Tour of Bonaire

When last we checked, I was in Dominican Republic and aiming for Bonaire by noon. Well, to my surprise, everything went according to plan! The plane ticket I'd bought on the tiny airline didn't have the airline's name or correct flight number on it, and no amount of googling or calling turned up any relationship between the info on my ticket and the info of the only flight leaving at that time from Santo Domingo. 

But Air Century had my name and that was all that mattered.

I was in Curacao Airport an hour later, where my next problem was getting through in time for my Bonaire-bound flight 70 minutes later. I sailed through the new e-gates and was at Divi Divi Air's check-in line in no time. I'm lucky I was dealing with tiny planes and not some 200-seater. There were no delays.

The Divi Divi flight to Bonaire took about 20 minutes. I'd had to check my bag since there were no overhead compartment, and Bonaire is re-doing its luggage conveyor, so us passengers were handed our bags over a plywood counter.

I found a $15 van taxi and got to Kralendijk in minutes. I'd booked the Art Hotel last night when the price had gone down to $60 a night, and I was disappointed to learn the cafe underneath it closed at noon on Sunday. That's okay, though, as soon as I checked in (early, no problems) I headed to a nearby breakfast spot run by a Dutch mom and her daughter. Bonaire is Dutch, having voted to stick with the Netherlands when Curacao and Aruba went their own ways.

After lunch, Brenda from H20 Visions picked me up for a 2.5 hour guided trip around the island. She was great, walking me through culture, history, and contextualizing all the stops along the way. We checked out stray donkeys, the windsurfing beach, the kitesurfing beach, the salt plains and old enslaved worker huts, mangroves, and finally, Brenda took me on a snorkel trip at Tori's Reef.

The snorkeling at Bonaire, as everyone pretty much knows, is incredible. What a delight--calm, easy, great light, lots of fish. The down sides are there aren't many soft, sandy beaches, so you have to navigate over rocky shoreline to get in, and there is petty theft on Bonaire, so you have to take your valuables along in a dry bag.

Brenda handled the dry bag, which is good since I was handling the "get over yourself for having not snorkeled for a few years" part of the program.

"What is considered valuable?" I asked Brenda. "Anything that can't be bought here." She hid my Tevas in a cavity in her truck, and even put my sun hat and tech-fabric quick-dry shorts in her dry bag.

We snorkeled for a little under an hour. I guess. I actually have no idea. Time feels different under the water.

Afterwards, we wrapped ourselves in big beach towels and got back in the truck--I'd just bought my beach towel for $14.99 at the discount supermarket around the corner from art hotel. Brenda drove us past Salt Pier, the airport, and back to town. She pointed out her favorite things en route.

"That place has the best gelato, check it out when you're dry."

And I did. 

Check out more photos of the day here.