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