Tom and Jack’s first Bonaire Vacation
April 7 through April 13, 2005
This was our first trip to Bonaire. The pictures are available at the following link:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/brackymede/my_photos
We left Thursday at 6:50 a.m., traveling from Tallahassee to Charlotte, under a severe thunderstorm warning. However, as soon as we climbed above the clouds, the sunrise was beautiful. From Charlotte, we continued on to Aruba. Our first glimpse of Aruba from the plane was of cruise ships and desert. We were expecting more greenery and white sand. After we cleared customs, we were told we had to go outside of the airport to get to Bonaire Exel. The guard told us it would be a 5 mile walk. He got a good laugh when Tom yelled ‘5 miles!!??’. We paused for a picture outside and then dashed to the next building and on to our gate. At the gate, they announced something in a foreign language and a lot of people headed for the tarmac. We got up with them, but soon realized that they were headed for Caracas, Venezuela. We quickly returned to our seats. The people going to Caracas took a bus across the tarmac to their plane. Finally, they called our flight for Bonaire - and right on time. We had a warm (i.e., the air conditioning on the plane was not very good) but quick flight to Flamingo airport, arriving at 5:40 p.m. We rented a white, five-speed 2000 Toyota Hilux (basically a Toyota Tacoma) and were on our way. A truck is the best way to experience the Island, and it’s required for a trip through the National Park because of the washed out bumpy dirt roads. The only problem with renting a truck is that Visa excludes it for damage coverage, so we had to accept the extra coverage with a $572 deductible. We were glad we had air-conditioning for our trip through the National Park, although there is something to be said for experiencing the Island with the windows rolled down.
Friday morning, we drove to Jibe City Windsurfing. On the Internet, we had seen progressive pictures of a car (a late ‘70’s Plymouth Volare or Dodge Aspen) that had, over the years, slowly sunk into the sand and rusted away. We took pictures of it as it existed when we were there. Sorobon Nudist Resort is next door. We saw naked kayakers and windsurfers.
We waded out to the diving platform, which we couldn’t initially see. Finally, we saw it and it appeared to be half-way to the horizon! It took a long time to walk out to the platform. Fortunately, the crystal-clear blue-green water never got deeper than our waist. The beautiful water, with the windsurfers buzzing by, was an amazingly breathtaking sight. We climbed onto the dive platform - a feat in itself trying to balance on the slippery wooden steps as the waves jostled and bounced the platform. We quickly learned this is best done sitting down!
After seeing the naked kayakers, Tom decided it was time for naked snorkeling. Jack tried to convince him that snorkeling over coral reefs with things dangling might not be the best idea, but Tom was determined. We tied our shorts to the dive platform and were happily snorkeling away, when Jack announced loudly, “Tom, somebody’s coming”. Tom turned too quickly and scraped his rear end across the coral. OUCH! Four bright red abrasions are still there two weeks later. Three ladies approached the platform, and quickly retreated. Jack was convinced they had stolen our shorts. Fortunately, when we returned to the platform, our shorts were still there.
We never dreamed that the snorkeling would be just like swimming in an aquarium! It was even more colorful than we experienced on our Bahamas cruise. Beautiful coral formations and actual aquarium fish, including Angel fish, Butterfly fish, and blue neon-looking fish, surrounded us. We thought the fish would be bigger. As we got into deeper water, we found the bigger fish, but continued to be amazed at the number of small fish that looked like they should be in an aquarium! Jack saw what looked like yellow butterflies, but they retracted into the coral as he swam closer. Suddenly, we noticed waves breaking on the edge of the reef and thought it was a Tsunami coming toward us! Fortunately, they calmed to gentle swells by the time they reached us. About the time we calmed down from our Tsunami scare, we saw something big and round and gray moving through the surf. Was it a whale? A big turtle? A man-eating shark!? Or was it simply a big rock giving the illusion that it was moving as the waves broke around it? We will never know. . .
That afternoon, we drove around the south end of the Island and saw the slave huts, the salt hills, and the weird rock sculptures. Later, we went exploring on the scooter and found the Jeff Davis and Oil Slick Dive sites.
On Saturday, we relaxed around the pool in the morning and did a resort scuba dive in the afternoon. A resort dive is where one gets an hour of training, passes a skill assessment in the water, and goes on a supervised dive no deeper than 35 feet. We saw bigger and more beautiful fish and corral formations. Tom saw what appeared to be a real snake slithering along the bottom. It tried to hide in the coral but could hide only its head. The instructor was wonderful and the fish and coral were beautiful. We’re glad we did it, but it wasn’t our favorite event because Tom got sea-sick, and Jack had trouble equalizing his ears and got mask clear solution in his eyes, which burned like fire until the next day. Tom recommends being a certified diver before attempting something like this while on vacation, although Jack says it’s fine as long as the skills assessment is done in a swimming pool instead of the deep, rolling ocean water. Later, we rode around on the scooter again. Tom had never driven anything that remotely resembled a motorcycle, but had a blast on the scooter! It felt safer on the island than it would have back home on our busy roads.
