Today we got up early, ate breakfast in the dark on our terrace, and drove our scooter south to the Mangrove Kayak Center. The whole plan was a little dicey because we have never driven a scooter before, in traffic, fully loaded with backpacks, shade tents, and messenger bags, or on muddy dirt roads, which we were specifically told not to do. Oops.
Our date was with Hans, a Dutch man who lives off the grid, leads outdoor tours, and refuses to work with cruise ships due to their negative impact on the island. (His words, and it’s posted right there on his website if you don’t believe me.)
Hans led us and two other couples on a kayaking tour of the mangrove, stopping several times to educate us about the mangrove, the birds, insects, fish and animals of the area, and the harmful impacts we humans have on the area, worldwide mangroves and the world in general. One of the other couples on the tour was from Minnesota, and coincidentally, the Minnesota State bird, the mosquito, also accompanied us on the tour.
We were given the opportunity to snorkel the Mangrove, examine the coral and oysters growing on the roots, and look at a special kind of bottom dwelling, upside down jellyfish.
After the tour, we hopped back on our scooter and rode even further south to Sorobon Beach, which is the opposite side of Lac Bay than we were on for the horse ride.
We pulled up a nice piece of sand, set up our tent and spent our last day on Bonaire soaking up the rays (from under our shade tent, of course) and snorkeling.
Lac Bay and Sorobon Beach are not the best for snorkeling. The water is very shallow, and you can walk out forever. It seems more suited for families, lazy beach people, and beginner windsurfers. That said, we still enjoyed ourselves and relaxed on this our last day in Bonaire.
We bought lunch at Jibe City, which was the restaurant on the beach. And who did we run into? None other than Karen’s Caribbean doppelganger, who was our waitress. Longmont Karen has been our chief dog sitter for many, many trips, this trip included. We took Caribbean Karen’s photo and sent it to Longmont Karen.
At the end of the day, we scootered back to the rental shop to return our hog, which was in as pristine condition as when we rented it, aside from a little mud.