Exploring Southern Bonaire and Windsurfing Lessons

Continued from yesterday”¦ Near where the wetlands turned into Luc Bay, the salt pans started. Almost all of the south side of the island is owned by the salt company, and there are miles upon miles of salt drying “pans”, which are large, shallow troughs of water dug into the ground. As we drove south, we found ourselves on a narrow strip of land. To our left was the ocean and to our right were the pans.

There were quite a few flamingos grazing in the salt pans, all out in the distance, of course. The flamingos feed on brine shrimp, crustaceans, plankton and algae, which are all easily accessible in the shallow pools. We know that deeper in the salt flats is a flamingo sanctuary, one of the four main breeding sites for the entire Caribbean flamingo population. There is no road to get there, it is strictly off limits to the public, and it is too far from the road for people to see them. It sounds like the flamingos here regularly fly back and forth from Venezuela.

On the windward side of the ocean there were huge waves pounding the shore. We passed a lighthouse at the southernmost point of the island. As we came around the bottom of the island towards the leeward side, we saw the infamous slave huts. They are situated just at the edge of where the surf dies down, close to the lighthouse. Beyond the huts, on the ocean, there were some kite boarders skimming along the water, just like the day we arrived on Kosmos. It is really quite scenic.

The huts are almost shocking. They were built in the 1850’s, and were apparently an upgrade from the mud huts that were used prior. Several people were crowded into these shelters. As you can see, they are tiny — barely long, wide and tall enough for someone short to stand up/lay down in. Putting two people in one of those would be “cozy”, particularly if one of them was tall, and apparently many people were crowded into each of them.

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The salt mining work was hard — slaves used wheelbarrows, shovels and picks to mine the salt in the burning sun. Ships picking up the salt would anchor off the coast. The slaves would load basketfuls of salt into dinghies and deliver the salt to the ships.

As the road continued north, the salt pans changed in color from clear to purple. It is kind of surreal to see purple pools of salt, but cool looking none-the-less. We passed numerous trucks pulled over on the side of the road, clearly divers who are doing shore entries. We passed mountains of (white) salt piled up near an interesting looking, roller coasteresqe contraption that moves salt to a dock where ships can tie up. It amazes us that the mountains haven’t melted away in all the rain.

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The mountains and contraption must mark the Continue reading

Exploring Bonaire

The forecast for both today and tomorrow said sunny with no rain. Thank goodness. We have postponed exploring the island because it has been raining so hard every day. So, this morning we headed to shore early. It was drizzling lightly and quite gray, so we were dubious about the forecast’s accuracy.

We found a car rental place and rented a 4 wheel drive Jeep. The plan was to go up to Washington-Slagbaai National Park. They only allow vehicles with high wheel clearance in the park, and 4 wheel drive is recommended in the wet season. The lady who rented us the car explained that there were two roads through the park, the long road along the coast and the short road inland, and said the long road is much more beautiful than the short road. There are supposed to be some nice spots to snorkel/dive off both roads. By the time the car paperwork was completed, the drizzle had burned off and it was sunny and gorgeous out.

We drove east a couple of blocks and quickly found Continue reading

SCUBA Diving in Kralendijk

Today we intended to spend the whole day SCUBA diving. The plan had been to hop in the dinghy and head to one of the moorings nearby. But, yesterday we had forgotten to do the most important thing on our errand list: buy dive tags. Since we were going ashore anyway, we decided to get breakfast. We were excited to find that several places offer hearty breakfast menus. We picked a place where the food was good, but the service was painfully slow. Then we went to a dive shop near the restaurant to buy the tags.

It has rained a lot the whole time we have been in the Caribbean, which is odd since it is supposed to be the dry season. In Guadeloupe and Antigua, it was usually an odd squall or two each day, though we had a few days with more rain. In Dominica, we had several days where the squalls consistently came through every couple of hours. In our short time in Bonaire, we have experienced squalls every couple of hours, just like Dominica. Usually, they are fairly hard rains that last only a few minutes. Anyway, while in the dive shop, another one rolled through. This one was probably the biggest Continue reading

Settling in Bonaire and Minor Watermaker Trouble

Yesterday didn’t get off to a good start. First of all, we had intended to get up early. We wanted to get all of our errands run in the morning so we could spend the afternoon SCUBA diving. But we wound up sleeping late, which put us behind schedule.

Our morning routine at anchor/mooring is to turn the generator on to charge the batteries and make water when we get up. Eric turned on the watermaker and was dismayed to see the high pressure pump didn’t go on. Eric suspected that Continue reading

Welcome to Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherland Antilles

After midnight, we were hit with several squalls that agitated the seas, so the ride became even more lumpy and no fun. There still was virtually no moon, so we enjoyed the luminescent stars in between the storms. It was still rough at dawn. It was a bit hazy out, so even though we were close to Bonaire, we couldn’t actually see land until 0745.

We approached from the southeast side of the island. Kralendijk, the main city on the island and the only place boats are allowed to moor (anchoring is prohibited in Bonaire waters except under special circumstances), is on the west coast, in the center of the island. We rounded the bottom of the island at 0945 and headed north on the west coast. The minute we were on the west side, in the lee of the island, the seas instantly flattened out. We were so happy.

The ride along the coast was pleasant. We saw a nice rainbow. We saw several schools of flying fish leaping along the water in unison. One school in particular was absolutely enormous. We watched a few people kite surfing.

The southern side of the island is flat and low and the northern end is hilly. The town seems to be right where the hills meet the flat land, in the center of a nice bay. From what we could see, it looked like neither the north or southern ends of the island had any buildings on them whatsoever. So, as we headed up the coast, at first it was empty land, then eventually there were a few buildings that looked like residences along the water, then some buildings that looked more like hotels, then the town center. There are no big high rises at all. There was a cruise ship in port. Just a few miles west of town, in the bay, is the low, flat island of Klein Bonaire, which is apparently vacant land. Near Klein Bonaire we could see what looked like a smaller cruise ship waiting to pull in. However, we had eavesdropped on a conversation between this ship and the port captain on the radio and knew it was not a cruise ship at all, but Continue reading