79) Bonaire

Harbour Village, Kralendijk, Bonaire

12° 09.848 N 68° 17.077 W

  

John, Nancy and I took a slow walk into town along the waterfront on the way to customs and immigration to finish the check-in procedure.  Customs went well but immigration was closed.  We were able to clear at the police station according to the guidebook.  With that done we were free to look around and find the Internet cafe.  Lunch was my choice upstairs at The Ribs Factory.  It was not like what we get in the states but it sufficed.  They had a great view of the beach and Klein Bonaire (the little island a mile away in the bay).  It was getting to be early afternoon and they still wanted to go snorkeling in the dinghy.  They said they were going to go across to the island.  I decided that I wanted to look around in the shops and also look for scuba tanks.  I noticed later that there were whitecaps where they were going and figured it was going to be a rough ride.

     

$545k on the waterfront

                                                   

While walking along the waterfront we were admiring the houses.  Some of them were junky and some of them were fantastic.  We were invited into the little red house as it was up for sale.  They bought this large lot with 2 houses on it and they want to sell this one and move next door.  They were retired and from Amsterdam and very friendly.  It was a fairly basic home and the interior had a tile floor throughout and was reminiscent of a vacation home.  It was nice, clean and would make a very comfortable vacation spot.

I ended up walking for several miles looking for tanks.  I eventually found some new aluminum tanks but did not want to pay $250 USD each.  I kept walking.  I took some backstreet's and saw some odd looking houses.  I also noticed that there were lots of dogs.  They seemed to have full run of the place and were pretty polite for dogs.  They must be acclimated to tourists and strangers. 

  

  

Late in the day we all met at the boat and we compared experiences.  They did motor out to the island and remarked how rough the ride out was.  Once in the water Alan managed to swim off so far that they could not see him.  John eventually got back in the dinghy looking for him and actually thought that he might have drowned.  When Alan got back to the boat John let him have it.  He told him that it is irresponsible to swim away and put everybody in danger.  John was prepared to call the Coast Guard.  It turns out that Alan swam downstream of the boat.  Those of us that have water experience know to begin your swim into the current in order to take advantage of it at the end of your swim when you are tired.  Alan’s response was that it never occurred to him.  John was pretty upset with him.  We all are having problems with him.  They said that he cannot act like that and be the captain of the sailboat he plans to buy in April and sail all over Europe.  This is the last guy that should be in charge of a boat let alone other people.

Another example that something might be wrong is that he walked off at night from us after we all just had a big dinner.  We went to an Argentinean restaurant that is known for its quality meats.  We had a huge dinner split 4 ways that was a pile of chicken, ribs, pork chops and steaks.  We had a very long walk back to the marina and in the downtown area I heard John’s booming voice calling out for Alan.  He must have walked off and John had just caught him.  Well, quickly after that he walked off.  We let him go and went back to the boat.  He finally shows up and asks where we went. 

Anyway, there are many great experiences that outweigh these irksome issues.  It’s not all bad but the things just keep adding up and we are reaching our own levels of toleration and then setting him straight.