I just got back from a 7 day trip to Bonaire, which in case you didn’t know (I didn’t know), is a small island 90 miles to the north of Venezuela.
Bonaire is is a “special municipality” of the Netherlands, whatever that means. It’s in the Caribbean, not far from Aruba, if that helps. The Dutch showed up in the 1600s and brought African slaves to help produce salt (the Dutch flood large, flat plains in Bonaire with salt water, let the water evaporate and then sell the remaining salt.) I suppose Africans are among those who hate the Dutch.
What does one do in Bonaire? Nothing, unless you like Scuba Diving. Is there night life? No. Is there *anything* else to do besides scuba diving? No. Okay, you can kayak and snorkel, and visit a Donkey Sanctuary, but otherwise, the island’s got nothing.
They *do* have scuba diving, and lots of it. We dived 2-4 times a day all around the island, including night dives, wreck dives and shore dives. I swam with an octopus, scraped myself on coral while trying to get a better view of a poisonous lion fish and came face-to-face with spindly crabs and hungry-looking, spotted eels. I explored a sunken drug-running boat, zipped around the island on a rented scooter and tried a bit of kite boarding (well,until the wind died.)
I’m not xenophobic, or jingoistic, but I will say this; I sure do love the US of A. It sucks less than any other country. Things are clean here. The food is great. We have free bathrooms and free water fountains. You can drink the water and not get sick. We have the best health care. We invent anything that’s worth inventing. Our women are beautiful. Are athletes are the best. Yes, we occasionally pepper spray hippies, but they mostly have it coming, amiright? I’m proud to be an American.
It might be true that I tried to smuggle home pieces of beautiful coral I found on the stony beaches. I might have been caught at the airport and perhaps they confiscated all of it. It was worth a try. Oh, and our group included two world-class underwater photographers/videographers, so I’ll post some amazing media here shortly.
Bon bini na cas! (welcome home, in Papiamento (the native language of Bonaire))