Bonaire

We arrived in Bonaire bright and early on Wednesday morning. The skies were full of clouds. We did get spit on by the heavens a few times, and experienced a heavy shower as we worked our way back to the ship. I needn’t have worried about curling my hair, since the humidity and the rain did a good job of curling it naturally!

We joined our tour group at 9:00 am and headed off. It was a driving tour of the Island of Bonaire and we both enjoyed it.

We stopped at several vantage points and took pictures of their small mountains. They look upon them reverently, but as a New Hampshirite I saw them as little more than hills. Anyway, it was lovely tour and the views of the Island were quite nice. They even had a small shop with post cards out in the middle of nowhere!

On our way to Washington National Park we saw Flamingos and I quickly got two pictures. We had the world’s grumpiest bus driver and while I was standing to take a quick picture she gunned the engine and I went flying. Still, I got these two shots!

We went to a small museum and naturally this skeleton of a whale wanted to kiss my face. I had to go along! Further down the road we got this picture of our ship from the top of one of the hills.

When we were dropped back at the ship, we decided to go out to a small fruit market near the dock. We got a red papaya and some limes for a treat later on in our cabin, and quickly made our way back to the ship. By then it was raining hard, and we were getting just a bit wet!

After tossing our things back in our room we went up for lunch. It was Mexican Day and so we went to the Café Caribe for our meal. While we were sitting with another couple, Tom and Lisa (Lisa was from Australia!), the Cruise Director began to page three people who had not yet returned to the ship.

We were due to leave at 1:00 and at 12:45 these people still had not returned. After about 20 minutes the gentleman was found, but two women were still missing. At 1:30 the ship pushed away from the dock. I said I really wanted these two women to come running up to the ship and see it sailing away without them! They delayed the departure of over three thousand passengers and fifteen hundred crew members!

We had only moved 100 feet from the dock when we saw two women running toward the ship! (My prayer had been answered.) All the passengers in the dining room watched and speculated on what would happen next. Well, the small boat that picks up the local Pilot and returns him to shore picked up the two women and brought them out to the ship! Some luck, eh? And do you know what they did once they got close to the ship? They started waving at everyone like they were the Queen of England.

Some gall, eh? They’ll get a round of applause the next time they show up in a dining room.

If it had been me causing the delay of departure of over 3000 people, I’m positive the local Princess employees would have told me to swim to the ship!