Bonaire - March 20

It's always a bittersweet day when we reach our final port of a cruise, though there are a couple of sea days before disembarkation, it means the cruise is coming to an end. 

I was up and out of bed by 6:30 and headed to Deck 16 for photos of our approach into Kralendjik, Bonaire. Sadly, the deck forward was closed so I had to wait until later in the day to get a photo.

I had visited Bonaire once before, and spent my time walking around the downtown area. There are lots of lovely shops and restaurants, one of which will feature in this post later.

After a leisurely breakfast on Deck 15 aft, I spent some time by the pool. I headed off ship at 9:30 to look for free WiFi, however there was no terminal and I didn't want to stray too far as my excursion group was meeting up shortly after 10 a.m. Instead, I sat on the pier and watched my fellow passengers.

My excursion in Bonaire was a tour to the eco marine park on Klein Bonaire, a small uninhabited islet off the west coast of the island. It was a small group excursion, with about 10-12 passengers on a glass bottomed boat. Our captain Kim, was a gracious host, sharing lots of information about the island, the eco park, and the plant and aquatic life in the coral reefs.

As we pulled out past our ship and into the ocean we saw a flock glide of flying fish. I've never seen them before and was so excited, I missed getting a photo. 

We were certainly not the only boat or ship on the waters near Bonaire that day. Kim told us that the island's population is around 20,000 people. They allow only one ship a day into port. The Ruby Princess is one of the smaller ships, and carries about 3,000 passengers. She explained that tourism is the main industry on the island. High season runs from November through April. 

We motored over to the Klein Bonaire to the marine park. The water is incredibly clear there because the sea bottom is mainly limestone and reflects the light back. This photo (not a great one) shows the difference in the coloring between the coral reefs and the ocean.

The next few photos are just a few of the ones I took from onboard the boat through the glass. We saw several variety of fish and one eel, though I wasn't able to get a photo of the latter.

I also got a few photos of the coral, probably when the fish dashed out of the photos.

Kim referred to these as stove pipe coral. It's evident how they got their name.

I found the black coral to be very interesting and have since learned that the black coral is nearly extinct in Bonaire.

As we left the marine park, we spotted this vessel. It would have been an interesting way to see the marine park.

Captain Kim motored us back across the ocean, but went further north so that we could view the resorts on the island. (No photos). On our way, we passed a young man out fishing.

As we motored along the shoreline cruising into port, we spotted the rare two-legged fish.

There were three of them, and I've no idea if they were aware we were above them. I did zoom in, so we weren't quite as close as this picture might suggest.

Once back in port, I ran into one of my fellow solo passengers. She had been shopping and didn't have time to take her parcel back to the ship before her excursion. I offered to take it with me, as I wanted to drop my large camera off at the ship before I did some shopping of my own.

Another of my fellow solo's had mentioned the bath salts available in Bonaire, and I found a lovely shop with all sorts of pretty items that would have been fun to bring home with me. I managed to stave off the temptation and left with a box of passion fruit bath salts. 

Bonaire is known for its flamingos, though to be honest, I've yet to see them in their natural habitat. After a wander through a few more shops, I made my way through a mall to Karel's bar. There I enjoyed an Amsted beer and an order of vegetarian tacos. I thought I had a photo of ship taken from my table at the restaurant but apparently, I was too busy eating and drinking. Suffice to say, it was a lovely spot to relax and enjoy the sun.

We had an early sail-away from Bonaire, around 3 or 3:30 if memory serves. From here, we had two sea days before we arrived back in Fort Lauderdale. Since my flight was booked for late in the afternoon, I had booked a tour through the canals which provided a place to store my luggage before I would be dropped off at the airport.

Next - Fort Lauderdale