Monday, April 12, 2010

Rain and Kibrahachas

We had some rainy days last week here on Bonaire. It was the first solid rain in quite a few months so we've been watching for the Kibrahacha trees to do their thing. I didn't see much action on my Saturday afternoon bike ride, but a number of the trees had blossomed nicely by Sunday afternoon. I think the trees will look great on Monday and maybe Tuesday as well, and then the show will be over for a while
One interesting thing we noticed is that on many of the trees, only part of the tree has flowers on it. I've seen this other years too, and have noticed that the remaining parts of the tree can blossom later in the year. We'll be monitoring the trees this year to check on that.
While we are happy to finally get some rain here on Bonaire to settle the dust and give the plants and trees some relief; in our neighboring country of Venezuela, this rain is crucial.
A friend there writes, " It is good that it is raining here. In the whole country there were big and small fires. Here everything was full with smoke. A lot of people have been months without receiving water in the pipes to their houses, and we also have the problem of the electricity." There have been rolling power outages and the whole country had extra holiday days during Easter week to conserve electricity, which is produced hydroelectrically, and is in very short supply.

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