20220906 Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas ABC cruise - Day 4 of 8 - Kralendijk, Bonaire

Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas ABC cruise - Day 4 of 8

Kralendijk, Bonaire

We docked in Bonaire this morning and increased the island's population by about 15%.  Bonaire, one of four countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has only 22,000 residents so it's pretty easy for a cruise ship or two to overwhelm this tourist destination. It is known for snorkeling and scuba and from the colors of the water, you can see why.

Our excursion wasn't until the afternoon so along with our Cincinnati partners, we scored another trivia win this morning. After that, we took a stroll into town.  There were still a lot of shuttered businesses - a result of COVID and zero tourism.

This friendly little dude was greeting tourists

A look at our ride on this journey

Looking our touristy best

After our stroll around town in the 95-degree heat, we came back to the ship to cool down and have a quick lunch. Then, it was time to depart for our excursion on the Samur, an authentic Siamese junk, to Klein Bonaire for a little snorkeling.

Samur is more than 50 years old. Originally built in Siam, it is an all-wood junk - a type of boat originally designed in China.  

Our trip took us to Klein Bonaire.  Klein is Dutch for little, so the island is "Little Bonaire".  It measures about 2.5 miles across and is circular, flat, and uninhabited.

As we arrived at the Samur, a magnificent frigate (a bird) landed on a light pole - the first time we've ever seen one land.

Once anchored at Klein Bonaire, we boarded zodiac boats and were shuttled along the coast to our drop-off point to snorkel back to our beach pick-up.  Here are the things we saw on the swim.

Do we look like professionals?

The best-looking thing in the water all day

Arlona on the right, Samur on the left

It was a fun day in the water and on the boat. Of course, the return trip included the customary rum punch.

We walked back to the ship, showered, and got ready for dinner.  We eat dinner every night with a terrific couple from Sun City Center, Florida whom we met on the first day of the cruise. It makes for great dinner conversation every evening.

Since the entertainment didn't interest us tonight, I worked on the photos from today and started putting together this blog. We're a little tired because we were up late last night, attending the Love & Marriage game show.  It's a take on the Newlywed game and most cruise ships do a version of it.  The best answer of the evening came from a couple married for 59 years. When asked for the most unusual place they had made whoopie, both gave the same answer - in a car, driving down I-15!  They did admit to reducing speed to the posted speed limit for the duration!  I guess cars were bigger back then.

We are now underway for the arduous (a huge exaggeration) 75-mile cruise from Bonaire to Curaçao.  We're making about four knots at the moment.  It should be a smooth sail tonight!

I also wanted to mention another unusual aspect of this cruise.  There are more non-English speakers, or at least English isn't their first language, on this cruise than any other we've been on when sailing out of a US port.  There are tons of Spanish or Spanish variants, Germanic languages, Indian languages, and more, plus others we aren't sure about.  To be clear, these are passengers, not crew.  I'm not sure why, especially sailing from the United States, but it sure is interesting.

Tomorrow will feature some shopping in the morning and a turtle snorkeling excursion in the afternoon.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the R-Bar got some vanilla vodka in, so that means writing is much more pleasant with my vanilla limoncello, and pineapple martinis. :-)

Enjoying an extended nightcap with Sabrina at the R-Bar