Kralendijk

Kralendijk (pronounced: crawl-len- dike) is the capital city and main port of Bonaire. The name is an alteration of a Dutch word that means "coral dike". The locals call it "Playa" or Beach. The population of the entire island is about 26,000.
 

This is the main drag of Kralendijk. The buildings are typical Dutch style.  At the top of the building on the corner you can see there are two flamingos adorning the front of the building.

Since Covid, many of the stores are now empty and closed. The Hague has been supporting the citizens and businesses throughout this pandemic.  The socialist country paid businesses to keep their employees working, they paid for a portion of everyone's utilities, and generally poured money into the economy to keep everything they could going.  Without the dollars spent by US tourists, the economy is slowly scaling back to the pre-tourist era of the 1990's.

Most of the government buildings look like this.  I think they paint everything orange because the King and Queen of Holland are from the House of Oranje.  It looks more like golden yellow to me.

Fort Oranje, was built in 1639 to defend the harbor. The English settled the town next to the fort in 1810. The Dutch took it back in 1840 and named it Kralendijk.

This is sea side of the City. It runs the length of the town.  It is filled with restaurants and shops. There is a paver sidewalk along the sea and people swim, dive and snorkel right off the sidewalk. 

For those of you that live in Denver, notice the tent in the background that looks just like DIA.  This tent covers a restaurant that is on a jetty.                                   

The shipment of our stuff from Miami is scheduled to arrive March 2.  This could be the container ship that carried our belongings. This is the port side of the city where cargo ships and cruise ships come to dock.  All the food for the island is brought in via cargo ships from this dock. Each Friday food arrives.  Saturday is a big day at he grocery store because all the fresh stuff is stocked. I wish there was a container that said Amazon on it.

Calm

There are Buddhas all over the house.  I can feel the calm already. OOOOOMMMMMM

                            

We Have a New Home

We have had a wild month of moving, traveling, shipping and living in 5 different locations. The year was spent preparing for the move with the goal of moving into our new house. 

We closed on our house yesterday. We all, buyers and sellers, signed the deed and it was done. So much easier than the US, so much less to sign, and so little regulations.  This is a photo of the closing.  Our realtor, Jean, is at the end of the table and Anno and Vera (sellers) are on the right side of the table.  

This is the corner of our property at 34 Kaya Uranus.  The entire lot is walled with sharp spikes on the top to keep the ever present iguanas out of the pool. The roof you see is the cabana inside the wall.

Our front door. I am not going to lie, it was a real HGTV Fixer Upper moment.  The minute we walked in we couldn't believe our dream came true.  I cried and Rick gave me a hug and kiss and we were finally at home on the island.

Inside the gate is a huge covered patio that contains our living room and dining table.  The plaza has a swimming pool and all sorts of palm trees and Buddha's.  I am hoping the Buddha's and the Zen atmosphere will keep me calm and relaxed. 

Last night, our first night in the house, was a full moon and spectacular skies.  This is a view of the pool and cabana from the living room/covered patio. The seller was a handy man and very proud of his lighting scheme and plantings.  I think he fancied himself as a self-made botanist/landscaper.  He made the place look like a high-end resort and spa.

The sellers, always the gracious hosts, left us a bottle of Prosecco, flowers and a welcome note wishing us happiness in our new home.

 

Buddy's and Rain

Buddy's Dive Resort has named their boats. And they all seemed to be parked together just like good buddies:  Big Buddy, Reef Buddy, My Buddy, Little Buddy, Coral Buddy, Mini Buddy, and Any Buddy

And just so you don't think it's sunny here all the time...It rained today and our skies are cloudy.  It's still 84 degrees.

 

Grocery Store

At the request of my brother-in-law, who is a major foodie, I am showing the Grocery store called Van den Tweel. It looks like every other grocery store you might see in America.  However, some things are in Dutch.  Thank God for photos or we would never know what were buying. 

The Dutch love their Gouda cheese.  This is a whole bin of Gouda. They sell it in big chunks.  All food is shipped into the island weekly.  Bonaire produces nothing except cactus booze.  Shipments come in on Friday.  Saturday is a big shopping day.

We were looking for canned tomatoes.  We couldn't tell whether the can was puree, sauce, whole tomatoes or chunks. Even our translator was not helping.  I will let you know what it turns out to be when we open it.

Here is the produce section.  The variety is not as plentiful as in America.  But they have what you need.  Citrus is big (oranges, pineapples, lemons, limes), apples, tomatoes, peppers, celery, carrots, onions, potatoes....the usual stuff. We got tomatoes from Tunisia, avocadoes from Mexico, yogurt from France.  The Dutch trade with all sorts of countries so you see products and produce from all over the world.  

The Chinese markets on the island carry all sorts of weird stuff.  Like these duck tongues...yuk! How many ducks had to die for this many tongues to be packaged. The Chinese markets also carry a lot of American labeled products like Hunts, Heinz, Coke, Pepsi, name brand shampoo, soap and cleaning products.  

 

Sunsets and Covid

Dinners on the seashore provide great views to the sunsets.  This one is from the dining terrace ( it's really a sandy beach) of one or our favorite restaurants called Blennies. For those of you non divers, a Blennie is a tiny fish that lives in the sandy bottom of the ocean.  They peek their heads out of their holes when you swim by.

