Bonaire

Our 3rd day was spent at sea and then it was off to Bonaire.  Bonaire was probably our favorite place to visit.  I have decided that cruising is really a great way to check out different places without being really committed and to figure out where you would want to go back to.  Bonaire was that one.  It is nothing more than an island surrounded by reefs.  No big hotels, nothing much touristy except us off of the cruise ships but phenomenal snorkeling.  We were a little bit choked because when we disembarked we lined up a tour in a jeep where we could sit up on top of the cab and see the sights.  We were to go the salt flats (this was once their primary industry before tourism took over) and then on to see the flamingo stomping grounds.  There was one last stop which has escaped me but the sad story is that the tour was to leave at 1:00 so we went off to do a bit of looking around the town.  We split up and were to meet back there at 12:45.  It turns out that there was a time change though and 12:00 was the new 1:00 so by the time I figured it out it was too late to round up everybody and so we missed it.

Having missed the tour we went back to the boat for lunch and then headed out to a beach which was pretty crowded but we just jumped in, swam off and saw tons of fish.  The only drawback was that it dropped off pretty quickly but I would really love to go back some time and do some diving.  You can just walk in off of the beach which is pretty cool.

We took a taxi over to the beach and he didn't want to take us because I think he was waiting for someone so he told us we were in good shape, we could walk.  Time was of the essence so we cabbed over and sauntered back.

We didn't get to tour the salt flats and flamingo stomping grounds but on the way back we did get to see some actual flamingos in the wild which was way cool.

 Donna tried to hitch a ride on this boat but they snubbed her.

 Christmas cactus Caribbean style.

 My favorite shot of the boat. This evening the entertainment was called Tango Buenos Aries and the dancers were fabulous, such a beautiful dance when done well.  It was another great day.