We have been planning our freedom from about the four week mark of our prison term. The parole board has not been too cooperative so we have engineered our own escape. Last week the virtual hacksaw blade in the birthday cake was delivered in the form of the second dose of vaccine. We both got our second jab and that is the spring board. Fifteen months of incarceration and we can now dream of a few hours at sea level minus 60 feet. Four days after dose two we were on the web booking airplane tickets to paradise. I had kept in touch with our favorite Bonaire hideout and the nice lady there had penciled us in for the entire month of July.
We did the research and we know what we need to do to get from home to Bonaire. We’re quite sure we have a bullet proof system. The trip requires we overnight in the States. We will need a negative Covid test to enter the USA for the night. The next morning we board a plane for Bonaire. They require a negative test within 72 hours of arrival. The same test should cover that. An antigen test upon arrival in Bonaire and we will be ready to dive for a month. H e l l o fish!
The first trip that we had to cancel last March was a dive trip to Roatan. Here is hoping that this trip starts the ball rolling again and we can continue to pick up on all the trips we have dropped. We might have to substitute the ones to more ‘adventurous’ locales for ones to destinations less exotic but for sure we will be able to travel.
Coming home shouldn’t be any harder than going. It is just a matter of getting a negative test, boarding the plane and staying out of trouble until we land in Canada. Two days after we booked our flights, the Canadian Government announced for all those who have been fully vaccinated it is likely the requirement to isolate for 3 days in government chosen hotels costing the spritely sum of $2000 will be dropped. They said this is expected to be announced the first part of July. We do not arrive home until August. That would a great relief as spending time in a hotel in Calgary is not my idea of the ultimate end to a vacation.
Things change daily so we will have to keep abreast of the constantly moving benchmarks and how we can accomplish what we need to do to get to Bonaire but we are confident we can make it. It honestly feels quite strange to be setting up to be on the road again when it was really commonplace for us prior to March 2020.
Packing will start soon as there is a lot to sort out.
Ciao for now.