Bonaire Affair

Seb and I took an early flight from Curacao across to Kralendijk in Bonaire for the day. It was a throwback to our first trip to the Caribbean when Seb and I explored the islands around St Martin in March.

Bonaire, made up of one large and one small uninhabited island called Klein Bonaire, is a special municipality of the Netherlands. Together with Aruba and Curaçao it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles.

Welcome to Bonaire

After the quick 30 minute flight we headed straight to Hertz to rent a car for the day. There are about 5 or 6 rental car agencies all located near the parking lot outside of the main airport terminal. We got a small hatchback and immediately headed south past exotic dive spots with names like Angel City, White Slave and Sweet Dreams. We stopped every few minutes to look at the condenser ponds at the salt works, the various slave huts and the Willemstoren lighthouse at the very southern tip of the island before stopping at Lac Bay for a drink and to plan our lunch stop in Kralendijk.

One of the slave huts on Bonaire

Willemstoren lighthouse

We headed back to Kralendijk for lunch without expecting to find too many good options. Compared to Aruba, Bonaire's capital is small and surprisingly easy to navigate and park. We stopped outside a gift shop called the Bonaire Affair - I spent a about half an hour selecting a few trinkets for my collection. Lunch was at an excellent seaside spot called "It Rains Fishes" overlooking the Caribbean Sea and the small island of Klein Bonaire.

Seb outside "It Rains Fishes"

The view from "It Rains Fishes"

After lunch we drove around the north part of the island including the lookout at Cruz Seru Largu (check out the panoramic view at Bonaire Panoramas), the small town of Rincon and Goto Meer before making our way back to the airport for our late afternoon flight to Curacao.

Seru Largu

Ostrich Farm in Aruba

After a few days beach and poolside in Curacao, Sara, Seb, Lily and I all flew to Aruba for a day trip that promised a chance of scenery. The flight was maybe 30 minutes duration. We paid about US$190 for each adult ticket and close to US$150 each for the kids.

We drove from the airport to Oranjestad, the Aruban capital city to have lunch. At the time there was a lot of road work and parking was absolutely awful so my first impressions of Aruba weren't great. I didn't really like Oranjestad at all - after parking a long way from the central city area we walked for a long time trying to find a decent place to have brunch but we ended up at Starbucks instead. I'm sure the development will pay off in the future but I found it a big waste of time.

The kids were all about seeing the Ostrich Farm today so we got out of the city as quickly as we could and headed for the northern coast. It was barely a 30 minute drive but well worth the diversion because the kids got a closeup experience with the birds and even some chicks as well. The farm has emus as well as ostriches - the difference being emus (from Australia) are much smaller and have three toes; ostriches (from Africa) are the only birds with two toes. All the time though I couldn't help but wonder what ever became of the Moa - the 12 foot, 500lb beauty that graced New Zealand long ago.

Lily at the Ostrich Farm on Matividri Road

Orville the Ostrich

After the Ostrich Farm we drove south past the ugly Valero oil refinery to Baby Beach at the southern tip of the island so the kids could swim, and wash the smell of ostrich off them. The beach was okay but there were very few amenities and the toilets were closed. Not for the first time we encouraged the kids to pee in the ocean.

Lily at the Lost Seaman Memorial in southern Aruba

We found a cool place for dinner called Pinchos Bar & Grill next to the marina overlooking the bay. It was super close to the airport so a good place to enjoy a lovely meal before catching the last flight back to Curacao. I wasn't that impressed with Aruba but maybe it was because we only had a day there - I just never felt comfortable there.

Lily, Sara and Seb at Pinchos