It was rather warm in Bonaire at 5:15 am -- about 81 degrees. It's always strange to me when it's warm before the sun comes up! We had a bit of a line to wait in to get through customs, but even that was interesting because we were serenaded the whole time by some tropical bird under the eves of the airport terminal.
After we gathered all our luggage, we found our way over to the car rental area. I say "car", but most rental vehicles on Bonaire are actually pick-up trucks. Like most I saw, ours had a crew cab and a wooden rack in the bed for carrying scuba tanks.
We managed to navigate our way pretty easily through Kralendijk in the dark. Fortunately, there were lots of signs - just no street signs, so my map was next to useless. First we headed toward downtown, and then followed the signs that said "hotels." When we got to the traffic circle (the only one on the island), we knew we were getting close.
As we were getting out of our truck at Captain Don's Habitat, I saw a shuttle full of people pulling in (obviously had arrived on our same plane), so we hustled a bit to get into the lobby ahead of them. We'd reserved a room for Friday night, so we were able to check right in.
There were several people on the shuttle (a single dive group) who were quite vocally amazed and annoyed that their rooms weren't ready for them. At 6 o'clock in the morning. What hotel on this planet has a 6 a.m. check-in time, I ask you?
Dive orientation was at 9, so we forced ourselves to stay awake for awhile after breakfast. It was very low key -- they checked our diver certification cards (affectionately known as "C" Cards) and explained the marine park rules. We were free to do our orientation dive on our own anytime the first day, so we went back to our room and slept about four hours. We were in no shape to be diving, tired as we were!
In the afternoon, after we bought our marine park tags and rented our gear, we took a nice dive off Baby Dock. 30 minutes, maximum depth 60 feet.
Then we had a delightful, delicious and leisurely dinner of lasagna at Pasa Bon Pizza.
After we gathered all our luggage, we found our way over to the car rental area. I say "car", but most rental vehicles on Bonaire are actually pick-up trucks. Like most I saw, ours had a crew cab and a wooden rack in the bed for carrying scuba tanks.
We managed to navigate our way pretty easily through Kralendijk in the dark. Fortunately, there were lots of signs - just no street signs, so my map was next to useless. First we headed toward downtown, and then followed the signs that said "hotels." When we got to the traffic circle (the only one on the island), we knew we were getting close.
As we were getting out of our truck at Captain Don's Habitat, I saw a shuttle full of people pulling in (obviously had arrived on our same plane), so we hustled a bit to get into the lobby ahead of them. We'd reserved a room for Friday night, so we were able to check right in.
There were several people on the shuttle (a single dive group) who were quite vocally amazed and annoyed that their rooms weren't ready for them. At 6 o'clock in the morning. What hotel on this planet has a 6 a.m. check-in time, I ask you?
Dive orientation was at 9, so we forced ourselves to stay awake for awhile after breakfast. It was very low key -- they checked our diver certification cards (affectionately known as "C" Cards) and explained the marine park rules. We were free to do our orientation dive on our own anytime the first day, so we went back to our room and slept about four hours. We were in no shape to be diving, tired as we were!
In the afternoon, after we bought our marine park tags and rented our gear, we took a nice dive off Baby Dock. 30 minutes, maximum depth 60 feet.
Then we had a delightful, delicious and leisurely dinner of lasagna at Pasa Bon Pizza.
