Bonaire
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Left Tobago Cays for Bonaire on 21st January. Tobago Cays howling
wind, why anyone wants to go there who knows.
23/1/12 –
24/1/12. Arrived at Harbor
Village Marina at 2315. Refuelled
and went to berth first thing 24/1/12.
Met up with Karina on Moin who said it was an awful place so with
trepidation we set off for town (Kralendijk) and customs. Initially we agreed with her as we
walked down road with no pavements getting buzzed by trucks. Several restaurants but everything
looked closed down. Paul then
realised that there was a path along the beach and we then gained a totally
different impression. Coral on the
seaward side and the water was so clear that you could see the flash of
turquoise of blue parrot fish.
Houses and restaurants (all closed down) on the landward side. Walked about 1.5 miles to customs house,
then did a long trek to car hire places and have hired a car – or rather truck
for a couple of days time. We also
discovered why restaurants closed down.
They are not but majority of people who come to Bonaire do so to dive and
that’s where they are during the daytime. Karacool arrived about 1800 and went straight into berth next to us. Went to Argentinean grill house right on the marina road side and had lamb. First time in months we have tasted lamb – the ever predictable boys had steak! Great chips.
Caught site of our first iguana warming itself on a jetty.
25/1/12 Hired truck for 3
days. Cruise ships were in and the
square next to customs was transformed with stall selling driftwood sculptures
etc. Spent a lot of time in
chandlers and dive shop! Paul and I
bought shorties and new booties and flippers. We found out that
Bonaire is now a province of Netherlands – and the Netherlands Antilles no
longer exits –so why are chandlers still selling the flag! This means that more money now coming
into island. Lot of digging up of
roads going on as starting to install main sewage system. Drove to the south of the island which contains the salt pans and huge piles of salt have been built up. Below are mountains of salt:
In old days slaves scrapped it all up and the women transported the salt in baskets on top of their heads, dropped it into rowing boats that then took salt out to waiting ships. The salt pan owners built big obelisks, which were painted different colours – presumably so you could tell at sea which one you were going to. So we passed blue, pink, yellow obelisks.
Some slave houses remained at a couple of the sites. Really tiny in which 4 people slept. A small doorway that you had to crawl through – well I did anyway. Opposite door was a small square window so that the breeze could go straight through. The pink slave huts:
and the white:
The colours in the salt pans changed from milky white to brilliant pink (brine shrimps). Caught glimpse of flamingos:
Snorkelled off one of
the dive sites. Sheds of fish. Bonaire is surrounded by coral reefs
and, apart from the west coast, there are 60 odd dive and snorkelling sites you
can go to. These are just the named
ones. These have signed yellow
stones on the road side and at sea yellow buoys which the dive boats can tie up
to. Did a leisurely drive to Lac Bay which is on the south east side of the island. Very shallow, lots of wind surfers – well at least six! Had a beer and tried to keep feet out of sand – those pesky sand flies.
Annie, Stephen and me trying to hold up palm tree.
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