 …It’s not just about diving anymore
     Tom Dwyer
 For decades, the island of Bonaire, located in the Dutch West Indies, (Lesser Antilles) has been known as a diver’s paradise. Year after year, divers return to the protected waters around this island of 14,000 residents, never tiring of the beauty below the water. But over the past few years, more and more visitors are coming to this 24-mile long Caribbean paradise to take in the beauty above the water as well, and all of the activities it offers.
Location and Climate
 Bonaire is located 30 miles from Curacao, 50 miles north of Venezuela and 86 miles east of Aruba. Its yearly average temperature is 82 F and its water temperature is 80F, with an arid, desert-like terrain.
* Hemingway Days: Fans of Ernest Hemingway’s literature and lifestyle commemorate the author’s July birthday each year in Key West, the island where the author lived and wrote throughout the 1930s. Events include a “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the catch-and-release Drambuie Key West Marlin Tournament, the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and an offbeat “Running of the Bulls.”
Anthony Caputo, the port director for Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, could not be more proud of the success of the partnership of the city of Bayonne and Royal Caribbean Cruises. In just three short years, Cape Liberty Cruise Port has become one of the busiest cruise ports in the country. The port is ranked second among Northeast and mid-Atlantic coast ports in passenger volume. In 2006 it hosted 71 cruise ship calls, with 321,000 passengers during the 2006 season which ran from May to November. The port was also recognized as one of the top three-rated ports, worldwide, for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, which merged in 1997. “When you take into consideration that we only have one berth and we are home-porting passengers which means that the passengers sail from here and return here unlike port–of-calls, our growth is really incredible,†Caputo said. The 2007 season, which begins in May, will commence year-round trips to its destinations.