Already in PBD....we flew out of Jacksonville, Florida at 0600 on Easter. Caught the connecting Air Jamaica flight in ATL to Montego Bay. The plane was only partially full which we later discovered was most likely due to it being a holiday. The seat on the Airbus planes were not comfortable. I think they need to have new cushions put in. Regardless, the champagne and food made up for it. Landing in Jamaica for the first time was interesting. Moving around in the Montego Bay airport will make you appreciate the organization of U.S. airports. It was a slow day and it was chaos. The airport intercoms were not working. We were all told to go to the lounge and wait until our flight was called. We went to the gate instead. Lucky that we did. There were only four of us on the entire plane. Someone finally went to the lounge to get the remaining passengers. It was still a light load with only 20 or so on the plane. We moved about freely, played cards, and drank champagne. Upon arrival in Bonaire, we made our way through immigration and had a new experience: we had to have our bags scanned to EXIT the airport. One of my bags fell off the belt and I strained my arm picking it up. We went out the door and were met by our ride to Harbour Village. Having only been to the Caymans, I was stunned to see the donkeys everywhere and the people driving so fast. I am a police officer in the US and the driver was wracking my nerves. We arrived at HV and were met by the bellman who immediately took control of our luggage. Check in was a breeze. We were whisked away to room 117 where we were stunned! I am a bathroom freak and I have to have one that is spotless. HV held up their promise. The entire one bedroom suite was tiled in dark hues. There was a huge shower with a thick glass door. All of the faucets were imported from the UK. Exotic soaps and hair products. A large clawfoot bathtub, double sinks with marble top vanity. A safe in the closet. Ceiling fans everywhere. A nice porch by the bedroom. French doors, a wet bar with refrigerator. Nice robes. A great beachfront patio with a hammock. And ice cold A/C. While my wife lounged in the hammock, I unpacked. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and I found a waiter delivering a nice red Merlot from Chile. I don't like red but this bottle was excellent. I continued unpacking. I placed all of our valuables into the safe to find that we no longer had our return tickets to the U.S. I back tracked to the last place we had them which was on the last plane. So, we determined that they were either in the airport, on their way to Montego Bay, or in the driver's van. I called the front desk and she assured me there was no need to worry (I should have believed her since we would later not want to leave Bonaire anyway). She made numerous calls within a span of five minutes to the driver, the airport, and the airline. No tickets to be found. So, we had her call AB Carrental to come and get us so we could start making arrangements for replacement tickets at the airport. While we waited at AB at the airport, one of Marc's employees asked us if we had lost our plane tickets. She advised that security was holding them at the airport. They had fallen out of my bag when my bag felt off the belt! We ran across the lot to the security office and retrieved the tickets. The security folks were not very nice (one of the few unpleasant people we met). So, now relieved, we got our car. Maybe I was expecting a new car or something. Instead, it was a beat up RAV4. But by the end of the week, I understood why it wasn't a big deal. There's no way to keep things new in that climate. We went to town and decided on the Rib Factory for dinner. We got the corner seat on the balcony. The sun was beating down and it was hot as you know what. I was afraid that this was going to be a miserable trip. But the sun finally went down and we decided to have the mix which was ribs, beef, and chicken. Nothing exciting but the beef was different that U.S. beef. We actually liked it a lot. The waitress were very nice and I think we were thrown off guard because we are used to the rudeness in the U.S. We learned our first lesson of 'island time' at this meal. No one is in a hurry for anything. Once your food arrives, don't expect your glass to be filled on a regular basis. You may have to wait. you may have to ask. And don't expect the bill to show up right after you finish the meal. Things are slow in Bonaire. Once you know that and accept it, you will be fine. Plan on two hours to eat. After that, we were beat. We got married the day before at 4 pm and didnt get to the hotel until midnight. Being at the airport at 4 am had worn us out. Off to bed we went at HV.

Day 2

We woke up at 8 am and headed to the HV restaurant out on the dock (really a dock dressed up like a boat). The service was prompt until all the food hit the table. Once again, the wait for refills and the bill was on. But we had already adapted to it so there wasn't a problem. The maid had already been to the room so we were set for the day. They folded our clothes and cleaned the floors with a little bleach. It was nice. We lounged in the hammock to the breeze. We decided to move around lunch time. We went into town to find everything closed up. We didn't realize that Easter Monday was a holiday. Lucky for us, KFC was open. The prices seemed a bit much until I learned how to convert NAF to US dollars. I also found that some businesses give a different rate of exchange. So we bought this meal in US dollars. I learned my lesson from another BT'er who told me to take a few hundred in US and use the ATM's. KFC was the last time I used US until we left. I withdrew 200 NAF from the RBTT ATM at KFC and we were in business. We jumped in our RAV4 and headed north to do some snorkeling. We were fascinated by how skinny the road gets heading out of town. We went to 1000 steps and the Cliff. We spent the afternoon snorkeling there. We followed the BT rules of safety. Leave nothing of value in sight in the cars. I carried nothing but my license, one credit card, and the keys with us. All of them went into our mesh bag which was tied to my arm during the snorkeling. My wife was very happy that I made her take a bottle of water. After snorkeling, she was parched. We really didn't see much in the water that day. We headed back to HV late in the afternoon. We headed out to dinner and decided to try City Cafe. My wife had the chicken cordon bleu which wasn't that great. I had the City Chicken which we both agreed was much better. The mustard sauce was excellent. After dinner, we were dead tired so off to bed we went.

