Day 4 - Bonaire

** Update: Added additional snorkeling pictures...lots of them **

We woke up around 6:30am and was happy to see the island of Bonaire. We docked around 7am in Kralendijk.



This was our first time in Bonaire. We were anxious to get here and see this beautiful island and marine life. We were not disappointed.


We met our excursion group around 8:20am and took a water taxi over to Klein Bonaire an island marine park. We took the 20 minute ride to KB and was dropped off on the beach (No Name, I believe).

Approaching No Name Beach, Klein Bonaire

We dropped our bags and grabbed our snorkel gear and headed towards the northeast part of the island (looking at the island, we headed left). We entered the gorgeous blue water and only had to go a short distance before we were in the coral reef. The reef was beautiful. The water was so clear. I took over 100 pictures here. You can see in this beach picture the light blue and then the dark blue areas. Where the two meet, is the start of the reef.

We drift snorkeled several times. We would get out and walk back to our starting point, walking further to increase our snorkeling distance. On one side there is an abundance of coral and on the other side, the reef drops off into blackness. For some reason, the theme from Jaws kept going through my mind.

Here are underwater pictures taken by DH with his Nikon 5600 (point/shoot) in a Nikon Underwater Housing. I believe Nikon lens are the best. Proof is in the pictures. What do you think?



































Here are additional underwater pictures (taken with my Olympus Stylus 790SW, waterproof camera). It was neat to swim alongside of the coral reef instead of above it. To get on the other side of the reef, we had to find "openings" and swim through. I had to be careful when taking pictures, as the current would push me close to the reef without realizing it. You can see how clear the water was.

I was able to capture a cool shot of DH diving after a fish. There were fish everywhere. We snorkeled for 1-1/2 hours. We headed back to the ship around 11am.

We ventured into town to do some window shopping. We visited several dive shops and met some wonderful people.

We left Bonaire around 2pm. A really short stay, in my opinion. As we headed out, I could see the salt mines. No pink flamingos to be seen.

Bonaire is part of the Netherlands Antilles or ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao). The island encompasses 112 square miles. 24 miles long and 7 miles wide at the widest point. There are only 15,000 inhabitants.

We had a great time here. The weather was perfect. Warm and breezy. The water here is just drop dead gorgeous and very blue.