Is there an annual Carnival or Festival happening now? If so, what is being celebrated and are there things for tourists to participate in?

Feb 2 - Big Screen Wilhelmina Park
Feb 3 - Tumba Festival Contest
Feb 4 - Youth Tumba Contest
Feb 11 - Youth Queen Election
Feb 16 - Carnival Queen Election
Feb 17 - Youth Parade Rincon
Feb 18 - Youth Parade Kralendijk
Feb 23 - Marathon Jump-up Rincon
Feb 24 - Adult Parade, Rincon
Feb 25 - Adult Parade, Kralendijk
Feb 26 - Youth Farewell Parade
Feb 27 - Grand Farewell Parade with the burning of King Momo

The Tumba contests are contest of bands to pick a winner for the respective parades - adult and youth. In the past these have been held at the stadium.

The Youth parade indicates the participants are children on various floats and costume. It is usually held in the afternoon. The Adult parade is in the evening with of course, adult participants. Although the watchers are of all ages. Both parades start at the stadium go up Kaya Grandi and wind around and last year back down the waterfront.

Jump-up involves everyone dancing in a parade like procession. Costumes not necessary. In past years, there has been a children's jump-up with a shorter route during the afternoon. I don't have a date for that one.

In past years, many of the hotels have put together floats and gotten guests to dress up, dance and join the parades.

Linda - how about between April 28th and May 12?

Apr 29 - Queen's Birthday Sailing Race
Apr 30 - Rincon Day
Apr 30 - Queen Birthday
Apr 30 - 17 km Run

May 2001
May 1 - Labor Day
May 5 - Underwater Cleanup Dive

April 30th is Rincon Day and the Queen's birthday. Our family really enjoys Rincon day. Local dancing, bands, etc. Streets in Rincon are blocked for walking. Lots of great food stands.

Any divers here on the first Saturday of the month, should lend a hand in our monthly underwater cleanup (and followup BBQ). We work in the downtown harbor area although May might be the month we cleanup up the beaches of Klein Bonaire in preparations for turtle nesting season. Afterwards we all head back to Green Submarine to count the plunder and enjoy a chicken BBQ with potluck extras like salads, munchies, casseroles, desserts. Its a fun way to meet local residents, cruisers, and vacationers.

I will miss toasting Her Majesty with "Orange" this year (sigh).

Linda, the only thing happening while we're there is the Youth Queen election. Where is that held, and is it worth putting into our schedule?

I've not heard of the election being a big thing. I'll see what I can find out.

Thanks a lot.

Linda - you may have created a monster here. How about events from March 10 through March 18? Thanks!

And May 19 thru June 2??? (Other than the planning of a Bar B Que at your place!) Sorry, could not resist! Thanks. Carole

March 10 - 18 Still recovering from Carnival :-)

Mar 11 - 3 km run Stadion Kralendijk
Mar 18 - Road Race 40 km and 70km Bonaire Cycling
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May 19 - June 2

May 19 - 5th Bonaire Mountain Bike Challenge Race
May 20 - Road Race 80 km Cycle Bonaire
May 24 - Ascension Day
May 27 - 3km run Race
TBA - Dutch Antilles Windsurfing Challenge (Lac Bai Cai)

Jun 2 - Underwater Cleanup Dive
Jun 2 - Cycling tour Kralendijk-Lac Bay Bonaire Cycling

I think all of us who are there in early June want to participate in the clean-up dive. We can then go count garbage, have a BBQ and whatever else comes to mind!

And the Bonaire Dive Festival Starts June 10!

...and, yes, I should be working, but I'm waiting for a conference call to commence so I'm indulging in some diversion. Cheers!

Being a native New Orleanean I can't wait to get there for Carnival. I absolutely love Mardi gras but I haven't been to Mardi Gras since I started living in Colorado. I do get back to New Orleans at least once a year. My whole family still lives there and I really do love that city.

Are there a lot of crazy costumes? I know if the people are fun and crazy there should be a lot of crazy costumes ;)

We are bringing some colorful Mardi Gras T-shirts and purple, green and gold hats to wear. Absolutely can't wait!

Susan, Check out Linda's profile picture for some great masks (and I bet she made them, too)!

Ya'll have fun and stop by the street cam to say hey all decked out for the festivities :-)

I really hope to get to one of the cams. Only one person from the group I will be with uses the internet so they don't have a clue as to what I am talking about when I talk about you guys. I do this at work (pretty laid back job for one general surgeon in a pretty small town) not at home so my husband doesn't even know what I'm talking about. I hope I can talk them into going to one of the cams. If we do, you'll know us.

The masks my daughter and I are wearing were bought in the land of Mardi Gras - New Orleans. We bought them because they were beautiful and what better use than dressing up for the Youth Carnival Parade here on Bonaire. I bought lots of purple, gold and green necklaces too.

Dara, you can count us in for the clean up dive and whatever, be happy to help!!Let you know our traveling dates.

Susan, try to get your group to go to the webcam, it's FUN! Maybe someone here will capt it and send it to you Instant postcard from Bonaire!!

It looks like we will be on Bonaire for the Dive Festival this year(another new experience)Can anyone give me some pointers or suggestion as what it's like?What not to miss?

Well we are in the midst of Mardi Gras here in New Orleans and are excited to be leaving the city next week not only for ten days of diving to our hearts content, but also to see the last day of Carnival in Bonaire.

We will be there the first Saturday in March...anyone have more information on the cleanup dive?

Check here for the latest info:

http://www.bonairenature.com/underwatercleanup.html

Jake

The above link to the underwater clean-up has been removed as Green Submarine has decided that it will run its own underwater clean-up for its dive shop and guests. Not sure where this puts the rest of us.

However, when on-island, Linda and I are open to showing those of you interested the proper techniques for cleaning up underwater.

Back to the topic at hand, namely Carnival, we just got a note that some local "Karnaval" coverage is available on-line:

http://www.bonairelive.com/karnaval

We may soon have some photos of this past Sunday's children's carnival parade on-line.

Jake

Jake - please post something on U/W clean up if something new develops. We would certainly be open to helping when we are there diving (5/5 to 5/12). Could even help with beach cleanup if you do that during our first week there 4/28 to 5/4. I'm sure that if the other dive shops know of the Green Submarine dropping it's participation someone will pick up where they left off. Reef protection is important to all of us, but more so to those of live and dive it daily.

Gail,

As far as I know, it's not that GS is dropping its participation, but that they have decided that they want to do it alone without community involvement, i.e. a dive shop thing.

For all I know they may still let people who don't dive with them participate, however, we will personally no longer be involved.

But, that said, if we are available, we (Linda and I) would be glad to take small groups of people out for a clean-up dive to show them how it's done. At some point in the next few weeks or months we'll post a short on-line guide to cleaning up to complement what the Bonaire National Marine Park publishes (adding practical experience pointers) which would serve as an intro to doing this dive with us.

Jake