Bonaire is never boring

This was for me the thirt time to visit Bonaire, and also this time it was a short visit, but every minute worth. The first two times i arrived in the middle of the night after a direct flight, but after KLM changes the route to Bonaire via Aruba i arrived this time in the beginning of the evening.

The flight was as useal a MD11 flight, it's was a smooth flight and i was seated in the comfort class row 9j, so window seat in front of the engine and enough legroom. We landed first in Aruba where we had to leave the plane, and with the transit ticket in the hand we had to walk to the security for a checkup before entering the gate area for entering the plane for the last leg of a 30 minuts flight to Bonaire Flaminge airport.

Here you can see the changes Bonaire had to go through after it became a special department of the Netherlands. At customs you see now two lanes, one Dutch passports and one for other passports. Also they have a security scan for the luggage. So after my suitcase came through the scan i was asked to open my suitcase because they want to know what i was taking with me. After i explained what it was i was free to go furter and there i was welcomed by a friend of my . After a short drive to his house on the hill of Santa Barbara the first Polar bottle opens and the Bonaire time was started.

I came to the island to do some maintenance on the cessna of the Bonaeroclub, and that was sceduled for two day's, so the other time was for diving and exploring. During my stay on the island i was also updated about the changes of Bonaire as a special department of he Netherlands.

The government wants to change a lot of things what is not good for Bonaire, the daily life of the locals is now three times more expensive as before, they wants to change buildingcontracts so they can build jetty's in front of Kralendijk , damaging the marinepark under it ect. 

After a good night sleep and breakfast with a very nice view over Kralendijk it was time to go to the airport. This time of the year it was raining season, so by the time i was cooled down by a tropical shower for 10 minuts and dryed by the sun after it. At the end of the day we went to the "Mona lisa"for one beer, but a 10 pm we left the bar to visit two friends making chili concarne, yammie!.

 After the maintenance was performed it was time for myself and after 9 years it was time to go down the water surface for a scuba dive. The most dives i performed in the Netherlands, in dark cold water, and now i was diving in the carribean sea and was exited what to see. It was great, lots of different fish, corals and other spiecies and a dive master who was writing down all the info so i knew what i saw, it was in one word "perfect".

The next day was planned to climb the "Brandaris", so we had to get up early to enter the Washington slagbaai national park. To climb the Brandaris you have to be there at 12AM , after that it is to late and you will be to late out of the park. We where on time and after the rangers info about latest times we drove to the parking of the brandaris trail.

We missed the parking and thought we had the right track but after a 15 minuts walk we found out we where on the wrong track and went back to the car to find the right one. When we found the right one we started our walk and by the time we started it was very warm. The track is a combination of a footpath and rock climbing and after 1 hour we reached the top of the Brandaris 241m/ 784ft, the highest point of the island. The view was super and it was very windy. We spent about a half hour and than started to climb down back to the car. After we arrived back to the car we went further to slagbaai for a snack and a cool beer. From the restauarant you have on one side a nice view over slagbaai and on the other side a nice view to the flamingo's in salina slagbaai. The drive to the exit of the park took one and a half hour and there we visited the little museum and had a nice chat with the ranger of the park. After we finished we went back to Kralendijk to deliver our diving gear back to the shop and do shop supermarket shopping for the last evening meal on Bonaire. Here i saw the difference as 2 year ago, the prizes where much higher than before.

My plane was sceduled to depart at 9pm so had some time to enjoy the last sunset. The time was there to go to the airport and check in. I've got a seat back in the plane row 32C . Once in the plane the stewardess asked me if i want to change seats to 34C with no one next to me, so more space. After an awfull meal i fell a sleep and woke up just before landing. Once on schiphol we had a passport check at the gate, i have to explaine why i was on Bonaire for this short time, have to open my carry on luggage and had an extra check at customs. I knew for sure i was back in the Netherlands.