On Sunday, we spent the day at Washington Slagbaii National Park. Driving north toward the park, we stopped at an old abandoned hotel for divers and took some nice pictures. We saw ‘lizard crossing’ signs and very interesting and unusual cactus fences. A whale skeleton greets visitors at the entrance to the park. It took us 5 ½ hours to see all of the sites - and we still missed some. One of the highlights of our vacation was seeing the cliffs, the lizards, the blow-hole, the lighthouse, and the contrast of desert and cactus next to beautiful water. We enjoyed a picnic at the lighthouse, although iguanas, presumably with big sharp teeth, surrounded us. Clearly, they wanted our food. One of them jumped on Tom’s leg and he screamed. Tom threw some bread so they would go after it instead of his leg. It looked like an alien movie when they all jumped on the bread. That seemed to pacify them for a while and we were able to eat in peace. We probably weren’t supposed to feed them, since the literature asked visitors not to feed the animals. Oh well. At least we came back with all of our toes. Tom climbed to the top of the lighthouse on a rickety ladder, while Jack begged him not to do it. Jack built a rock formation. We explored every back road, finding old abandoned stone houses and unusual shelters and buildings. We climbed cliffs, sometimes getting too close to the edge.
We definitely got too close to the flamingos because they ran from us. Tom went swimming in the ocean at a beautiful beach. We highly recommend the long route, which we took, but would like to go back and take the short route so we would have time to climb the mountain. On the way home, we explored caves and found the Indian inscriptions.
On Monday, we visited Eden Beach Resort and posed for the web cam. We held pictures for Tom’s co-workers back home with such sayings as ‘Send Money’, ‘We miss you . . . . NOT’, ‘I bet it’s cold there’, and ‘Bon Bini Bonaire!’, which means “Welcome to Bonaire!” They had a hard time reading the signs because we were not standing close enough. Tom left his car in the parking lot at work. When he returned, he found a picture taped to his computer monitor of himself holding a sign in front of the web cam that had been altered to read, ‘Where’s my car?’ A subscript stated, ‘It’s not nice to tease those who have your car keys!!’
That afternoon, we rode the scooter around the north end of the Island. We saw a huge tanker at the oil refinery, stopped to take in beautiful Lake Gotomeer, and had a delicious white chocolate ice-cream bar in Rincon. During our route, we kept passing a tour bus and it kept passing us. We repeated this process many times until they stopped to look at the Indian inscriptions. We think we got the better tour on our scooter than they did on their fancy tour bus. On the way home, we rode past an unusual and highly decorated junkyard. We also saw a donkey in the middle of the road. The locals just blow their horns to get them out of the way. The visitors stop to take pictures. One donkey posed for a picture, but hissed loudly at Tom when he got too close. At one point, we took a wrong turn and wound up circling right back to the junkyard. Oh well, as we were told, ‘you can’t get too lost on an island’, . . . or can you? Obviously, we got lost momentarily.
On Tuesday, our last full day on the island, we snorkeled at Sorobon again and took a slower trip around the south of the Island so we could stop to take pictures of the weird rock sculptures, arrangements of flip-flops, a wrecked boat, and the slave huts.
Later we went back to Eden Beach for a ‘wild reality’ drink, then on to Kralendijk to explore Fort Orange, the waterfront, and the colorful shops. We loved the Cultimara Supermarket and the murals painted on the wall. It’s interesting to see how everything is the same, but different. They accept U.S. Dollars, but give change in Guilders. Our best guess at the exchange rate is 20 Guilders equals 12 U.S. Dollars. All of the shops on the Island are closed between noon and 2:00 p.m. We quickly discovered that pedestrians don’t have the right of way! It’s best not to try to cross the road when everyone is racing home for the noon siesta or at 5:00!
Each night, we saw the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen! It filled the sky with brilliant reds, oranges and yellows. Parrots flew over the deck every afternoon between 6 and 6:30 as we were having crackers, cheese, apples, and wine and watching these gorgeous sunsets.
We had a WONDERFUL time!!!
Things we missed that we would like to experience next time:
• Kayaking in the mangroves
• A walking tour of Rincon
• A tour of a plantation home
• Bicycling
• The Donkey Sanctuary
• Windsurfing
• Climbing the mountain in the National Park
• Sailing on an authentic Thai junk sailboat to the small island of Klein Bonaire
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By Tom and Jack (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Saturday, April 30, 2005 - 7:54 pm: 
