Blogs from Caribbean Netherlands, Central America Caribbean - page 2

This looked quite a flat island in comparison to a lot of the other islands we had visited, but is well renowned for its sea life, so we disembarked the ship and went to Spice Beach (us$ 2.50) Arrived early enough to get a sun bed and an umbrella and Chris hired the snorkel gear (US$10) and for me a huge yellow float with a viewing place for your head! (US$15.00 for ½ hr) It was totally amazing! You only had to walk out a few feet and then there was a shelf which is where most of the fish swam up and down, The half hour went quite quickly just watching the fish – so many shapes. colours and sizes! At lunchtime we took a taxi (US$20) to Lac Bai passing the salt flats in ... read more

Bonaire: Early this morning we approached the island of Bonaire from the north. At approximately 7:00 a.m. we were safely alongside Kralendijk cruise terminal, port side to quay. Bonaire is a Caribbean island which together with Aruba and Curacao forms the group known as the ABC islands, located off the North coast of South America near the western port of Venezuela. The name Bonaire is thought to have originally come from the Caquetio word ‘Bonay’. The early Spanish and Dutch modified its speling to Bonjaj and also Bonaire, which means ‘Good Air’. Our tour today included Bonaire’s highlights folk centre, history and breath taking natural sites. It is surrounded by turquoise waters, has huge cacti, divi divi tres, flamingos, and panoramic views. We heard tales of Rincon Village and toured a cultural park with costumed guides. ... read more

Friday 1stNovember Boston - embarkation on the Norwegian Dawn Raining and windy 19’C We got most of the packing done last night so we could have a relaxing morning. Our first job was to go for a walk to the Goodwill store to donate some of our winter clothes. Next job was to send our winter clothes we wanted to keep back home via the USPS – US Postal Service; so with the box all loaded and taped up we caught the bus north on Washington St so we didn’t have to walk so far to the West Dedham St postal branch. The staff were very helpful and the 10kg box with insurance was on its way back to NZ for $138. This was a weight off our minds AND a weight out of OUR BAGS! ... read more

Bon dive 16. Carl’s Beach (next to town pier). We went in the water around 1 pm. I checked the shallows and found 2 white mantis shrimp in holes and a falbellina. I turned some rocks around hoping to find cling fish, bumble bee shrimp or nudis. I didn’t find much and I moved on towards the reef. There was a mooring block on the way that looked interesting. Of course I saw steve’s fins poking out of there. He signaled me to 2 sponge bob’s of course I only saw one. It looked that I could get some negative space out of it so I plopped down and dedicated to it. In the meantime I saw redlip blennies sitting on fire coral, 2 very active Pederson cleaner shrimp claning small butterflies, damselfish and another type ... read more

Bon Bini! Welcome to Bonaire. Today we stopped at the beautiful island of Bonaire. Other than Aruba for example, Bonaire does not have too many tourists (yet?!), but the nature is very impressive. There are way more Dutch than Americans here and we really got the impression that we are in a way more "natural" place, which kept its own charme. From the capital Kralendijk we started all around the island. We saw wild flamingos and goats, passed the huge saltfields and the beautiful coral beaches. Our first stop was at the old slavehuts and we were able to look and also crawl inside, and I really mean crawl. They were very tiny and you could get a real feeling how the slaves had to live back then. After a small stop on a lovely beach, ... read more