Bonaire
A very lucky day
We arrived at dawn on the cruise ship that toured the Dutch Caribbean, that is, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. The first destination was B, Bonaire.
That Sunday in January, when we got off at the port, very well prepared for cruise ship arrivals, the stores were still closed. We arrived around seven in the morning and as soon as we could, we decided to disembark to avoid the crowds.
We walked along the deserted main street, very colorful and neat, until we approached the water cab stand to cross to Klein Bonaire. It is a twenty-minute boat ride to the island just in front of the harbor; a natural paradise since it maintains the reserve status, which ensures the purest state of the beach and the sea, as well as its "inhabitants": only the characteristic fauna. In fact, upon arrival, we set up a small shelter to protect ourselves from the relentless Caribbean sun or from the showers when it got cloudy, under the dense vegetation a few meters from the water, and it wasn't even a few minutes before lizards, snails and different birds began to parade by our side.
The gray and heavy clouds unloaded a few drops, but the rain did not last more than a few minutes, so the rest of that morning we enjoyed the No Name beach, taking advantage of the fresh and crystal clear water of the Caribbean in its most turquoise version.
What perhaps surprised us most was the number of sea snails; very slow moving mollusks with colorful shells walking back and forth on the sand, almost unaware of our presence.
Bonaire is the world's paradise for scuba diving because it is surrounded by a coral reef that generates an impressive ecosystem. Another more accessible option is snorkeling.
The morning passed so quickly between dips in the sea that around two in the afternoon we decided to take the water cab back to Kralendijk, capital of Bonaire. The name is a deformation of the Dutch word koralendijk which means coral reef.
On the way back to the harbor, the sailor on our twenty-five-dollar-per-two-trip boat took a detour to pick up his colleague right in front of the hotel where King William and Queen Maxima were staying that day. The members of the crown were on an official visit to the Dutch Caribbean. As fate would have it, this delay allowed us to meet Roderick.
When we arrived at the port and tried to take a tour to visit the south of the island, there were no more seats available. The stands were closed by that time, three in the afternoon. There were no cabs available either.
The only option was to walk the last four hours of the stopover in the tiny center of Bonaire, leaving us without knowing the fascinating history of the south, the most significant of the island.
A cruise coordinator told us that at that time everything was impossible. The only cab driver apologized because he was on his way home.
But if there's one thing @tripticity- has plenty of, it's determination. So when he saw a chiva fun, an old decorated and painted bus that tours Europeans, he approached the driver and asked him if he knew of an operator.
Roderick's words were give me a minute and I'll help you.
So far nothing different... but it wasn't even ten minutes later that the super friendly Roderick started walking back and forth in the port, looking for someone willing to give us the tour.
At one point he asked us if it could be in Spanish, as we had been speaking to him in English until then. It so happens that in these Caribbean islands everyone speaks at least four languages: Dutch, English, Spanish and Papiamento (the local language which is nothing more than a mixture of the language of the first settlers). When we said yes, that we were Argentines, he took us straight to Joel, his friend, who for the same twenty-five dollars that the tours charged, gave us the tour.
Parenthesis: how much a place speaks about the predisposition of its people when you ask for help!
In this case, Roderick's kindness, disinterest and commitment surprised us and made us appreciate even more the beauty of the island, since he not only solved the tour question but also allowed us to meet Joel, a Venezuelan who settled in Bonaire four years ago, due to the difficult situation in his country. Roderick is, besides being a tour operator, a judge of the Miss Bonaire contest and a writer, and as we learned later, a colossal human being, with extraordinary gestures.
Throughout the tour, Joel told us his life story, the vicissitudes of his condition as a migrant, the difficulties of discrimination and thanks to life for having met Roderick, who in his altruism helped him after being deported. Stories like these, told in first person, thanks to the coincidence in the most unimaginable circumstances, are the ones that move @tripticity_ and perhaps the ones we enjoys the most. Even more than the dreamy beach scenery of that morning at No Name Beach.
Forever, thank you Roderick and Joel, thank you Bonaire, and hopefully someday you will visit northern Argentina so we can repay your kindness!
Well, together with Joel we started the tour of about an hour and a half. First we pass by the pink salt flats and the salt port, where the boats are loaded with the production of the only industry of the island except - logically - tourism. The lake that forms the salt flats is also home to pink flamingos.
We then visited the moving slave cottages and obelisks. Built around 1850, still a time of slavery, these tiny, rudimentary shelters were inhabited by the laborers who worked in salt extraction. In addition, four obelisks each with the distinctive colors of the Netherlands (orange, red, white and blue) were used to signal to the ships the place of delivery of the salt.
Next, the first lighthouse of Bonaire from 1837. And finally, the Sorobon beach, then back to the center and a final walk along the main artery of Kralendijk before boarding our cruise ship, which would take us the next day to neighboring Aruba.
Once on deck twelve aft, at the Garden Café, while once again enjoying a pepperoni pizza and an Italian beer, we bid farewell to beautiful Bonaire, as the cruise departed into a tremendous sunset.
That night we toasted Roderick and Joel, and the fate that led us to meet them.
