Well, I'm in paradise... now what?
I don't start my dive internship until next week so I have some time to explore and whatnot in Bonaire before I take up a regular routine. After waking up, I took a shower (cold water only, yet not a problem at all, it's about 78 degrees by 8am) and gathered my scuba equipment to journey in to town and find the dive shop. Upon arrival I was given a tour by Gerrie, the general manager and a basic outline of what my duties would be (ie, what to clean, where to put stuff, etc). I met quite a few of the staff and went over my divemaster internship schedule. Everyone seems quite nice and friendly although I'll admit I do have trouble with some of the Dutch names, very hard to remember them when it's the first time you've ever heard anyone called that.
By 11 I was through with the initial activities at the dive shop and walked back from town to my place. Still feeling a bit tired from all the traveling the day before, as well as the massive heat that was now accumulating, I took a nice little nap. Waking up at 3, I decided to take a run and see some of the island. Juni called me crazy for it and let me know runners only went out in the mornings or at dusk. Being the 23-year-old that I am said that I would be fine and set off. I barely even made it 2 miles before getting absolutely shut down.
To be perfectly honest, I had a great pace going, no exaggeration at all. But then I began to be chased. By a goat. All around Bonaire in the countryside are goats, iguanas, and donkeys (although haven't seen those yet). I'd pass a few and they'd usually run away from me. But my attention was drawn then a car coming towards me stopped and stuck a camera out the window aimed in my general direction. What the hell?!? Confused, I looked behind me and sure enough was a young goat-completely black and barely two feet tall chasing me with all his might. I thought this funny at first and just ran faster to get away. But the goat kept up. And in the heat (no longer any shade where I was now) I just began to get really tired. I turned around and me and the goat were in a standoff, his weird marbley eyes against mine. I ran for a bit more. He kept up. Other cars passed by thought this was very funny. Ha ha, jokes on me, getting chased by a goat. I tried to scare him by raising my arms and shouting. Nothin'. He wouldn't move. So I kept running, and stopping, and staring him down. I was worried that A.) goat's owner turns the corner and sees me trying to scare off his baby goat-then I'm really screwed or B.) goat bites me, I get rabies and my uninsured ass dies. Either I felt was pretty unlikely, but there is a goat chasing me. What on earth do I do? Turns out all the goat wanted was to be friends. In Thailand, I had come to have island dogs chase me around, suppose in Bonaire the goats fill that role. I petted the goat, not really knowing how one pets a goat (like a dog maybe?) and continued to run while the little guy chased me right along. He eventually stopped underneath a tree and we had our sad goodbye moment, with him bleeting as I ran away. I felt very sad, I had grown quite accustomed to by little friend. Hopefully I'll find him on another run.
The rest of my run was much more of a walk as the sun got too hot to really do much (and of course, I am painfully out of shape ). I climbed through a short patch of mangroves to view the Atlantic side of Bonaire (actually Caribbean still, so the eastern shore) and then walked/jogged back.
Tonight has been rather relaxed with a burger dinner and a few "cervez"s. I was planning on doing some diving theory work so will get to that before I'm off to bed. This island is wonderful and tomorrow should show me a lot more. I have a dive physical in the morning and in the afternoon will be helping out the dive shop with a big group of cruise-liner snorkelers in the arvo.
More to come tomorrow...
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