While there we visited friends, refreshed our memories about snow and cold, visited our doctors and drove back to Florida to begin our next adventure. We had been asked to house sit and take care of a sweet little cat for ex-cruising friends on the small Dutch Island of Bonaire while they traveled. Lucky us! The home was gorgeous with great views from the patio and swimming pool and cooling breezes off the ocean throughout the night.
Here is a picture of the kitty!
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| From Bandit |
I'M HAVING A PARTY!
LOVE, BANDIT
Bonaire is the "B" of the A, B, C islands about 60 miles from Venezuela. The others are Aruba and Curacaio.
Bonaire is well known for its excellent scuba diving. The diving has been listed as "Best" in many catagories in Scuba Magazine for over five years although diving opened in Bonaire many years ago when "windows" to the reefs were opened from many different sites from the shore.
Dan and I, and our visitors enjoyed our water time out of the pool by snorkeling many shore sites. Red Beryl, Andrea, Tolo, 1000 Steps are some famous names. Reef fish such as huge Parrot Fish, French Angels, and so many others I can't list them, along with octopus, Moray Eels of many types and sea turtles were easily seen. We really didn't even have time to consider grabbing a boat to Klein Bonaire, a smaller uninhabited island ringed with reef.
In the month we stayed in Bonaire we explored any drivable road on the 30 mile long island, went into and around the Washington Slagbaai Park by rental truck and had an incredible time. We watched flamengos and saw areas where the ancient Indian tribes inscribed pictorial language.
Here are some tourist- type pictures. The water is a fantastic color of blue with shallows green-blue. Corals show somewhat brown from the surface. Although we saw herds up to fifty of the wild free ranging goats, I didn't take a picture, darn.
click for slide show
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| visitors Bonaire |
Bonaire is a very dry island, and the temperatures are very warm. While we were there the day temperature was 84 degrees with water temperature about 80 degrees on the surface where we snorkeled. The landscape often shows trees bent by the wind, underfoot are sharp and deadly coral rocks. The early Europeans brought goats and donkeys to the island where their decendants still roam freely. To protect themselves the low, scrubby bushes, trees and shrubs these introduced animals constantly feed on have developed deadly weapons, THORNS, which my pictures will show you. Thorns make it difficult for people living on the island. One problem they have and we had to watch out for, is flat tires due to the thorns that grow on bushes but fall to the ground- sticking in the tires. Like a nail in a tire, when the thorns are removed the tires lose air.
Enjoy these Bonaire pictures These are the ones that try to show the difficulty for animals, birds and people to live on these islands. My own collection of Bonaire thorniness! Not only do thorns and cutting coral rubble liven up the landscape but follow the wiki link to see the deadly tree. You can't touch it, eat the fruit Or stand under it in the rain. The result can be skin blistering!
click for slide show
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| Thorns |
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Hippomane_mancinella_%28fruit%29.jpg
To all our friends and Blog readers. Dan and I are no longer international. We're back in Florida with Sea Star but will be heading out on a new adventure probably in the Western USA by motorcycle as soon as Dan picks up a new BMW. We are not selling Sea Star, just doing something else we want to try. We love to hear from our cruising friends and hope you will continue to email and contact us!
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