Musings on Bonaire reopening to tourists

[ChrisL]

We own a house on Bonaire and would even spend 2 weeks on Aruba to come and visit it if we must, but we hate Aruba for more then 2-3 nights at a time. OK, I get all this. My wife and I were sick with flu symptoms in February but have never had similar symptoms since. We have likely been exposed to Covid19 in NYC on and off, Miami in March, and at work daily at a busy marina in NJ. We tested negative for antibodies last week in NJ before a business trip to Maine - we have never met anyone with any obvious symptoms and have keep social distance from non-household people and even our employees and customers - I have never washed my hands as frequently as I have since March.

Today, like every month, I paid my June WEB electric and water bills, Digicel cell phone, Telbo house phone, Flamingo TV and internet, Nagico car insurance, AC Maintenance Service, repair contractor and property manager and scheduled my September property tax bill payment - I will have to send $$ to Bonaire to cover the real estate taxes for the first time since I bought the house. I also auto-pay my gardener, pool company, security service and boat storage.

We were in Bonaire at the end of February - we had renters thru March and have been issuing full refunds to renters in May, June and July - if we break even in 2020 we will be lucky. I just want to visit and enjoy my home, I'll get past the lost money. It would be nice if I could come back directly and pay to be tested and released or sent home depending on the test results.

[smits]

@ChrisL
I sympathize with you.
We have two villas in Curacao. The costs continue, and we had no guests from March to June.

Fortunately, from July, we have guests from the Netherlands, but also local guests.


We would be allowed to fly from the Netherlands to Curacao.

However, we don't do that because we think the risks are too high.

Only shortly after Aruba opened for guests, there were four passengers with Corona on the plane. I don't think I would have liked to be on the same flight.

People (don't mean you) can be very irresponsible and only think of their interests.



@Brad

I specifically mentioned the USA because that is considered a high-risk country.

But I understand your point of leaving the USA out of the sentence ��

Of "our" islands, Aruba is the only one that accepts guests from the USA. They are 80% (maybe 90%) depending on income from USA-guests.

Aruba now has three new cases, all originating from the USA. Curacao has one, a person from the USA traveling via "the loophole" Aruba.

Traveling between the islands is allowed without testing. I would not be surprised if the other islands will decide to close the borders with Aruba.



People traveling from the Netherlands have to present a negative COVID test result, not older than 72 hours before departure, and present a declaration that they do not have COVID related symptoms at the moment they depart.

[sidemount]

Are you sure about the 72 hours before departure Smits? As I stated earlier, the Bonaire Reporter stated that that is no longer a requirement.

[smits]

Are you sure about the 72 hours before departure Smits? As I stated earlier, the Bonaire Reporter stated that that is no longer a requirement.

Yes, the guests in our villa's had to do the test

[sidemount]

Right...sorry...I should have been specific...I am referring to Bonaire only....

[ChrisL]

So is travel from Curaçao the same? Can we spend a week on Aruba and then a week on Curaçao and be allowed to enter Bonaire? Two weeks on Aruba sounds painful and I really want to get back to Bonaire soon.

[ArsenalDiver]

The Bahamas have released the following:
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)] International commercial flights and commercial vessels will NOT be permitted except Canada, UK and EU effective Wednesday July 22[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]nd[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)] at midnight. [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]→ Bahamas Air will cease all outgoing flights to USA effective immediately.[/COLOR]

[agd]

Low-risk: European Netherlands, Germany France, Belgium, and Switzerland. The only low-risk countries in the western hemisphere are Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, and the other BES islands (St. Eustatius and Saba). This can change at any moment.

No word yet on UK or Canada.

Thanks Susan.

In the absence of lists of anything other than low risk countries, I suppose we must infer that everywhere else is what they refer to as high risk although they do not explicitly say so. No such thing as medium risk, moderate risk or intermediate risk like Curaçao and Statia have, for example. And imprecise language referring to high risk countries without defining them.

In any event, it seems only those from the listed low risk countries are permitted to enter for now.

[tursiops]

Thanks Susan.

In the absence of lists of anything other than low risk countries, I suppose we must infer that everywhere else is what they refer to as high risk although they do not explicitly say so. No such thing as medium risk, moderate risk or intermediate risk like Curaçao and Statia have, for example. And imprecise language referring to high risk countries without defining them.

In any event, it seems only those from the listed low risk countries are permitted to enter for now.

I don't quite understand the concern/confusion in this post. Bonaire has listed the countries they will let in. No need or reason to list the ones they won't let in, nor to give those some name, like medium or high. It is kind of like a menu; the restaurant tells you what they have, not what they don't have.

[susan]

Yes, and in fact, there is a high-risk list.....every country in the Western Hemisphere except those I listed, all EU countries except those I listed, and the UK. (source: RIVM on July 1, 2020) See: https://www.infobonaire.com/flight-b...ome-countries/ Please note that since this was published, Luxembourg was added to high-risk and Switzerland was added to low-risk.