A family vacation; A cruise half way around the
world; One of the severest winters seen by Europe; The warm Caribbean weather
living up to its name; Captivating Caribbean is where I will be covering the
stops we made in this 14-day cruise with some photographs and the occasional
tips to make your cruise day stop worthwhile.
Bonaire has as much simplistic beauty on its surface as it has magnificence to wow all your sense under it. A tiny almost flat island, Bonaire has a friendly laid back feel to it. Don’t get fooled by the quietness of the town, for it has enough activities to keep the sea-loving naturalist in you happy with excitement.
Whether visiting
Bonaire for a day or for longer, you simply cannot go away without exploring its
underwater exquisiteness. The corals, the fish, the colours, and the sights are
just out of this world. As it also happens to be the first place I ever
snorkelled, Bonaire will always be a special part of my life (You can read
about my experience here).
This ex-Dutch colony has buildings that add a bit of history and culture to it all the while inserting a dash of color to the surroundings. Take a walk and you’re feel cosy and comfortable wishing that you could just move over here and spend the years lounging around doing nothing.
What makes a place all the more special is the people that inhabit it. The locals are friendly and add a certain charm to the loveliness of the region. Since the tourism industry is one of the main forms of revenue for the locals, you will see them displaying their various artistic talents and/or operating miscellaneous tourist driven activities, but rest assure no one is pushy or harasses anyone and instead everyone is always greeted with a broad smile.
If you manage
to get some free time, take a trip down to Klien Bonaire, and even smaller flat
surfaced island near Bonaire that at one time, long ago, served as a Chlorella check-post
where all ships had to stop and have medical examinations done before they
could proceed to Bonaire.
Klien Bonaire till the 1970’s was a private island that was later bought by the government of Bonaire so as to keep it raw and undeveloped to save the natural fauna and flora of the region.
Another aspect of Bonaire that really struck the right chord was that it has remained undeveloped by choice. The locals believe that the natural beauty of the region needs to be preserved and thus very few “modern” constructions have taken place over the years. In fact all you have to do to realize how the locals even manage add a little bit of fun to the nature around them, just read about the Tourist Tree of Bonaire.
Bonaire is the
quintessential island life; Simple and relaxing it is full of so
much splendour that you would want to leave your city life (if you live in a
city) and take abode in the lap of nature.
