretend to be a hotel guest.