King Visit

The Royal Family of the Netherlands (King Willem, Queen Maxima and Princess Amalia) visited Bonaire this weekend. It was a big deal to have the reigning King and Queen visiting this tiny island. They are making the rounds to all their municipalities:  St. Martin, Aruba, Curaçao, St. Eustatius, Bonaire and Saba.

They landed at Flamingo Airport in a private jet to fanfare and waving tourists. Their motorcade traveled around the island so they could see how the natives live.  The island prepared for their visit by patching the pavement on the road to their hotel (the patching stopped after the hotel), sprucing up the fishing pier on Lac Bay ( the fisherman have been asking for this for years) and allowing a motorized boat in the mangroves (usually only kayaks are allowed) for the Royals to view nature. They visited the slave huts and made speeches about reparations for slavery. The Taste of Bonaire was this weekend so the Royals visited the street fair with all the commoners. 

The checker at the grocery store told us about all the events planned for the Royals and a funny story about the King. She said that the King once ditched his security detail in St. Martin and went drinking in a local bar.  Now everyone tells that story and thinks that King Willem is just a regular guy who likes to drink Heineken.