TO VIEW PREVIOUS POSTINGS USE THE "BLOG ARCHIVE" UNDER OUR PHOTO ON THE RIGHT. THEN CLICK ON THE DAY OR DAYS YOU MISSED. ALSO CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM. I RECOMMEND THAT.
BONAIRE BACKGROUND INFO:
Bonaire is
a small island (111 sq miles) about 50 miles off the northern coast of Venezuela
with a population of just over 20,000. We
will be docking at Kralendijk which is its capital. I forgot to mention yesterday that the ABC Islands
are south of hurricane alley so miss the being hit by hurricanes.
It is sunny and warm here year round and has great reefs circling the island for snorkeling
and diving with a total of 86 named dive sites in Bonaire’s Marine Park. Tourism is Bonaire’s main economy
driver. 185,000 cruise passengers visit
here year.
Bonaire
means “low country”. In one area along
the coast sea water comes into salt pans (inlets that are closed to the sea by
a dead coral dyke). The water is evaporated
leaving behind salt. Cargill operates solar
salt production which produces 400,000 tons of industrial grade salt per year. Cargill operates its own pier where ships are
loaded with the salt.
A Venezuelan
oil company has a fuel storage and transportation terminal on Bonaire. Its pier can accommodate very large ships.
Currency
here is the US dolar.
LAST NIGHT:
Great sailing this evening
Sun setting
Another Bali Mafia guy we just met, Nengah. He is serving canapes.
Another Bali Mafia we met tonight serving drinks in Sette Mari, Dewa.
Here is the grilled veal chop with marsala mushroom sauce. Meat still not tender on the ship.
Another incredible show by Linda Gentille. She did one number recognizing veterans. Asking the veteran audience members to stand when she played their military service theme. That was appreciated and very well accepted by all in attendance.
TODAY:
Today we are docked in Kralendijk, Bonaire, until 8:30 tonight.
When we opened our curtains at 7:30 this morning we had a nice rainbow to look at. There are some rain showers in the area and 75 degrees early today. High temperature forecast to be 85.
Our tour group (11 of us) leaving the ship this morning at 10:50 for our 1 1/2 hour Tuk-Tuk tour of Kralendijk.
Beautiful aqua colored waters near the shore and you could see the bottom of the coral lined coast line.
RSSC Mariner
Our Tuk-Tuks. Electric powered. 6 of us in ours and 5 in the other. The Bishops, Bittles, Marcia, and I I in ours.
We had a great Dutch tour guide. She moved here from Holland 4 years ago.
No stop lights in town except at a pizza shop. Green light means it is open!
This is the catholic church as 80% here are catholics.
This is the hospital. All the health facilities are on one street. Health care is free here as is paid for by Holland since income here is so low.
Captain Don Stewart is buried in the green colored grave site. He is known as the "Father of Bonaire". He moved here in 1962 and was an environmental activist protecting the coral reefs that surround the island. He was an accomplished diver and made Bonaire the world's best dive location. Apparently he liked to drink, eat, and chase women too. Our guide told the story that he injured a leg diving and it was badly treated. Eventually, he had to go over to Aruba and the doctor told him he would have to amputate his leg. So Don told the doctor he wanted to take the leg back to Bonaire with him. So he did and buried it after a huge party where the green site is. Still drinking a lot, one time in a bar a friend told him he was drinking too much and it might kill him. Captain Don's response was "Well it might, but I already have one foot in the grave". Such a funny story!! He died in 2014 at age 89.
Fences are made of cactus.
Hard to make it out but there is a dive shop in the blue buildings. Diving is the main tourist attraction on Bonaire as the island is surrounded by coral reefs.
It costs $10 a day to moor you boat here.
Tree with old sandals tied in it.
An iguana sunning.
Restaurant on the water
After returning to the ship I took some photos of the town from deck 12.
Note the beautiful aqua colored water close to the shore. The depth of the water drops off big time just a couple hundred yards from shore and the water color changes to a dark blue. Divers can just swim out to the deeper waters.
Here you can see the change in water colors. Blue is deeper waters.
I really enjoyed my tour today in this very lovely and colorful town. As it is Sunday today, the town was very quiet and most shops were closed. We will be returning here a couple more times on our "world cruise in the Caribbean". Next time I want to go see the salt pans I mentioned earlier.
I will publish this soon as the Chiefs vs Bengals game will be starting in an hour. We will have cocktails in our suite at 6pm while watching the second half. After the game we will go down to Compass Rose for dinner. Then back to the suite to watch the last half of the Rams vs 49ers game. Not going to the show featuring a repeat performance by singer, Marty Thomas. Wasn't too impressed with his first show anyway.
We will be departing here at 8:30 tonight as it is a short sail over to Aruba. We are to dock there at 8am. I have a "Scenes of Aruba" 3 1/2 hour tour leaving at 8:15. We were to get some of the Crystal canceled world cruise folks tomorrow but Aruba will not let their ship dock there.
