04/20/2009

Now that I’ve had a week back to get settled, I wanted to write about mine and Ryan’s honeymoon trip to Bonaire a couple of weeks ago.  We had so much fun!

We flew out of Atlanta on the 4th…we had a direct flight to Bonaire, which was nice.  Bonaire is a pretty small island and Ryan was excited to exit from the plane onto the tarmac as he’s never had that experience before.  I have to admit that I always like that too…it’s like you’re in a movie or something. =) 

We went to the rental agency, and were disappointed to find out they did not have the type of car we reserved.  We had reserved a small SUV, because regular cars are not allowed into the National Park on Bonaire, due to the bad roads.  Luckily, they did at least have an automatic transmission for us, and they said we could come back later in the week and trade it for the SUV.  The car was not in great shape, but at least we could drive it!  I had a small panic when we got out on the road…it was difficult to drive because the power steering was shot, and the speedometer wasn’t working…of course the speed limits were all in KM, so I really couldn’t even judge how fast I was goind, not to mention I didn’t know what any of the road signs meant!  It was stressful, especially because most of the roads weren’t really labeled and we got a little lost finding the rental property.  We were proud to finally make it though. =)

We were staying at Ryan’s aunt’s rental property…it is four small units all connected.  We were in the one bedroom unit, which was simple but very nice.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the complex had a small pool and that we had a tv with cable in our unit.  We were on one of the edges of the property, so we had a wonderful view of flowers and cactuses and land off the back of our porch (which was very breezy and a wonderful place to enjoy a book and a beer!).  We found an open grocery store and purchased a few items, then picked up some local barbeque and took it back to eat and relax.  It was already late, so we didn’t do much.  We slept in the next morning and lounged for awhile before heading out to explore.  We took a beautiful drive down to the other side of the island, stopping to watch kitesurfers and windsurfers along the way.  Eventually we decided to try out our snorkeling gear…we found a good spot off the beach and were shocked at how much we saw with families swimming only a few meters away!  It was lovely.

On Monday the good grocery store finally opened and we stocked up on some things we could eat for lunch…food was pretty expensive since everything has to be imported, so we had decided to stick with the oatmeal we brought with us for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and then finding reasonable places to eat for dinner.  I’m happy to say that when we got back home, we had stayed under our budget for the trip!  On Monday we also went back to trade our rental in…we got a very nice, newer SUV to drive which was really nice and quite a change.

On Tuesday we went on a sail/snorkel cruise.  This was probably the highlight of our trip.  We went out on the sailboat with two guides and about 12 other people.  We were out for five hours and had the chance to snorkel at three different spots.  It was nice going with the guides who could point things out to us.  We even saw sea turtles!  I got a little seasick, so I skipped the second snorkel, but went the first and last time.  While we were on board they had an open bar and served us a hot local lunch.  It was fantastice, but Ryan and I both got really sunburned…even after putting on 70 sunscreen!  We did not do a good job reapplying though…normally I am fanatical about that, but I was feeling so sick that I just couldn’t care.  This meant that Wednesday was pretty much a wash, as we just laid around being sunburned, but we relaxed and got a lot of reading done, so it was still nice and vacation-y.  =)

Thursday we drove through the national park…it was really beautiful, but we were wishing we weren’t sunburned so we would have been up for snorkeling in the park…next time we will definitely make that a priority.  Friday we drove up the side of the island and explored some areas that we hadn’t been to yet and made plans to go back Saturday morning to snorkel.  When we got there Saturday morning we were the only ones there and had the whole area to ourselves for about 45 minutes…it was so cool.  After that we went back and got cleaned up and finished packing…we did not want to leave!  This is unusual…usually we are more than ready to come home.  This time though, we both felt like we would have liked to stay a few more days.  It really was one of the most relaxing, fun trips we’ve ever had.

We left Saturday afternoon and had a layover in NY Saturday night.  We had planned to stay with my cousin in Brooklyn for the night, but once we got to NY, all we wanted to do was crash.  That morning we had found $100 that my mom had stuck in the camera case for a surprise (not sure how we missed it until then), so we decided to just stay in a hotel by the airport (it would have cost us almost that much to get to her place and back anyway).  It was a great decision.  We ordered pizza and crashed pretty hard before we had to get up early to fly back to Atlanta Sunday morning.

We’ve been spending the last week getting acclimated back to the "real world," but last night I set up another ING savings account entitled "vacation."  We have vowed to go back as soon as we can afford it!