We did our snorkel tour today at Klein Bonaire. It was beautiful! The beaches are white sand. The water starts out clear with the white sand reflected underneath, then it turns a bright, electric blue color then a darker blue as the water gets deeper. As you sail away from the island, there’s an incredible electric blue strip that looks like it’s lit from underneath that snakes along the coast. It was a fun tour and we saw more colorful fish today. I also saw a spotted eel, a flat white fish that Bill thinks is flounder, and some sea anemones. There were schools of colorful little fish everywhere! Some of the fish were completely white to blend in with the sand. It was good camouflage! Some other people in our group saw a sea turtle. I was hoping to see a turtle but maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow we have kayaking and snorkeling in the mangroves. I’m looking forward to that too.
The owner of our boat, who also sailed with us today, was a Dutch guy. Fifteen years ago, he and his wife were planning to move to Canada but then he did some internet research and found a boat for sale on Bonaire. He had never been to Bonaire or sailed a boat, but they bought it, moved here, and opened a charter boat company that seems pretty successful. He was really friendly and seemed to be enjoying his life. He said he was still on p. 6 of Sailing for Dummies! He now owns at least three boats and does charter work for the resorts and the cruise ships that come in. They take people to snorkel at Klein Bonaire and they do trips where you can snorkel and have BBQ on the boat. He cooks and says the tuna is delicious. I can’t imagine just deciding to buy a boat somewhere you’ve never been and opening your own business. I wish I was more like that. It seems like a way that I would lose all my money.
Speaking of losing money, we got back for a late lunch then took our scooter back downtown so I could buy the blue metal-art fish that I wanted. So I now have a metal art turtle and some fish. I think they will be beautiful in my house. I’m packing the turtle with me but the fish will have to be shipped so it will be 4-6 weeks before I get those. By that time, everything should be pretty well frozen in IA so it will be a nice reminder of warmer, happier times! Bill picked up a diving t-shirt and a Bonaire scooter license plate to hang on his wall. While we were downtown, we stopped at a Cadushy shop. Cadushy is a liqueur made from cactus. It’s bright green. They had samples so we tried some. I expected it to have a strong alcohol flavor, but it mostly had a strong syrupy flavor. The sample was all I needed.
There are a surprising number of people here with infants and young children. None of them are American as far as I can tell. The children are all well-behaved. They don’t run wild through the restaurant, none of them have had screaming fits and even the babies are quiet. I’m not sure I’d take an infant out sailing, but there was one being put on a boat today as we got off.
Pictures are posted below. They are good but don’t really convey the beautiful water conditions here. Bill has done a great job getting underwater pictures though!
Traveling with Emily! 