Saturday was our last day in Curacao, and we had a short ten minute flight to Bonaire. But our flight out of Curacao was delayed for nearly two hours! The flight is laughably short – no sooner has the plane reached cruising altitude, than it is heading in for a landing. Bonaire is much larger than Aruba, but has only about 14,000 people. The entire island is considered a natural park, for the purposes of protecting the magnificent reef system surrounding it.

We had arranged an apartment before we left of course, and were told that the apartment would be left open, with the keys inside. We found the apartment, with only a little difficulty but naturally the door was locked. The manager of the complex was on holiday, but we had four phone numbers for a contact person. He answered none of them! We sent emails. Nothing. It was getting late, the sun had set, and we had no place to stay. We found a place called Buddy Dive Resort who were amazingly helpful. One of the women working the desk new our contact person, so she told us to go have dinner, and they’d track him down. Well, dinner was wonderful! They had Keshi Yena on the menu, and it was pretty good. (Not the best I’ve had, but pretty good!)

As we were finishing up, Patricia, the young woman who knew our contact came up to us with the keys to our place! She had seen him drive by, and chased him down. Now I ask you – how many places have you been to that would go that far for you, and you’re not even staying there? Wonderful introduction to the friendly people of Bonaire.

We got into our place, and it was um, a disappointment. It was not what we expected. It was not a place where we could be comfortable. But we had to stay there at least that night, but we started looking on the internet right away for another place. The internet was the only thing good about the place! So we spent half of Sunday finding another place. We’re settled into the new place, the Divi Flamingo Resort, and we did get a swim in the ocean!

Bonaire has the reputation as one of the best places to dive and snorkel in the Caribbean, if not the world. And it certainly lived up to its reputation. We jumped in at Black Durgon beach. The water was clear and pristine, with an abundance of coral and fish. It was difficult to know where to look, it literally teemed with wonders to behold. Most of the fish had no fear – it was a rare fish that took off at our approach. Even fish that are notoriously shy, like the porcupine fish just hung around! Very cool…

The most amazing thing we saw was a school of six HUGE rainbow parrotfish. They were easily the largest fish we’ve ever seen in the ocean. Say five feet or more, three feet high, four hundred pounds? MASSIVE. And they were in the most shallow water you could believe. Amazing.

Anyway – just a short post to let you know we’re alive and well. We’re heading into the ocean here at the resort. The island is so beautiful and rugged – it’s going to be difficult to squeeze everything in with just five days to go. But we’re going to give it a go. There is a small island off the coast called Klein Bonaire, and it’s supposed to have the most amazing snorkeling, with turtles and some manta rays. So we’re definitely planning on hiring a boat to get there.