Manai'a Explorations
HC SVNT DRACONES

Under the sea In an octopus' garden In the shade

Landscaping has begun. Step one; grub down to dirt. Greenpeace is protesting in front of my house.

I buy a big catamaran or trimaran and outfit it with digital cameras, video cameras, and computers. I finish truck-a-saurus and have it fully outfitted for expedition. The KLR650 is ready to go and I get a little light-weight dirt bike. I get a trike with the big 912 four stroke Rotax and set it up with sand tires and pontoons. Then I approach Telemundo or some other Spanish language TV station with this pitch: A Spanish language TV show in the style of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau called Mundo Mar-avillosa designed to inspire Mexican pride in their rich ocean environments – the Sea of Cortez, the Yucatan, Caribbean, etc. JC said people protect what they love and people love what they take pride in. Get the Mexicans to feel proud of their ocean resources and maybe they will protect them. Telemundo fronts the money for the expeditions. I hire a small crew of starving Radio-Television-Film graduates and we go off on quasi-scientific-exploration-adventures that we document on vi...

In the movie The Last Temptation of Christ there is a scene where Jesus arrives at the brothel of Mary Magdalene and thinks to himself, “Thank you Lord for bringing me where I did not want to go.” A beautifully dressed man in a turbine walks past him headed for the brothel and he thinks, “He must be one of God’s angels. He came down to show me the way.” I have a big construction project at the moment that is making a lot of money. The job is going well and we stand to get even more work. Thursday of last week, I bought lunch for all the guys working on the project. They wanted Pat’s Chili Dogs and Pepsi. I left the house at 10 AM and Safeway was my first stop, to pick up Pepsi and ice. As I returned to my car with all the soda, a 30ish Hispanic woman approached me in the parking lot. Before she spoke, I knew what was coming. Pan handlers often approach me in that parking lot. A couple of years ago, LAG gave a woman a couple of dollars in that parking lot and as we later drove off with...

Some mornings my face is this screwed up. It's a peacock flounder. It's eyes are on little stalks that can periscope around. Look for the mouth - top photo, lower left hand corner.

comes a five foot tarpon, and a couple of his friends.

Most of the Bonaire natives are mulato descendents of the Dutch colonists and their black slaves. I didn't notice many folks who looked mestizo or sambo. I don't know if the Dutch killed off all the indigenous people or I just don't know what the indigenous people look like. The African slaves were brought to Bonaire to work the salt operation, today owned by Cargill. On the beach between the salt evaporation ponds and the Carribean Sea are little shacks, houses for the slaves. The structures are about 6' x 6' and have a little door hole facing the sea and a little window hole facing the evaporation ponds. I'm glad the Dutch and the people of Bonaire did not demolish the slave shacks. They are quite the startling reminder.

At the light house on the southern end of Bonaire.

Norman and I are headed to Bonaire.

My dogs are celebrities. Saint Francis Day

Javalina will mess you up.

Went to see Diavolo last night and was inspired to begin stretching and doing yoga. So I spent Saturday cleaning the house and stretching. By the evening, I felt great - clean, organized house and mind, stretched body. I fed the dogs and took them out to poop and they made a jail break. Both dogs shot off into the desert. Unfortunately they found a herd of javalina. Bindi escaped unscathed but April got her flank torn open, about a 3" gash with a 1/2" piece of muscle cut right through. She was howling in pain. She is at the emergency room right now getting cleaned and stitched up. My neighbor saved her life. The pigs would have killed her had he not rushed in and distracted the herd. I hope April learned a lesson today.

Handstand? Dynamic Duo.

From my back porch tonight.

So last night, about 11PM, I took the dogs out to take care of business. It was a lovely, clear night with a bright full moon. As we walked back to the front door, we saw this guy in the moon light, headed for my jasmine bushes around the front entry. I put the dogs in the car and got my snake catcher, slipped the noose around his head, and put him in a plastic trash can for the night. The next morning, I took a couple of photos of him and took him out in the desert and turned him loose in a wash. Well, less than 24 hours later, this afternoon, I took the dogs out for a walk. When we got to the front door, I hooked their leashes on the wrought iron and went to the trash can to throw away a bunch of junk mail I had just taken out of the mail box. As I stood at the trash can, I heard the buzz of an angry rattler. I ran to the fron porch and yanked April's leash, pulling her off the porch as a big rattler coiled up and raised his head to strike. I carried the dogs around to the back ...