After A Day in Bonaire
Okay, so we love Bonaire!!!!
We arrived yesterday afternoon via air from Aruba. We are staying at the Divi Flamingo Dive Resort and it's quite fun and cute and exactly the sort of place I love to be at. The resort is larger than I expected, actually, but there are 2 pools, 2 restaurants, a bar, and a dive shop right on site. The clientele are very much divers, and the hours of the bar and restaurants are very much catering to the dive people. Which is fine...
Prices here a much better than in Aruba, too. We walked across the street last night for dinner, to Jasmine Garden (an Asian fusion restaurant) and found beer for less than $2.00 US each (whereas in Aruba beer were at least $5.00 US). The food there was very good, lots of options from Chinese to Indonesian, too!
We did, admittedly, drink way too much at the resort bar last night. The one bartender was trying to teach me some Papamientu phrases but I honestly don't remember them! Numbers are in Spanish, other phrases are Dutch...it's neat how they combine a few different languages together - Spanish, English, Dutch and I think French.
This morning we hit the dive shop because all divers here must buy a Marine Park pass to dive and then attend an orientation. The orientation was quick and to the point, but kind of useless. We didn't really learn anything new. The reef here is very protected. Only 1 boat can be at a dive site at a time and no fishing or commercial boats are permitted in most areas.
We got equipment and were given a locker. So here you can just go diving on your own 24/7. Bryan acted as dive master today and took Dave, Lexi and I out along the reef for about 30 minutes. It was kind of cool but kind of scary to do a dive without a guide or dive master. Bryan did really well, though, and navigated us back to the right place. He took care of us all, watched us, made sure we were safe.
I have a defunct regulator though because it kept inflating my BCD on me. Gotta get that fixed before our dives tomorrow morning...
This island is beautiful. It's laid back, it's less developed, it's very diving focused. I wish, and I think we all wish, that we had spent less time on Aruba and more time here. We'd like to explore the history and a few festivals but we also want to dive so I don't think we'll see everything we want to in the next 2 days.
So, anyway, back to Aruba...
We relocated hotels to the Renaissance for 2 nights because Dave and Lexi wanted to see the flamingos on their private island.
Our take on this?
The hotel was horribly overpriced. Bryan and I didn't even get our room cleaned! Ridiculous! The restaurants in the hotel were expensive so we found some across the street. We did have the best meal ever on Aruba at Cuban's Cookin', so anyone who goes there must eat there! Yummy! I was beyond excited to finally eat something authentic!!!
The flamingo island was alright. There are 6 flamingos and you can't help but smile when you see them. They do well with all the people taking pictures of them and getting in their space while they want to sleep and rest. Very pretty birds. However, was the price of the hotel worth it? Um, not really.
We spent about $80 US on the island for lunch and a few drinks. The beach was okay, the water shallow and calm, broken by some rocks to prevent the real waves from coming in. Palm Beach where we had first stayed was a much nicer beach.
So, yeah, overpriced hotels and such are not our thing.
On Wednesday, when we switched hotels, we rented a car to tour Aruba a bit. Bryan and I didn't want to totally waste the day so we headed up north, saw a lighthouse, then traveled along the east coast and stopped at a bunch of places.
First, we stopped at a very tiny church. It was the church that the Catholics first began converting local indigenous people to Catholicism (of course...) and now is kept up for special occasions or tourists. It's small, like maybe holds 15 people!
Next, we hit an animal rescue farm which I wasn't keen on because their advertisement had a boa on it...
Anyway, we went. Mostly, there were horses, donkeys, goats, birds, ostriches, bunnies, pigs, cows and other animals I'm not terrified of. I skipped the snakes. Bryan made sure I didn't go anywhere near them! Love my husband!
We each got a small feedbag with pellets and carrots slices. OMG...the animals are SO cute when they want you to feed them that I had a very hard time not giving the first horse and donkey everything I had! The little goats would come over with their little tongues flicking in and out to try to get you to feed them.
The ostriches were scary...just the way they looked at you. But the camels??? Um, be careful - I fed one and then he bit my hand trying to take my whole feedbag! I still have a bruise!
After the farm, we went to some ruins - an old gold mill - and then to what was called the 'natural bridge'. Only it's collapsed and it's no longer much to look at. Disappointing. We also went to some rock formations for a bit.