Since most of the restaurants are outside, no one seems to wear masks.  Especially the Dutch don't wear masks. Some of the servers are masked.  

Most of the dive boats aren't moving these days.  There are no American divers to keep them busy.

We signed up for our Covid vaccinations today. Bonaire has started their vaccination process for everyone 60 years of age and older.  They vaccinate everyone: visitors, residents, illegals (mostly  Venezuelans), Dutch and everyone else that is on the island.

 

1000 Steps

The famous 1000 steps dive site in Bonaire. Really its only 64 steps leading from the road down to the beach.  It just seems like a 1000 steps with all your dive gear on and on a hot day.  Usually this place is packed with divers going up and down the stairs.  However there are no Americans here because of the Covid restrictions.  Only the Dutch can come here easily.  We are loving the island now because it is deserted and like it must have been 20 years ago.

Once you get down the steps you are rewarded with a nice beach of Elkhorn coral that has been broken in to pieces by the waves. Not much sand but a lot of coral rocks.  Once again, it's not easy to get into the water for diving or snorkeling.

This looks like every other selfie that we have taken at a beach. I just showed this one to prove that we are actually in Bonaire. 

Rick says we could have taken this anywhere in the world. But a I promise we are in Bonaire.
 

Sightseeing

This is a photo of the RO (Reverse Osmosis) processing plant on the north end of Bonaire. All of the water on Bonaire comes from desalinization.

I have mentioned this before, Bonaire is a desert island and there are cactus everywhere.  Not much rain and mostly scrubby trees and bushes.

You can see some hills behind the RO plant.  That is Brandaris Peak the highest point on Bonaire: 784 ft.  This makes us laugh since we came from the Rocky Mountains with peaks that are 14,000 feet and higher.  Bandaris Peak is in the Washington Park which is a a protected area.

The Dutch had several  plantations on Bonaire in the 1800's. This ocher yellow country house was built in 1870. It is called Landhuis Karpata. Karpata is a type of shrub that has grown on the plantation and made into a laxative. There are three or four of these plantation type houses on the island.  None have been restored.

On the other side of the road is a well know dive site called by the same name, Karpata.  After you walk down about 30 stone stairs and cross a rocky beach you can long-stride over to this concrete platform to get in the water.  The dive sites on Bonaire are not  always easy to enter.  You have to carry your tanks, fins, mask and gear with you as you hop-skip-jump to get in the water.

 
 

Vagabonds

We arrived on Bonaire through the Flamingo Airport on February 14, 2021.  It had been two weeks since we moved out of our house in Arvada.  We had spent time in a rental house in Olde Town Arvada, the Hilton Gardens, at our good friends the Corzine's, two days in Miami to get Covid testing, two days in Curacao for a lay over and more Covid testing and finally got to Bonaire.

We rented a little seaside apartment in the northern part of the island in an area called Sabadeco. Since we don't close on our new house until the end of February we needed a place to camp. We love the outdoor living. We love swimming everyday. And the view is great. We love the warm days with trade winds blowing.

This Flamingo is made of junk found in the ocean.  It stands on the main drag of Kralendijk. I think it's the official bird of the island. It's the only Flamingo I can photograph.  In nature they are always far away and have their heads in the water.  They all look like pink blobs standing on long, thin sticks.  I will keep trying to get a photo of the real thing.
 

Nothing like drinks on the beach.  This is how they serve Gin & Tonic. It's a little more interesting than showing a beer bottle which is what we drink most of the time when we don't have wine.

Cheers!

A Year to Get Ready To Go

I am a planner and Rick is a logistics person.  Together it made a good team to get ready to move to the island.  It took us a year to get everything in place to make the move.  Here is how we did it. 

We started by putting together lists of everything we had to do and collecting them in a notebook.  When all the lists were completed or checked off, it would be time to go.  We made lists for house repairs, things to do at the Bonaire house, insurance at both places, finances, shipping, residency, things to purchase, things to pack, going electronic and paperless and travel plans.

The mile stones were renting our house in Arvada, selling cars, moving our belongings into storage and shipping things to Bonaire. We used Zillow to list our house as a rental.  It took two weeks to find good renters and sign the lease. Our house was an asset that we really weren't using so renting provided additional income.  We sold one car to Rick's partner and the other through CarMax.  Both easy transactions with immediate cash. Rick measured everything in the house and estimate the storage we would need.  He was spot on in his calculations.  We rented a 10x10 for our things and a 10x20 for our furniture. We shipped 19 boxes to Bonaire.

We wanted to become residents of Bonaire.  Residency would allow us to have cheaper taxes, free medical, allow us to get a bank account on the island and generally make us part of the island community.  So we had to get an FBI fingerprint and background check with an Apostille that was completed in the last three months.  Our birth and marriage certificates also required an Apostille. Expensive propositions since each one cost $200.  Also required:  a letter from two different banks saying we were customers in good standing, proof of income (they really just wanted to see a bank statement that showed we had social security or a paycheck deposited monthly), copies of our passports verified by a notary, and finally, a deed to the house.  We carried all these document to Bonaire and hired an agent to help us through the process. Agnes, an immigration whisperer, is an ex-immigration officer who makes residency happen through the Dutch government.

All the lists were completed. All to "to-do's were done. It was time to move. A year to the day that we left Bonaire in 2020, we arrived back in Bonaire in 2021.