10/31/17-11/27/17

We ambled along the esplanade among the cruise ship passengers. We had coffee and ice cream. Kralendijk did not seem over crowded. We walked past tiny fishing boats at the fishing boat pier. A huge Dutch Navy vessel that had been in St. Maarten and two US Coast Guard vessels visited the harbor. Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) arrived on a huge tug spraying water everywhere. Fireworks exploded over the harbor to mark the beginning of the holiday season.
Vibrant.

Brightly colored houses with red tile roofs, sparkling clear water, and arid landscapes make the island of Bonaire unique. We passed slave huts, salt pillars (red, white, blue and yellow) from long ago, mountains of salt, modern and classic windmills, cactus fences, rocky shorelines with carins of sticks and trash. We traveled to Rincon, where the slaves walked to get rations. Wild donkeys and a few goats watched us. We viewed tribal cave drawings. The land was full of cactus. Up the hill and down along Lake Gotomeer, we searched for flamingos. We found them standing in brackish water, walking on stilt like legs and diving their heads underwater to find food. The feathers were brilliant coral pinks, pale pinks, orangey-red.
Magnificant.

Cruisers go dinghy diving, which is not to be confused with lazarette diving. Load up your dinghy with your dive gear, tanks, and zip to a yellow dive buoy. There are 106 marked dive sites. Jump into the water, don you BCD, and descend. Visibility is generally good--about 60 to 80 ft. Water temperature is excellent about 84.5* F. Coral and reef fishes are everywhere. We also saw a turtle and a few lionfish. Friends saw octopi, rays and sea horses. The coral is unbelievable coral--soft coral, hard coral, coral that looked like flower arrangements. Some of the coral was taller than I am, some of it spread out like a carpet of giant flowers. The entire coastline of Bonaire is a protected marine sanctuary established in 1979, surrounded by reefs. Park boundaries extend from the high water line to 200 feet of depth in the seabed, about 6672 acres. There is absolutely no anchoring. As the water temperature of the oceans increases, the opportunity to experience such underwater gardens will become more difficult. Breathtaking.

Bonaire is about friends. We met cruisers from our first season; we met cruisers from our second season; we met new cruisers. We had a charcoal barbeque by a cruiser's pool. We celebrated potluck Thanksgiving--early. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Captain Don's Habitat. We spent the afternoons at Yhonnie's Arepas after our dives. We laughed. We joked. We cherish our memories.
Love.