Hi Lottie. I didn't have to eat any goat on Bonaire. In fact the food available at the market was not only quite good but not that expensive. I was a bad boy and ate bacon once almost every day. It was only 2 weeks - so what the heck. But beef and chicken and pork were more abundant than goat. Must be due to the proximity of Venezuela.

As far as my age - it's catching up with me. I had to give up soccer this year as my hip needed cortisone shots twice. I was told "Keep playing. Soon you will find out how well you can play soccer and dive from a wheel chair." That was enough to retire me from soccer.

I plan to dive till I die though. In fact, shortly I'm off for a two hour drive to (most likely) purchase a couple of tanks (I've been renting so far). Two 80 CF steel tanks, 2004 vintage, supposidly pristine condition, filled in September so must still be in Vis and Hydro. $100 - that's for both. Am I lucky or what?

I hate carrying weight and have always hated the +bouyancy of a near empty aluminum. With these tanks I'll be able to drop a lot of lead. I just hope I'm not going to be disappointed when I see the tanks. They are LP (less stress on my regs) but still the same size as an AL-80 and about 5# lighter (even less weight to deal with on the surface). Da da dat, da da - I'm lovin' it. (LOL McD's theme song)