Chasing Summer –

April 13-18

Bonaire

The Odyssey is visiting the ABC Islands, but not in that order. First up is two days in Bonaire. We arrived on a Sunday, and everything was closed because no one seemed to know that our cruise ship was coming.

Bonaire is small, and the primary activity here is snorkeling. Some people had arranged tours for diving or snorkeling, and several others were taking a water taxi to No Name Beach for the day.

Steven and Angela’s daughter, Stephanie, and her boyfriend were arriving for a week-long holiday, so their plan for the day was just to go get them. Scott and I decided to do a little walk around town, maybe find a beach, and visit a local brewery.

Walking around town was even smaller than we thought. In about 10 minutes, we have the whole place covered. We decided to visit a large beachside bar and restaurant for a frozen cappuccino while we figured out what to do.

Starlink, our Internet provider on the ship, is not available in Bonaire, so there was no Internet on the boat, but I could access my cell phone plan, and many restaurants have wifi.

We decided to head to the ChaChaCha Beach. It’s about a five-minute walk from our pier and is incredibly small and rocky. There is a pier that you can walk out to and two ladders going down from either side into the water. This is what we used for a little swim.

We returned to the Odyssey for lunch, and Angela, Steve, and the kids were there. We decided that after lunch, we would go try the local brewery and return to the ship for the evening local show.

Day two in Bonaire was a golf cart trip around the entire island. The island is divided into two loops, a self loop and a north loop. the South Loop takes an hour and a half without stopping. The North Loop takes two and a half hours without stopping. Both can be done in one day if you don’t stop too often.

My group started with the South Loop, and if I had to do it again, I would change the order. these South Loop are more dive sites, beaches, donkeys and flamingos, and salt plains.

We picked up our golf carts at Bon Air Cruisers at 9a.m. and headed towards the airport and Tio Amo Beach. We stopped for a quick picture and then headed south, passing many dive sites. There are painted yellow rocks along the road to show people where it is safe to enter and exit the water.

We headed towards the salt plains where there was white and pink salt being dried out. There is a huge salt processing plant that will load the salt into huge containers, use a rail system to get it out to the pier, and load it directly onto boats.

Within the salt company land is also the flamingo reserve. Flamingos are protected by law and can be seen from the road without entering the reserve. There were plenty of flamingos.

Also, along this route are the slave huts. The slave huts were constructed in 1850 and housed the slaves who were working in the salt ponds.

There is one beach called Pink Beach which I was excited to go visit, but it wasn’t as pink as I was promised. Hooker Beach did have a little bit of pink coral, which I enjoyed.

At the tip of the island was the William Storen Lighthouse and ruin. At this point, the oceans became much rougher and windier. We made our way back north along the coast, passing solar salt works, and watched the crashing waves.

Eventually, we came to Lac Bay. This is a popular windsurf area called Sorobong Beach. Here, we stopped for a drink before continuing on our way.

From Lac Bay, we headed back towards the city through the mangrove field. Here, we saw more flamingos and donkeys.

As it was lunchtime, we decided to stop at the boat for a free lunch before doing the North Tour.

The north tour takes you through the city and up towards 1000 steps. 1000 steps is one of the most famous dive sites on Bonaire, and as you can imagine, it has some stairs going up and down, but only 67 steps.

Once you reach 1000 steps, the road turns into one way, and you are committed to completing the rest of the North Loop. This section was very different from the South, with hills and rocky sides, and lots of cacti.

As you reach the top of the loop, you arrive at Gotomere, which is a saltwater lagoon and a popular flamingo hangout.

Heading on the only road, we went back towards Rincon, the oldest village on Bonaire. It is also the oldest village in continual existence within the former Netherlands antilles and Aruba. Rincon is also home to a cacti distillery.

The last stop before going back to the city, who is Seru Largu. Seru Largu means large hill, and from the top, we could see the capital city and our boat.

To finish off our hot, long day, he went back to Chachacha Beach and hopped in the water.

Curacao

curacao is by far many people’s favorite island. It has a cute and clean metro area for tourists. They have just introduced a new currency here in the country, and I am unsure what the exchange rate is.

Right after breakfast, I headed out to explore the town. There is a GPS My City walking map, but I was loosely following it as my guide. The historical section of Curacao is divided into two parts, and a pontoon bridge for pedestrians is used to join the two sections.

Leaving the cruise terminal area, there were several shops, cafes, and bars. People were very friendly and offered taxi tours.

