Sept. 5, 2013
5:03 p.m.
On 4 Sep 2013, at 22:27, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
our guide told us a little of the history of the island including the fact that comparatively recently it had become independent from the Netherlands.
Wheee-eww! Your guide got it totally backwards. Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands. That is, unlike (say) Aruba, it is part of the Netherlands, not one of the constituents of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
It's more likely that I was confusing it with Aruba :( Went there as well. Sorry about that. jch