Lisa:
Granted I've had pet rats & mice when I was a kid, and spent enough time in the 'country' growing up that I'm aware rodents are pretty ubiquitous wherever civilization goes (and there are plenty of native rodents, too).
None of us like rodents in our homes, where they may chew & expose wires, create fire hazards, damage property, etc...
That said, Mice Happen! I live in a house with 4 dogs and a cat, and yet, on occasion, I may find a mouse pill. Even in suburban and urban households where people might associate rodents with filth and neglect, they get into homes. You can poison, get a cat, try to seal off entry ways into homes, etc..., and knock the problem way down, but let a year or two go by, crawl up in your attic or check on top of cabinets, inside cabinets & other out-of-the-way places, and see if you can't turn up some tiny little black 'jelly beans.'
If there's a serious rodent infestation at a resort, that's serious business. But a few mouse pills one day? That can happen so easy at home if you know where to look and what for.
It's like someone telling me they saw a cockroach in their room. I've seen cockroaches in hospitals (finished off a dying one as I stepped outside my office today, now that I think of it). For that matter, I've seen a mouse a couple of times in the mental hospital where I work.
Richard.
Here in AZ, we have irrigation and roaches, huge cockroaches, "just happen". As much as I hate them, they are something I just have to deal with. Choose the least noxious treatment and move on. We even have cockroaches at our clinic, in a high end part of town here in AZ.
In other countries like Costa Rica and Tanzania, I expect to deal with geckos, ants, mosquitoes, maybe even monikers or wild parrots can be a problem. I remember one place in Africa that we had to be careful because of orangutans and birds that would steal from our vans.
As far as Bonaire, I stayed in a condo one block farther inland from the Golden Reef the last time I was there. It was a two bedroom, nice, full kitchen, living room, porch, big yards. Inexpensive but well maintained. Only drawback??we had to negotiate electricity with the owner. The first day, he came in and was going to tack on extra for our extra electric usage because we use the AC while sleeping and awake, not just while awake? This had never been discussed on our contract and we were staying, along with my parents, for two weeks! Adding the extra electric would have doubled our bill! Apparently, AC is something you're not supposed to actually use, except to quickly cool off your room, then use the small fan instead. The cost of electricity is whys they have those strange little instant but highly efficient hot water heaters in the showers. ( first time in Bonaire took us the whole week to figure out how to get hot water!)
i guess electric is very expensive in Bonaire.
As far as mosquitoes, we have always used Cactus Juice and reapplied often. I love it because it also gets gnats and other no see - ums. It also has a decent sun screen, nice texture, moisturizer and a nice, not too noticeable scent. It really seems to work for me, too.
I've also used the Cutters skin so soft scented stuff, which is okay but I'm not as fond of that stuff. For really brutal mosquitoes I pull out the biggest guns. My organic, eucalyptus/lemon oil spray. It's all natural, smells awful but I've never had a bug bite me, ever with that stuff on, not eve a deer or horse fly. It comes in a greenish/yellow bottle in the hunting department at Walmart or in I also find it in our natural foods store in the essential oils.
Richard, I really agree with a lot that you have to say. Those who want to be completely catered to might not find Bonaire to be their cup of tea. I've never been to Buddy Dive except for lunch and to dive their house reef for night or check out dives. I love their lunches! Great fried fish.
our first time in Bonaire we stayed at a not so nice place with little efficiency apartments. The mattresses were awful. The king sized mattresses had two single mattresses on the box spring so that there was a big crack in the middle which we were always falling into. It was unbelievably uncomfortable. The AC broke and the only person on the complex with the ability to fix it was my husband. Of course, we didn't get anything, not even a thank you, for the hour that he spent rebuilding the AC. Twice! This included pulling the darn heavy window unit out of the window by himself so that he could work on it and pulling a bucket full of mold out of it, too!
one day, the milk was soured ( yuck,blech!) when I went to take a drink at the breakfast buffet. Lets just say that was the only day we ate at the buffet instead of cooking our own eggs in our kitchenette!
But, we still had a wonderful, wonderful time full of memories and when it was time to decide on another vacation it wasn't hard to decide that we both wanted to go back to Bonaire. ( and find a different condo)
however, we are not the type of couple that expects full service, top of the line resorts when on vacation. We like casual, low key, shore diving areas, which is exactly what a lot of Bonaire provides.
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