I quickly walked along until I reached the old fort, which was built in 1828. The Riff Fort has been turned into a mall called the Renaissance Mall and Rif Fort. The Fort has served many purposes, such as a brothel, police headquarters, prison, and a radio station.

The Queen Emma Bridge is the pontoon bridge that joins Punda and Otrobanda, the two historical districts. It was first built in 1888 and has been renovated several times. The bridge has a hinge that allows it to swing open so boats can continue down Saint Anna Bay. It only takes a few minutes, but if the bridge is open longer, there is a free ferry to take passengers across.

As soon as I crossed the bridge, I could see Fort Amsterdam. It was constructed in 1635 by the Dutch West India Company. It is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site and includes the Oldest Church in Curacao, dating back to 1769, and the governor’s residence.

Walking along the bay is a variety of colorful buildings built in the Dutch style. It is the Merchant’s Quay or Handelskade. The buildings are all preserved 18th-century buildings.

At the end of Merchants Quay, and across another small bridge, is the maritime museum.

Continuing along the canal, there is what is considered the floating market. Wooden boats from Venezuela are docked alongside the canal and set up shops. Venders shelter under colorful tents with their fresh produce. I was a little disappointed because you couldn’t really see their boats hidden behind the shops and awning.

I also continued past the new market, food market, and fish market. And headed to the end of Otrobanda to New Street or Nieuwestraat. The new street is known for colourful buildings, booty hotels, charming shops, cafes, and restaurants. It seems like a place that has a lively night scene.

I made my way back to Queen Wilhelmina Park. There, there was the Fort Amsterdam Church clock tower and a W-shaped memorial dedicated to Queen Willemina. This is also where the letters for dushi and carousel are. Most of the streets heading north from this park are filled with shops and small galleries.

A couple blocks in is the Mikve Israel-Emmanuel Synagogue. This synagogue was consecrated in 1732 and is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Americas. It costs $10 to enter and tour.

After exploring some of the murals and artwork of the area, I headed back across Queen Emma Bridge and made my way to another amazing mural and the Kura Hulanda Museum.

By this time, it was 12, and the local brewery was open. So I headed off to the Swinging Old Lady Brewery, where I sampled their local beers and had some deep-fried pickles.

A little bit tipsy, I headed back towards the boat to visit with friends in the afternoon.

Our second day here was an organized tour of the caves, and then we went snorkeling with sea turtles. The caves were cool to see but the rest of the day was a bit of a disappointment.

The sea turtle section was seriously underwhelming. There was 1 large and 1 small turtle and about a hundred people trying to see them.

At this point, the tour was going to another beach for a couple hour swim or people could go to lunch and then the beach. Our tour guide made a point several times saying that there really weren’t any lunch options at the beach so we should eat at this restaurant first. Now I’m not gonna say there was some misinformation, but we chose to go to the beach and had a quick lunch there without any problems.

Aruba

Aruba is a great place if you want to go to a beach. It’s really only a great place if you want to go to a beach.

The town itself is very small, and you can through the entire thing within about an hour and a half. It is also hot, so Devon and Stephanie, who flew down from Denver, didn’t want to spend much time outside.

We spent the morning, looking at the sites, before heading back to the boat for lunch.

I spent relaxing afternoon making sure everything was ready for disembarkation tomorrow. I discovered that I needed to have a disembarkation and embarkation ED card filled out, which would have been better about a week ago. But I did this online, and it cost about $60 US.

We went out for a happy hour and watched the sunset at Lucy’s, and I had a giant margarita with a beer, so a beergarita.

In the morning, I woke up to overcast skies. I had breakfast and then went to the guest counter to see about getting my passport to go check into the hotel. I received a response from the Aruba Ed card system, seeing that because I was already here, I need to do this in person.

That’s a problem because in person is only at the airport. So I have our port agent talking with immigration to see how I can do this. Everyone was ready to just let it go until I asked the question, “What happens tomorrow when I show up for my flight and I don’t have the card?”

My plan is to go drop my suitcase off of the hotel and come back to the ship for lunch and a catamaran tour in the afternoon. Then  have dinner here before going back to my hotel to spend the night.

Luckily, the immigration officer was able to help me get the paper I needed without issues, and I was able to drop off my bag without issues at the hotel. which turned out to be a really good thing as the reception closed at 6, and I would have missed check-in after the catamaran.

The catamaran trip was fantastic. 13 of us headed out on a catamaran to two snorkel locations with music and great vibes.

I have to admit, while many people rank Aruba as their favorite Caribbean destination, it was my least favorite of the three, and unless the beach is your only holiday plan I’d rather go somewhere other than the Caribbean for a holiday.