I hadn’t initially planned to write a separate post about the cities on Bonaire. However, when I finished my stories about the south and the north of the island, I realized I wouldn’t be able to fit them in naturally. That’s why you’re reading this post about all the cities on Bonaire now. Don’t worry, this won’t take long because there are only two, Kralendijk and Rincon, the former is the capital and the latter is the oldest city on the island.

Kralendijk

Goood Resort
My friend and I stayed at Goood Resort for five nights. Ankie, the hostess of the hotel, was so kind to pick us up from the airport when we arrived in the evening and she enthusiastically told us all about life on the island. It’s hard not to get excited about a destination when that’s how you’re welcomed there.

Our meeting with Ankie really set the tone for our week on Bonaire; not to mention the fact that I’ve never had so much helpful contact with any other hotel before the start of the trip. She helped us arrange the rental car and the diving trips with Wannadive.

She continued to help and advise us during our whole stay on the island.

The hotel is not very close to the sea, but honestly, I didn’t miss it. It has a lovely pool, comfy sunbeds and a view over the sea and Klein Bonaire.

I often comment on blog posts about colourful photos. Thanks to Ankie’s decorations I can add some beautifully coloured photos to this post myself.

City Centre
On our last day on Bonaire, we tucked our guidebooks in our day packs and we headed for Kralendijk to explore the sights. It turns out there’s actually not that much to explore. The following sights are listed in the guidebook, but you can only see the buildings from the outside and honestly, they’re nothing I haven’t seen before.

* Fort Oranje: This fort was the first stone building that was built on Bonaire, namely in 1639. We could’ve walked around the building to check out the stone wall and cannons, but after we saw that most of it was closed off and our only option really was to walk around, we backed away and still full of hope moved on to the next sight.

* Gezaghebbershuis: This building is apparently a majestic two-floor building with grand staircase leading up to the entrance. We don’t know because we couldn’t tell through the iron gate…

* Plasa Reina Wilhelmina: This central square is best enjoyed for a meal and a drink in the evenings.

* Pasanggrahan: When we reached this okra yellow building, we decided to conclude our bout of sightseeing in Kralendijk.

Instead we made our way to Kaya Grandi – the main street – to go souvenir shopping. The colourful buildings all along the street, and the artistic souvenir shops made our Kralendijk exploration worthwhile.

Oh hello, random cannon. At least this one can be seen up-close-and-personal rather than the ones at the fort.

We were enjoying our shopping session so much, that it’s a bit strange we decided to walk 10 mins towards a church we kept driving past whenever we were driving into town for dinner. For some reason we thought it would be nice to see it from close-by but these thoughts quickly dissipated when we reached the yellow building. So, without entering the church (or the roundabout for that matter) we walked back to the city centre again.

Rincon

We went to Rincon when we visited Washington Slagbaai National Park in the north of the island. The town is right next to the park so it’s convenient to make a stopover there on the way back to Kralendijk. If you’re like us and you didn’t bring any food or drink to the NP, you’ll be just as pleased with the restaurant we found in Rincon (you know the drill, more about restaurants in the wine & dine post).

Apart from the restaurant Posada Para Miri, we only saw this church, which reminded me of the church you see in the above picture in Kralendijk.

Cadushy Distillery
The best part of Rincon was the Cadushy Distillery. Especially since we were thirsty from the NP and they were so kind to give these parched young souls a bottle of water and a shot of cactus liquor to wash away the water.

The Cadushy Distillery was founded in 2009 by Eric & Jolande Gietman. When Eric, Jolande and Rianne (their daughter) moved to Bonaire they also asked Sjaan and Dammis, the parents of Jolande,to join them. In 2009, the Cadushy family landed to settle on the island.

Remember how I told you guys I crashed the back of the rental car against a wall? You can imagine I wasn’t in the best state-of-mind when I entered the Cadushy distillery, but it’s hard to stay sad when you enter such a colourful building.

We had the bottle of water and shot of cactus liquor in the courtyard surrounded by happy birds. Somehow the family Gietman has managed to attract only the most colourful birds to their premises.

When the birds had cheered me up a bit we decided to join the tour Eric was giving of the distillery.

He has had the ingenious idea to create six liquors, each for one of the islands of the Dutch Caribbean (apart from St. Maarten). All the liquors have their own distinct flavour and colour. There’s Kukui of Aruba, Calbas of Curacao, Gold of Statia, Spices of Saba, Orange of Orange (which is the liquor that represents the Dutch royal house) and of course Cadushy (cactus) of Bonaire.

I think the idea to create these liquors is downright genius. The tours are great, and everything about this place is amazing because it’s all done at such a small scale. I’ve been to factory-like distilleries before (Guiness, Glenkinchie) and they cannot compare to this family-run business at all.

The products are not sold on the different islands, so you can only get them on Bonaire which is a pity but at the same time it makes them even more special.

My mood went from 0 to 8 very fast, which may have been due to the fact that I sampled every flavour without having had lunch.

Conclusion

Bonaire is a beautiful island, but the towns are simply not the main attraction. If you like shopping or museums, you’re not on the right island. Even the capital has only one small main street which hardly contains any non-souvenir related shops. Luckily, nature on Bonaire makes up for what the towns lack. This post should not deter you from visiting Bonaire. I’m sure your home country has shops and big towns, which is why you won’t miss them when you’re on the island. Just make sure that when you go you have some empty space in your suitcase so you can fit in some liquor bottles from Cadushy Distillery!