Day 3

We had breakfast at HV. Nothing spectacular. Fruit and pastries although we later learned that in our package, they comped us up to $19 so we could get anything we wanted and pay the difference. After breakfast we took the kayaks out to get in a little practice. We fought the wind and headed toward town, turning around at Karel's. We made it back and decided to take a tour of the island. A word of advice: instead of going around the south end, take the north end first. Go north from Kralendijk along the coast. We circled the south end, through Sorobon, Rincon, and Gotomeer only to find out that the road going back to Kralendijk from Goto is one way. So we had to drive all the way back into Rincon to get back. We saw Windsock, the salt flats (which were amazing), and the beaches. We were amazed at the beauty at this end of the island. We saw all the slave huts and the lighthouse. We weren't as happy with the east side of the island. The water is horrendously rough there and the coast is cluttered with those weird garbage mounds. We went to Lac Bay to get a quick glimpse of the windsurfing. I tried to see why there was a big fence around the Sorobon beach (I found out later). We continued up to Rincon through an endless desert of cactus and donkeys. We drove through Rincon which I found quite interesting. Not much going on there. But then again, most people were probably at work in town. We drove to Gotomeer and saw the flamingos but we never went deep into the park like we should have. I was confronted by a donkey at Gotomeer. All I did was get out of the car to take a picture of the flamingos. He was in the bush and I didn't see him. He quickly let me know that I needed to get back in the car! I have never heard such a noise. So we drove on and had to make the detour through Rincon. But on the way we went up to Sera Largu? A great view from the top of the mountain along with a really cool religious shrine. As we drove back, we were caught in a funeral procession in Antriol. I had never seen a procession where they walked all the way to the cemetary. It took a while but I found it educational. We arrived back in town and went to to Cultimara to check out the food. It was really expensive. A two liter of Coke made in Curacao was $6 NAF! I later found out that the better stores were over behind Lisa Gas near the airport. Back to HV to get ready for dinner. After watching the sun set on the beach at HV, we went to Croccantino's. The mosquitoes were deadly! We left our deet in the room. If they hadn't been there, it would have been a great meal. I had the lasagna. Interesting in that it had bechamel milk in it. It was good. I can't remember what my wife had. I forgot after a few Amstels. It was still a good dinner.

Day 4

After breakfast, we headed out to Lac Cai where we took a kayak tour through the mangroves. My wife and I found the single kayaks to be more enjoyable. The mangroves were amazing. The guide was even better. We should have took the two hour tour. But if you're not comfortable in a kayak, go for the one hour tour. The water is crystal clear and you can see everything. We liked going under the mangrove canopies the best.
We headed back to town and finally made our first appearance at the Lost Penguin. We met the owner (I cant remember her name) and found out that she is from Nebraska which is where my wife's family is from. I had the pancakes with starwberries. The strawberries never made it to my plate because the chef forgot them. By the time they discovered that, it was too late. The strawberry sauce was excellent and the cakes were gone. We headed down south to do some more snorkeling. The Invisibles and Salt City. I was getting pretty adventurous and we headed out into deeper water. We put on the brakes when we saw a huge ray going back and forth. I think we got a little scared. After two hours and a side snorkel at pink beach, we headed back to town. We made our first stop to Karel's. We should have been stopping there every night. Alfredo at the bar is a super nice guy. He took us in like family. We had some great Polar and some mixed drinks. After a great sunset, Alfredo sent us on our way to It Rains Fishes for dinner. I had the ribs which I found to be nothing special (but I am very critical about food). My wife loved the whole place. The atmosphere was great and teh selection was large. I had a too few many Polar's that night so we turned in early.

The second part of the trip report to follow tomorrow....

Enjoying your trip report, looking forward to the rest.

Scott

J, wonderful report. Sounds like you were really getting into the "feeling" of Bonaire. It's hard not to! A wonderful honeymoon on Bonaire....can't get much better than that! Looking forward to more trip reports! Carole

Sounds like a wonderful honeymoon. Congratulations on your marriage! I'm looking forward to Part 2.

Cindy

Congratulations! Sound like a great trip so far. I'm anxious to read the rest. Masha danki for sharing!