Beautiful Bonaire

Welcome to Kralendijk which is pronounced either “craw-len-dake” or “craw-len-dike” depending on who you listen to, mostly I heard it called the latter.  Whichever way you want to say it the name means “coral dike”, so appropriate since the main attraction here is the reef surrounding Bonaire. Our destination is the largest town on Bonaire and it’s not terribly big, although I did manage to take a wrong turn on the golf cart almost immediately.  

I headed to Bonaire Cruisers for my cart along with my friends Cecilia and Ian.  As soon as we left the ship it started raining so we were drenched by the time we walked the few blocks to the rental, thankfully it stopped before we left.  Once our paperwork was all signed, maps handed out, directions given, and driving instructions completed the Wigleys told me to take the lead to go north along the west coast road.  You can't really navigate and drive one of those things at the same time so after we figured out I was leading us all down the wrong road I spent the rest of the day as the second in our caravan so Cecilia could navigate us.  Worked out much better for us all!

One thing Bonaire is famous for is its wild donkeys.  Practically the first thing we saw was the one up above by the side of the road.  Just so you know, I did stop driving when I was taking photos...most of the time.  Photographing and driving, don't try this at home kids! We saw the other donkey by the ruins of an old salt mill later on.

We were told at Bonaire Cruisers not to drive off the road as there are bushes that have rather large thorns that can really do a number on golf cart tires.  You see what they meant above.

We soon found ourselves at Karpata Beach, where the waters were clear and colorful and rather than sand the waves came up on broken coral, pieces both large and small.  We found this was the case at most of the beaches on Bonaire, especially in the north.  There were pieces embedded in the hillsides as well and even on the top of the highest point of the island.  This place was definitely completely under water in its past.

I took liberties with this photo to edit it a bit and send it to the grandkids.  Pretty sure someone had placed that heart-shaped piece of coral in that spot.

Further north and inland a bit we came to Gottomeer, a relatively shallow lake surrounded by hills full of trees, 

and cactus.

Plus we got the bonus of flamingos here and there.  It was definitely breakfast time for these birds as you had to snap a photo quickly to get one with its head above water.  I was surprised how long they could dunk their heads in, then walk along feeding without coming up for air.

Leaving Gottomeer we headed inland towards Rincón, the original settlement on the island, begun by the Spaniards in the 1500s, and  the only other town on the island besides Kralendijk.  It was located inland to avoid the prying eyes of enemy ships and pirates. 

About the only current claim to fame that we could find was the Cadushy Distillery where they make a local liquor out of cactus and limes, along with several other varieties named after and using ingredients found on other islands in the Netherlands Antilles.

The Bonaire version is the green one.  I didn't have a sample but Cecilia took a tentative taste and threw the rest of hers away.  Neither she or Ian bothered to try any of the other flavors, but it was fun to learn how they made them.  You can see one of the original stills, which they still use for small, special batches, in the back of the photo.

Leaving Rincón I spotted these plants outside a home, they gave a whole new meaning to the words "Christmas Cactus"!

We next found our way to the highest point of the island, Sera Largu.  From here you could pretty much see the entire south end of Bonaire, which was where we were heading.  The switchback going down was pretty fun to navigate.

I know your next question, I don't have an answer as to "Why did the iguana cross the road?" except for the same reason the chicken did.

Also up on top of Sera Largu you can definitely tell which way the winds blow.  These trees have to have incredible root systems.

 One of the spots I had looked forward to seeing the most were the pink salt flats that get their color from tiny brine shrimp.  The pictures of these with the white mountains of salt behind them and blue sky above are quite stunning, and they were in person as well but the light didn't quite cooperate for my photos.  The white along the edges was foam that blows off the top of the salt pan, it looks a lot like shaving cream.  You find these flats along the south coast.  Salt has been an export on the island for centuries with the ponds first worked by plantation slaves, who were. housed in some of the small buildings that we saw nearby. 

It was difficult to image people being crammed into these small spaces to sleep at night after a long exhausting day working in the heat and humidity.  We had a tiny inkling of it at that point because we were getting pretty hot and sweaty ourselves by now after several hours in our open air conveyances.

Hopefully there was some cross ventilation that went on with the window and door opposite of one another.

We were thinking at this point it would be nice to get in the water so we were looking for what was supposedly a famous spot, Pink Beach, to swim a bit.  This little rock above was the only sign we found for the beach itself and we almost missed it.  The sand was supposed to get its color from ground up coral mixed in with the other white/tan grains.  I was interested to see if you could tell the tiny bits apart.

Well, that was never an option  because it turned out there weren't any pink sands on Pink Beach, most just more of the broken coral.  Although it was a lovely spot it wasn't quite what we had hoped for to dabble in.

The waters around the island were incredibly colorful as hopefully you can tell from this photo where they go from aqua, to blue green, to turquoise to a deep marine blue.  Absolutely gorgeous waters around Bonaire, which calls itself the world's first "Blue Destination" which means that it "strives for the perfect synergy between nature, culture and economy.  The natural resources...are both protected and utilized."  Sounds pretty impressive however it works.  Part of that also means you aren't allowed to take any sand, shells, rocks, coral, wood, pretty much anything, from the beaches.  No sand sample for me here!

Okay, the Willemstoren Lighthouse, here at the southernmost point of the island wasn't really leaning, it was just windblown me trying to be a selfie really fast and not paying attention to the angle I was getting.  This structure, built in 1837, is still in service and while not open to the public is a famous landmark on Bonaire.

Near the lighthouse is the Pekelmere Flamingo Preserve.  We saw a few dozen in the ponds but I'll admit I had been hoping to see more of them.  I suspect they were hidden from view behind the bushes, but it was fun to see as many as we did in their natural habitat.

Coming north again up the eastern side of the island the waves were much stronger as they crashed into the shore, beautiful to watch.

No one swims on this side of the island but apparently they do make Christmas decorations from some of what they can find along the beach.  These were fun to see before we headed back to the ship, tired and warm.  Karl was ready to have me pick him up and go exploring some more but after having traversed the entire island for six hours I was ready to call it a day.

The show that night was a performer called "Almost Elton John" who was really a pretty good imitation of Sir Elton.  We enjoyed his music, costuming and antics on stage

This was our farewell sunset from Bonaire that I just happened to catch at the perfect time, a lovely way to bid farewell to the ABC Islands.