Bonaire is an island poised for greatness. When you arrive, you are going to stay in or around Kralendijk (pronounced Kral-in-dike), island hub. From your west-central coast base, you can walk, drive, or cab within minutes into town and visit duty free shops. There are three malls all within a short walk of each other: Harborside, Les Galleries, and Lourdes. You will find an amazing variety of quality Caribbean, European, South, Central, and even North American goods. I was especially interested in Blue Delft collectibles from Holland. Delft is glazed earthenware, specific to city of Delft, in Holland, and typically blue and white. The overall selections are endless and quality is highly rated.. Plan a full day in shopping district.

The island of Bonaire has been luring world travelers to its sun-baked shores for years. There is a variety of accommodation price ranges to choose from, including beautiful coastal bed and breakfasts, to apartment and condominium retreats. Vacationers can also reserve quality, traditional inns, hotels and beach resorts. The collective rooms available on Bonaire is currently a little over 1,000 and growing. You can easily find a place that's rustic, romantic, luxurious, and full of local flavor and style.

During my stay, I found myself lodging at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort, an easy five minute walk from town. The Divi is a wonderful hotel, a brand known throughout Caribbean. Clean, modestly furnished and priced rooms allow you to listen to waves lapping breakwall past patio slider. Of course, you could lie in bed and enjoy quiet, or you could slip into your shorts and sandals and stroll over to cooked-to-order morning buffet, lasting until around 10:00 a.m.

The Divi recently renovated outdoor lap swimming pool, casino, salon's spa, and delightful open air entertainment lounges and restaurants. There's nothing better than sitting in a sun chair, sipping a premium brew imported from Netherlands.

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By Scurvy Lichen - Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent - at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

The tour turns out to be great. Steve, er, Mitch knows his stuff. Even ride up mountain to rainforest/state park is fun and informative. The park could be "National" park, but is designated "State" park so that natives can harvest fruit, nuts, bamboo and be free to practice whatever kind of weird rituals they desire without interference from U.S. Government. As we leave bus and begin our three hour tour, we pass little tokens and offerings that natives have placed around trailhead to appease, bribe or pay off whatever spirits or Gods that may be lurking about, and they're lurking, you can feel 'em.

As sure as there are rainbows, there are spirits in this jungle.

The rain forest is alive with ancestors, lush tropical growth, muddy trails, feral pigs and, well, rain. Mitch points out Ti plants who's leaves, when wrapped around money, bring good fortune and, well, more money. We sample fruits right from trees, suck on Brazilian pepper seeds, and hear calls of tookie tookie birds echo through rain soaked trees. Mitch pontificates that not much on these islands is natural. Europeans imported diseases that wiped out 80% of population, with 80% of bird species decimated by imported rats and mongoose.

Diamond Head Crater.

Side note: As Don Henley and Glenn Frey so eloquently state in their song, "The Last Resort," "You call someplace paradise, Kiss it goodbye." Karmically, "Jesus Saves" sign mentioned in that famous Eagles song is on neighboring island of Maui, in Lahaina, near world's second largest Bhudda statue outside of Japan.

Mitch sure knows his stuff. I don't know, I think these guys make a lot of this stuff up. I know I do when entertaining visitors in Las Vegas. Countless numbers of friends, relatives and their children think that "Battle Of The Little Big Horn" was fought just outside of Pahrump (the center of universe by way), or that a water treatment facility at Lake Mead was used to load "Victory Ships" during war, and electro-magnetic rays generated by hydro-electric equipment at Hoover Dam create mutant catfish size of jumbo jets. But that's just my warped perception and not meant to cast aspersions on Steve, er, Mitch. Just because we didn't SEE any feral pigs, dosen't mean they're not there. In fact, one member of our group, and there's always one member of group who does this, made some pig noises and we ALL thought we heard a pig reply. Mitch assured us that while birds might reply to such a call, pigs would certainly not. Mitch's assurances aside, I strongly feel field of pig calling on Oahu is in need of a large research grant; if you have funds you'd like to direct toward this endevour, please contact me C/O Jetsetters Magazine and we'll set up a base camp on patio at Dukes.

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By Mike Heiney, Las Vegas Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent at www.jetsettersmagazine.com