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“Karel’s Beach Bar takes a rest — offering bright lights intermingled with a serene sort of tranquility, as all one hears is the water lapping the shores of the promenade, and all one sees is the ever changing reflection of Karel’s lights on the dappled surface of the sea.”

This is a really cool photo — or is it a digitally painted photo, which is what photographer/artist Jake Richter likes to do? I like that’s it a slice of life in Bonaire, and I like how the postcard text matches my imaginings of a quiet island life 🙂 Karel’s even has a website: www.karelsbeachbar.com/index.php/page/beachbar/ As does Jake Richter: www.jakerichter.com/index.html Thanks to my sister Jessica for these two postcards representing a husband/wife pair who left the hustle and bustle for a quieter existence on the Caribbean island of Bonaire!

“Donkey child in the wild.”

Very interesting information from Wiki, now posted here on my blog on October 3, 2010! “As part of the Netherlands Antilles, Bonaire is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The structure of the relationship between Bonaire, the Netherlands Antilles and the Kingdom is planned for change under proposed legislation. The Netherlands Antilles is scheduled to be dissolved as a unified political entity on 10 October 2010, so that the five constituent islands would attain new constitutional statuses: the BES islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius will become special municipalities of the Netherlands, while the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten will become independent states within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”

Hidden in the Shadows, Linda Richter, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

I really like this Bonaire art card (thanks, Jess!), so I decided to look up artist Linda Richter online. Her work is really fabulous; check out her site and see for yourself! www.lindarichter.com/

I also like the thought of moving to a far-removed island destination one day, when the cold is too harsh for my bones. Perhaps to Papamoa, New Zealand? As long as I had Internet connectivity, I could continue to work. I imagine the silence, but for the non-human sounds … of the waves sloshing on the shore … the endless breezes creeping through tree leaves … the chattering birds … the hum of the insects (outside, I hope)…. Ahhh. Maybe it’s time for a parents-only vacation! 🙂 Oh yes, and back to the card: “A baby iguana barely five inches long holds statue still beneath the shade of a spiny tree. The bright neon green is a surprisingly good color to camouflage this little creature from its predators. As the iguana grows, the bright green will fade to be replaced with bars of deep green and gray.”

Bonaire, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

I wish I knew what this scene is … the backs of the postcards are blank.

Bonaire, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

This must be where all the action is!

Grenada & the Grenadines, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

Scenes and the Saturday Market. The cards my sister Jessica brought from Grenada show what appears to be one of the least touristy islands in the Caribbean. The images appear to show real towns, real people, real slices of life, as you will see.

From Wiki: Grenada is an island country and sovereign state consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Grenada is also known as the “Island of Spice” due to the production of nutmeg and mace crops of which Grenada is one of the world’s largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres (133 sq mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George’s. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada Dove.”

Bonaire, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

Have you ever seen flamingos in the wild? I’ve seen them in zoos, but never just out and about. I suppose they are often seen here in Bonaire! 🙂

I usually don’t like cards with animals on them, or cards with images that could be from anywhere. But this is different, because it represents a true picture from Bonaire!

The Island of Spice

Each Martinique view is lovely than the one before it….