Bonaire has been a place we’ve wanted to visit ever since getting certified to scuba dive. It is a world class diving destination that has pioneered the idea of reef preservation and conservation. The entire fringing reef is a marine park and everything in it is protected. There are about 40-50 moorings available to visiting yachts on a first come, first served basis. Also there is 1 very protected marina with 2 other small marinas available as well. Anchoring is only allowed in an emergency and then the harbormaster has to approve where you anchor. We have taken our big boat a few times to a more distant dive mooring but mostly go via dinghy or off the back of our moored boat. Their aren’t as many large fish as we expected but have seen frog fish, sea horses and colorful sponges never seen before.
We arrived here on the 13th of December, 2008 just in time to witness all the fireworks displays leading up to the Christmas and New Years holidays. It seemed like everyday there were fire crackers, cherry bombs or some other fireworks going off all day long. This went on up to and a day or two after January 1st. We witnessed one event where there was a reported 3 million large firecrackers in a string, snaked out along the street for about 100 yards or so. It took a good 15 minutes for the thing to go off and the noise and smoke were unbeliveable. I hope we can post a short video of it on our site. Needless to say our nerves were a bit frazzled by the time New Years day arrived and we’re thankful to have all the noise pollution end soon afterwards. Some creative cruisers came caroling on Christmas Eve and we had a good time listening to their singing and offered ”Christmas Cheer” for their extraordinary efforts. Actually they wouldn’t leave until they got their glasses filled up! ”we won’t go until we get some figgy pudding…”
Cruise ships have been coming to Bonaire for 2 or 3 years now and we’ve seen quite a few since our arrival. This small islands population suddenly increases by 40 or 50% for a few hours, as the hoardes leave the ship to go shopping, diving or perhaps sailing on a chartered catamaran. There is local controversy on how much money the island actually obtains. We are charged $25 for a park pass but the cruise ships pay only $2/person. I also assume that the Harley Davidson rental business came around the same time as you can sometimes see 30 bikes riding on a Sunday afternoon.
Speaking of cruise ships, Paul Allen of Micro Soft fame has his personal ”yacht” Octopus here. It comes complete with not 1 but 2 helicopters, numerous tenders, a mini submarine, and a crew of 60 to take care of everything. It reportedly cost $250,000,000.00 and has an annual operating cost of $25,000,000.00. Go to www.etsell.com/images/Octopuspp.pdf to get more info on this behemouth!
Everything in Bonaire is rather expensive as everything has to be brought in by sea or air. Odd that even though close to Venezuela, most of the vegetables are of the variety that would come from the states. I think the only thing still produced here for export is ”solar salt”. Cargill has a very large operation on the south end of the island where they pump sea water onto large flatlands where the water evaporates leaving behind the salt. The pools are shades of green, pink, blue due to algae and pink brine shrimp. It is then collected and I’ve seen an elaborate conveyor system that must take it to freightors for export. It used to be done by manual labor, evidence by the many SMALL slave huts still standing and colored pyramids that would hoist a flag to tell the ships which area was ready for pick up.
Other than the diving and snorkeling our time is spent doing boat projects, visiting other cruisers, get togethers a couple times a week for happy hours and Tom’s Sunday afternoons are occupied by playing Mexican train dominoes. He takes a beating but continues to enjoy it. Rose started taking Spanish lessons once per week from the Venezuelan Consulate and then tries to study every day. There are marine slideshows put on by various dive operations but some are quite a distance from us and there is no reliable public transportation. Taxi’s are available but very costly but we have walked to some of them. This end of the island is very flat so would of been great to use by folding bike but this got stolen after being locked up first night. I’m still trying to find it. As you may recall, we lost our refrigeration while in REMOTE islands off Venezuela so another cruiser us a new one from Trinidad. Our watermaker never did work so had to work many hours working with Village Marine to finally get a membrane that works. Rose has had to curtail her nude snorkeling (conserving on rinsing salt water out of suit) as she has learned that one never knows if there are divers down there.
We did an island tour via last day of week jeep rental that another cruiser couldn’t use. So we were able to see the pink flamingos, wild east side blow holes, slave huts, 500 year old Arawak indian pictograph/inscriptions, Solar salt ponds and drive through some of the protected 16K acres of Washington Slagbaai National Park.
Rose volunteered with 2 other women to organize a tire pick up with the marine park service. They provided the boat and we provided divers, snorkelers and some assitance lifting the tires into the park boat. These tires were pushed up onto the reef, within the mooring field, by the swell of Omar in October (sins of the past). We collected around 120 tires so now many can enjoy a clean reef again.
Rose’s mom took her ticket to heaven on January 7, 9:35pm. I miss her but am happy she is done with these cancer related challenges and able to see my brother Tomas (died age 40, 4 years ago) and dad (died 18 years ago). Mom took her last breath while in a coma state with my brother Gene as family members had been staying with her 24 hours the last couple days. I had decided not to go home for the funeral in Clarissa, MN as I said goodbye in November. So my grieving process is different but we hope to be returning to MN in July.
We have been here longer than any other place we’ve visited but we did not plan it this way. The violence in Venezuela prompted us to leave that country sooner than we had intended so here we are in Bonaire waiting until spring to make our move to Colombia. Actually we will sail to Curacao after a visit from a MN friend the end of February. We may be forced to leave Curacao if we’re unable to get an extension to stay there. Evidently Bonaire and Curacao only give visiting yachts 90 days per year and time spent on one island is held against you on the other. We will see what happens but Aruba is next if we can’t stay in Curacao.
Stay tuned!
Don’t dream your life. Live your dream!
Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.
Peace and Love,
Tom and Rose