Day 52 - February 26

We were scheduled to be in Willemstad, Curacao but strong head winds of 40 knots leaving the Panama Canal forced the Captain to make the decision to miss this island altogether. A planned day at the beach and then into town to explore was not in the plans as our mystery cruise continues. So we enjoyed a rough sea day but luckily we were still able to make it to our art class.

Day 53 - February 27

So our day in Bonaire began with an early rainfall so my pictures from the deck of the ship were limited. Bonaire is the third island of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) just off the coast of Venezuela. It has a population of around 21,000 and attracts many divers to the island as Bonaire is considered one of the top destinations in the world for diving.

We like to snorkel and today's ship tour was just that. We were picked up at the pier where we climbed on to zodiaks for a very short trip across the harbour to board the Samur. Its a 56 foot Siamese sailing junk boat built in Bangkok Thailand in 1966.

The young captain and his crew made for a wonderful experience. After leaving port the main sail was hoisted and we sailed to No Name Beach. Yes that is the name of the beach. There are no inhabitants except for birds and iguanas.

Hi it's Janice. When Martin said that the crew was interesting he omitted to tell you that the girls were wearing string bikinis handing out the fruit and punch. We figured the captain with his long blond hair and tattoos picked them up at the bar the night before. He did call them his crew which was cute. I was on a different drift than Martin so I did not see the mermaid that Martin and his two buddies saw - yes one of the bikini clad girls was diving with her long black hair! The boys could not stop talking about it over happy hour!

Those individuals not comfortable with snorkeling were taken by zodiaks to the beach to spend about an hour. The others including Janice and myself were taken further back to drift snorkel. This is where you let the current take you. The coral in the area was healthy and I saw many different types of fish. There seemed to be a deep drop off from the shore and where we were snorkeling and I assumed the depths were at least 30 feet but the visibility was clear.

Returning to the Samur we were treated to fresh fruit and of course rum punch.

Once back on board it was a quick shower and lunch before we set out to visit the town of Kralendijk. Today was Sunday and as with other Caribeean countries, all shops were closed for a day of worship, family and rest. Luckily one souvenir shop was opened so we were able to purchase a magnet for our door.

This town along with it's Dutch heritage and influence has many colourful buildings so it will be interesting in trying to replicate them in water colour drawings. Our Vancouver friends decided to have a beer in town and Janice made the comment it would have been nice to drink a beer on these hot days but neither of us like beer.

On board we ran into another couple that we met in art class that were leaving the ship to go in search of wild Pink Flamingos that are plentiful on the island. They invited us to go and we quickly left the ship as it was 14:45 and we needed to be back at 17:00.

A taxi was called for us by the port authorities and we explained to the driver that we wanted to go to the National Park to see the Flamingos. The reason the flamingos are pink is because of the pink shrimp they eat so the older they are the darker pink their feathers are. You can tell the babies by their very light feathers which are nearly white. We did not know that the drive was one hour there and one hour back. His solution was to drive to an area just outside of town to see a small group of Flamingos and then drive to the Salt flats on the other side of town. These salt piles look like minature pyramids. The exporting of salt is the major industry in Bonaire and was very impressive to witnesss.

The cost for this adventure was $30 USD per couple.

We left Bonaire at 18:00 to cruise to Aruba, 116 nautical miles away where we will spend 2 days including an overnight.

I am having trouble with the location of the blog at the present time so you may see that the location is not correct. It might be associated with the slowness of the internet.