After a slow start on the Sunday morning, but early, we all pilled into the Willy’s jeep. Yes, that really is its name. They are manufactured in Colombia. Well makes a change from drugs …..

We then set of for a tour of the Island, in particular of the National Park, which is a former plantation and covers most of the Northern end of the Island. There certainly was plenty of wild life to see. Whilst we stopped at one lake to admire Flamingo’s, lots of Lizards crawled out from underneath the undergrowth, to check us out.

The one above, a male, (we think) was particularly inquisitive, and on a couple of occasions attempted to climb onto my shoe. The females were half the size and a pale brown colour, The males were about 8 or 9 inches long nose to tail. At one stage there were 20 to 30 of these creatures surrounding the jeep, so we all decided to get back in and drive off to a less intimidating spot! One of the birds we noticed at this particular lake was much like an Avocet, but with a pink beak and long pink legs. No idea what it was but is was quite beautiful, and they had a cry similar to an Oyster Catcher.

We stopped for lunch at a curious spot with a beach on one side with crystal clear water, and a lake the other side of the road. This lake was home to Flamingos, Pelican and Herons in various sizes and colours.

Jennie and Harriet spent ages “tracking “ the Flamingo’s trying to get close enough for a decent picture,

Eureka, pictures at last!. Note the Pelican in the background. Watching these ungainly birds fishing is a fascinating business. They seem so shambolic in fight, but they don’t half catch a lot of fish!

We did see Iguana’s on three occasions, once in the hands of a local chap, and we suspect he was destined for the pot as they are considered a delicacy on Bonaire (Yuck). But these creatures are a bit like Dolphins, very hard to catch on film!!

We visited the museum at the National Park, which gave us an interesting insight to the history and back ground of Bonaire and its people.

The scenery is very rugged and there are so many cacti, that they make fences out of them, The landscape is beautiful in a rugged sort of way, so one does expect to see Clint Eastwood appear around the next bend, on a manky old horse, cheroot clamped between his teeth and beady eyes, starring at us from below the rim of a Mexican hat……………….

Didn’t happen of course, so here is a scenic picture instead!!

We are making good progress on passage to the San Blas Islands. 173nm in the first 24 hours. As you will see from the position given, we are now north of the Columbian cost. This is really bringing home the fact that we are now well on our way on a circumnavigation!!  We are cracking along at 8.5 knots just now, with reefed Goose wing rig, dead downwind in some quite large swell. But nothing too scary so far (fingers, AND toes crossed) and we hope it stays that way because this little 750nm passage is rated as one of the four most difficult, or so we have been told. So the sooner we get this one over the happier we will both be!!

We started to take our anti Malarial pills for Panama today. It’s one lot for there and then another lot for the rest of the Pacific and Asia and the Red Sea. Some folks on the Rally have had an adverse reaction to their pills so fingers crossed we will be OK.

We heard last night that one of the rally boats, a catamaran had gone into a reef in the San Blas, so we were really worried about them and we felt so helpless, as we were so far away. But the morning brought good news that they  had managed to get off the reef, no one got hurt and the boat is OK. Phew, there but for the grace of God go we all.

Well that’s it for now. Time for a cuppa and to get back on watch.