Pictura di vakansi ariba Boneiru!

OK, I have no idea if that's proper Papiamento -- but these are selected pictures I took during my New Year's trip to Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. For those who've not heard of it, this is a former Dutch colony (first settled by the Dutch in the late 1600s) which is today a paradise for scuba divers. As luck would have it, the scuba club that my wife belongs to makes an annual trip down there for fun, frolic, and of course, scuba. Being a non-diver, I found plenty to hold my interest, however.

First post -- mostly cultural stuff. These were selected from about 3.1G worth of digital NEFs. (I'll get around to wildlife in the next couple of days.

1) The resort: Divi Flamingo, in Kralendijk:



2) A local dog, one of the few ever encountered upon a leash. After having been there for about five days, I was beginning to wonder if anyone on the island actually owned any dogs. Sure enough. This one was checking us out from the house adjacent to the mangrove information center on Lac Cai Bay:



3) Cactus trees on the windward side of the island. These things are HUGE, and they're omnipresent on the island. I would hazard that these are somewhere in the 20' tall range:



4) Something you don't see every day just outside your bedroom window; the Queen Mary II:



5) Boats on Lac Cai. This area was pretty nifty. It's basically a large tide pool, and it's surrounded by mountains of conch shells. Not sure if these boats belonged to conchers, but it's a safe bet:



6) Darling wife standing before a fantastic vista of cactus and coral on the top end of the island near Malmok in the Washington-Slagbaai national reserve park:



7) Red skies at night, a sailor's delight. Kralendijk is a major port of call for Caribbean cruise ships -- and leading up to New Year's Eve, there was a different one in the bay every evening, although I believe that's a tanker on the horizon. Sunsets are fantastic every night, and even if it's cloudy, the visibility extends way out to at least 20 miles:



More soon.