Bonaire
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Wed 1 Feb 2012 02:45
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We have spent nearly a week on this lovely Dutch
dependency island now supported by Euro money!!
There is one main town called Kralendijk which is
along the waterfront where there are moorings although we had to use the marina
as we needed access to shore power and a mechanic.
 There is no polllution and there are tropical fish
eg parrot fish swimming right up to the water's edge along the town
front.
We went to a pasta night with Wolfgang and Corinna
(Moin) and joined up with a Canadian couple, retired neuro research/surgeon
and a German couple in their eleventh year of cruising---he sold his development
business at age 35!
 Bonaire is famous for it's diving and snorkelling
and the whole place revolves around this-----all the dive sites are down the
leeward western coast.
 Julia celebrated her fifteenth
birthday
 We hired a truck in order to visit the National
Park
  The Park is a 23,000 hectare ex aloevera plantation
that has been allowed to revert to nature. Access is strictly controlled and
only accessible by truck as the roads are essentially dirt tracks and heavily
rutted in places. The landscape was amazing with a lot of cacti and
scrub
  and coral rock
 formed when the sea level
was higher.
We stopped for a picnic lunch
 The fresh water lakes in the Park are renowned
flamingo breeding grounds. It is not possible to get close to them especially in
the breeding season which is March/April.
 The wildlife in the Park included large iguanas,
sea eagles, goats, wild pigs, donkeys and cows and many species of small
lizards----who like crisps!
At the south end of the island are all the salt
pans which were worked by slaves who lived four in a hut the size of a large dog
kennel.
 The east coast has a lot of wind turbines that
produce 70% of the island's power and there is a lot of plastic rubbish that has
blown up on the windward coast.
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