We arrived yesterday afternoon via air from Aruba. We are staying at the Divi Flamingo Dive Resort and it's quite fun and cute and exactly the sort of place I love to be at. The resort is larger than I expected, actually, but there are 2 pools, 2 restaurants, a bar, and a dive shop right on site. The clientele are very much divers, and the hours of the bar and restaurants are very much catering to the dive people. Which is fine...
Prices here a much better than in Aruba, too. We walked across the street last night for dinner, to Jasmine Garden (an Asian fusion restaurant) and found beer for less than $2.00 US each (whereas in Aruba beer were at least $5.00 US). The food there was very good, lots of options from Chinese to Indonesian, too!
We did, admittedly, drink way too much at the resort bar last night. The one bartender was trying to teach me some Papamientu phrases but I honestly don't remember them! Numbers are in Spanish, other phrases are Dutch...it's neat how they combine a few different languages together - Spanish, English, Dutch and I think French.
This morning we hit the dive shop because all divers here must buy a Marine Park pass to dive and then attend an orientation. The orientation was quick and to the point, but kind of useless. We didn't really learn anything new. The reef here is very protected. Only 1 boat can be at a dive site at a time and no fishing or commercial boats are permitted in most areas.
We got equipment and were given a locker. So here you can just go diving on your own 24/7. Bryan acted as dive master today and took Dave, Lexi and I out along the reef for about 30 minutes. It was kind of cool but kind of scary to do a dive without a guide or dive master. Bryan did really well, though, and navigated us back to the right place. He took care of us all, watched us, made sure we were safe.
I have a defunct regulator though because it kept inflating my BCD on me. Gotta get that fixed before our dives tomorrow morning...
This island is beautiful. It's laid back, it's less developed, it's very diving focused. I wish, and I think we all wish, that we had spent less time on Aruba and more time here. We'd like to explore the history and a few festivals but we also want to dive so I don't think we'll see everything we want to in the next 2 days.
So, anyway, back to Aruba...
We relocated hotels to the Renaissance for 2 nights because Dave and Lexi wanted to see the flamingos on their private island.
Our take on this?
The hotel was horribly overpriced. Bryan and I didn't even get our room cleaned! Ridiculous! The restaurants in the hotel were expensive so we found some across the street. We did have the best meal ever on Aruba at Cuban's Cookin', so anyone who goes there must eat there! Yummy! I was beyond excited to finally eat something authentic!!!
The flamingo island was alright. There are 6 flamingos and you can't help but smile when you see them. They do well with all the people taking pictures of them and getting in their space while they want to sleep and rest. Very pretty birds. However, was the price of the hotel worth it? Um, not really.
We spent about $80 US on the island for lunch and a few drinks. The beach was okay, the water shallow and calm, broken by some rocks to prevent the real waves from coming in. Palm Beach where we had first stayed was a much nicer beach.
So, yeah, overpriced hotels and such are not our thing.
On Wednesday, when we switched hotels, we rented a car to tour Aruba a bit. Bryan and I didn't want to totally waste the day so we headed up north, saw a lighthouse, then traveled along the east coast and stopped at a bunch of places.
First, we stopped at a very tiny church. It was the church that the Catholics first began converting local indigenous people to Catholicism (of course...) and now is kept up for special occasions or tourists. It's small, like maybe holds 15 people!
Next, we hit an animal rescue farm which I wasn't keen on because their advertisement had a boa on it...
Anyway, we went. Mostly, there were horses, donkeys, goats, birds, ostriches, bunnies, pigs, cows and other animals I'm not terrified of. I skipped the snakes. Bryan made sure I didn't go anywhere near them! Love my husband!
We each got a small feedbag with pellets and carrots slices. OMG...the animals are SO cute when they want you to feed them that I had a very hard time not giving the first horse and donkey everything I had! The little goats would come over with their little tongues flicking in and out to try to get you to feed them.
The ostriches were scary...just the way they looked at you. But the camels??? Um, be careful - I fed one and then he bit my hand trying to take my whole feedbag! I still have a bruise!
After the farm, we went to some ruins - an old gold mill - and then to what was called the 'natural bridge'. Only it's collapsed and it's no longer much to look at. Disappointing. We also went to some rock formations for a bit.
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