Port 25 Bonaire

Bon bini!

We slid in to Bonaire’s port early on Feb 27th, 2022. It was overcast and the sky was gray. There would be no nice sunrise colors this morning.

The northern point was hazy, and the barrier island was in silhouette. The petroleum tanks can be seen up north.

Even the waterfront in town seems relatively drab. But it’s still early! It’s hard to miss the red submarine!

Today we are docked at the northern pier. This is good, as the best part of Kralendijk is to our north. No tour again for us, so we’re gonna walk around town.

We see this sign posted on the little hut at the pier entrance. Joy asked the lady in the hut “what does being the ‘first blue destination in the world’ mean?” The lady didn’t know what Joy was talking about, so we asked her to step out of the hut and look at the poster on the wall. She stared at the poster and still didn’t have a clue!

Based on the images in the poster we surmised it has to do with protecting the ocean waters around Bonaire. Online searches afterward confirmed this. Apparently this is a rating the island received in 1979! So it was already a blue destination when we came here in the 1990’s! We just never saw or noticed a poster like this!

I can’t resist this photo of Insignia – the water is incredibly clear and the pier is short so it doesn’t mask a lot of the ship!

At the southern dock is this working ship, and it is joined by another ship later in the day.

This is Bonaire’s Welcome Seat!

The port had a small fort, Fort Oranje. We thought the tower was a lighthouse, but it is apparently a watchtower. This fort never saw military action.

The was the fort commander’s home, but is now the government offices – the Parliament and Council. Beautiful!

This is the side of the house.

This is the local protestant church. Since we are here on Sunday morning, services were in session.  Joy said the service was in English, but I heard Dutch, so perhaps it is a dual language service. The church is in the park named after Queen Wilhelmina of Netherlands.

I don’t recall what this building is, but I love the lines and how the palm trees line up with the flag poles in front! In the distance you can see the road leads in to town.

And nearby that building is this statue. It is a tribute to Simon Bolivar, “Liberator of Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Founder of Bolivia”.  I can’t find any explanation of why this is here. The Spanish occupation of Bonaire was in the 1400’s and 1500’s.

The flamingo is celebrated here, and this type of stonework is visible on many streets! There is a lake called Goto Lake that is frequented by flamingos.

And guess what we found outside the telephone company?

In case you didn’t know, Bonaire was known for its scuba diving sites for many decades before cruise ships started coming here.

These little guys were hanging out beside the road.

And this spotted fella caught my attention on a side street. I think this is a whiptail lizard.

We spent the day walking along the waterfront as far as we could go, then walking inland for shopping. The variety of sizes and types of boats in the harbor is interesting!

This one caught Joy’s eye first! But I like everything Orion! Even with an extra “E”. This spelling indicates this boat is part of an Orione sailing team.

Divi divi trees are true survivors! This one had a road and sidewalk built around it.

Who can resist this cute guy? I think this is a plumbingo.

We caught a few pieces of notable wall art.  We meant to revisit this guy for a better shot, but never made it back. Mary informed us this is Bencho chilling with his goats Meki, Reki and Treki, painted by Rotterdam artist Dodici. Sweet!

And this beautiful piece decorates the side of a restaurant.

Turning to the buildings, we head down Grand Street. On one side of the street are a variety of balconies…

…and on the other side a variety of colors!

The varied storefronts are fun from an artistic sense. We enjoy painting scenes like this…

…and a few more colors and shapes…

…ending with this cute front, and an interior breezeway that reaches the water on the other side!

Back on board the ship with the sunlight we now see the color in the water and the town!

We begin to pull away from the pier.

You can see how small this pier really is!

Kralendijk fades away in our wake.

We couldn’t see this from the shore or the ship at dock, but as we sail out we get close enough to catch a glimpse of the salt pond operations.  The pyramids of salt are evident.

We bid Bonaire a fond farewell! Next stop – Aruba!