We indeed had the privilege of filming an episode of Caribbean Life, although no we haven’t actually moved there and so yes the villa is still available for vacation rentals. Our episode Diving Into Bonaire was featured on 19th February 2017, the season 7 finale.
There is no doubt about it this was a once in a lifetime experience for us. The filming schedule was grueling – our presence was required for several long days and there was a lot of waiting around, repeating things and standing in the sun. It’s actually very difficult to continue being lively and smiling through this. In fact, there are parts where we feel we even failed – at the end of the first day we were exhausted and we were worried that might show in those parts of the episode.
For our ‘activity’ we went to Rancho Washikemba. Despite the fact that Jez does indeed not like horses (yes it is true) It’s something we’ve always wanted to do. For us however a very difficult part of the filming. We are not sure that one of the horses liked the cameras (and to make it clear for the benefit of the ranch…their horses are very well behaved) and it was also very difficult to balance a GoPro and Luke (seated with Lisa). The biggest difficulty was the heat blasting down on us, which really tired us out (contributing to the situation noted above) for the afternoon filming session. Unfortunately the filming schedule was switched around at the last minute, cramming this into the day.
Really, we plan to go back to Rancho Washikemba and do this ‘properly’ at some point. It is clearly a very nice thing to do.
For interviewing, Jenilee our realtor had arranged some of the locations (it amazing how much the production team depends on the realtor). Some of the interviewing was done at what we could call ‘a mansion’ North of Kralendijk – a really nice home.
It was very interesting to not just take part, but to also observe a TV production crew in action. I am sure at times it seemed like chaos but there is something to be said about a team working together pulling very hard. Plenty of roles appeared to overlap and each team member appeared to step forward and do things to make it work so it wasn’t chaos, but actually a well oiled machine. I thought the production and filming crew were awesome professionals. Really nice people too – we miss them and it’s kind of sad we won’t see them again. They become a very intense part of your life for several days and then all of a sudden they’re gone and you’re alone, wondering what just a happened.
Having now viewed the show I think the only thing we’re surprised about was the amount of footage and interview that was not used. There is absolutely nothing wrong with how the episode turned out from our standpoint. I do feel a little guilty for Rancho Washikemba because some of the footage shown was of the horse that did not like that camera and I will say that is the ONLY reason the horse appeared nervous – the cameras ended up having to ‘stand off’ and one horse was switched out. If I was to change anything about the episode it would be that brief horse footage AND I would probably tell a little more of the story about why we bought AquaVilla – there is very much a Caribbean Dream story there about us living overseas, never seeing family and having a place to gather with them. That dream also came true.
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