Today, all six of the cousins start their journey back to their homes — three to Burney, CA and three to Niles, MI.

Their morning was spent with all the packing that needed to be done.  All their check-in luggage, with tools, approached the 50 pound limit.

We returned the one rented pick up to the airport before 11am to avoid having to pay for an extra day.

After a light lunch for everyone, we loaded all the luggage into the remaining TWR pickup.  I could tell our load was heavy when Ralph and I took the six cousins for the short 1 mile trip to the airport.  Because of only having one pickup available, a couple of them had to ride in the back (which is allowed in Bonaire).  Although allowed, we did not make a practice of doing this.

Two flights arrive at and leave Bonaire within 15 minutes, so check-in was fairly busy.  There was some shuffling of items between bags to get each one under 50 pounds. [There is no scale at the duplex to check weight].  The lines for security were quite long and at one point all the United passengers were asked to allow Delta passengers to go ahead of them.  The cousins were flying United to Newark, where they will overnight at the airport before taking their flight to Chicago or San Francisco (then Redding, CA).

After their flight left at 2:45pm, Jim walked to the Hilma Hooker dive site for a swim to see if he could locate the sunken ship, Hilma Hooker, that is offshore under about 100 feet of water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilma_Hooker

Ralph Mary Jane, Virginia and I decided to drive to the north side of Lac Bay, where there are large piles of old conch shells remaining from 50 years ago.  When I was here in 1967, we were allowed to dive for conch shells in Lac Bay and the locals ‘harvested’ them for their meat.  Today, conch are on the endangered list.  We found a nice wide dirt road taking off in the right direction and eventually discovered two concrete mixing plants.  A little further, there was a couple of gravel pits.  The road passed a couple of farm crops (rare on Bonaire) that looked like milo and eventually we ended up at the gate of a kunuku (Bonairan farm).  We decided that this must not be the right road and returned to the tarred road.  The road we wanted was about 1/4 mile further down the tarred road, but it was much narrower and a whole lot rougher.  It was decided not to go, because Mary Jane’s neck was bothering her and jolting bumps could make it much worse — something not wanted before their return flight tomorrow.

We then decided to drive up the ‘mountain’ just north of  Kralendijk to Seru Largo (meaning ‘large hill’)  https://www.123rf.com/photo_27709113_holy-cross-on-seru-largo-lookout-bonaire-abc-islands.html .  There is a monument there with a large cross on the top.  It’s inscription reads, “A.D. 2000  Kritus  Ayera  Awe Semper” which translates Christ Yesterday Today Forever.  Next week, International Bible Church will be having their Easter Sunrise here.  All the island, except the north, can be clearly seen from this location.  Today’s view was a little hazy because of strong east winds causing salt spray from the waves and dirt from the eastern farm lands.

When we got back to the duplex, Jim was back from his swim.  He had located the sunken ship and made a few dives for a closer look.  Since he was only using a snorkel and free diving he could not dive the full 100 feet down.  He was happy to have found it.

For supper, the remaining five of us, went out for supper at Joe’s restaurant located between the airport and town.  Before our orders came, we were brought a small warm loaf of bread with butter mixed with parsley, and some type of tomato salsa.  I had fish, Ralph and Jim had beef, Virginia had Bonairian salad (lettuce, goat cheese, walnuts, onions, pickled onions, celery, shredded beets) and Mary Jane had a baked potato with side salad.  The food was good and the atmosphere was family friendly with music (mostly from the 1960s) playing softly in the background.  Joe’s restaurant appears to be family run and we wondered if they chose the music based on the apparent age of their customers!

After supper, we went into town to Gio’s Gelateria & Caffe ( http://www.gioscaribbean.com/ )for a scoop of Italian ice cream.