Bonaire – National Park & Interesting Inland

If you can get yourself away from the main town of Kralendijk and out of the water then there is a National Park and other interesting land features.

Salt Pans, Piles, and Piers

Taking the road south you come to the salt ponds and processing areas mentioned in the previous blog https://kiwiflyingfish.com/2022/04/colourful-bonaire-part-1/. In the old days, all the salt ponds were marked by coloured obelisks so the ships knew where to pick up different grades of salt. There are also several historical sites that retain examples of the old slave quarters that were collected around each salt pan.

On the coast in these same areas are many dive sites that can be accessed from the shore. One of the most famous is the Salt Pier Dive which is around the pier in the photo above. You are not allowed to dive if ships are tied to the pier as can be understood.

As mentioned in the first blog all nearly the buildings are painted bright colours, even the utility buildings as seen here. These colours help make the area look clean and happy, perhaps many other countries could get some tips from the Bonairians.

The many lagoons in the area contain very bright pink flamingos.

Kite Surfing and Wind Surfing

Two other major activities on the island are windsurfing at Sorobon with its own lagoon in Lac Bay and kiteboarding at Margate Bay.

South and East

Travelling further along the coast are the southernmost point and the Willemstoren lighthouse.

Art and Rock sculptures

The art on the east coast begins around the lighthouse in the form of rock sculptures made from driftwood, flotsam and pieces of coral rock. There is quite a large amount of plastics amongst the flotsam on this coast. Unfortunately, the following photos are only a few examples of the kilometers of sculptures that stretch all along the coast.

Next, we come to an abandoned collection of buildings that looked like an old fish farm. All of them have been painted inside and out. There are some very clever and interesting perspectives, however, there are also some which are quite disturbing. I did not manage to find out the history of the paintings – some locals did not even seem to know about them.

Travelling North

The country side is very bleak with only cactuses and scrub interspersed with an occasional feature marked by a plaque.

We came across one sign that intrigued us ” Piedra Bonaire” so we decided to get out of the car and try and find the hole in the rock.

Piedra Bonaire represents the navel rock of Bonaire. It forms a central place in the mystical relationship between the Baranca Mama, the Divine Mother Stone, and the umbilical cord that once attached Boynay to her womb deep under the island where she lives in Luga Bibi – “The Living Place.” A detailed explanation of the interesting myth is on this link. http://www.lothardoehle.de/bonaire/sightsee/piedra.htm

Needless to say we didn’t find the small cave!!

Windmill Park

Next up was a collection of windmills that has been called a park. All terrain vehicles and bikes are really needed on this part of the track!!

Washington Slagbaai National Park

At the park entry gate, there is a small museum explaining the history of the park and the flora and fauna. You arrive at the gate, pay a fee and they explain the one-way road system. There is a short and a long route and the park has closing times for trekking, diving and the main gates. Therefore you need to sort out your routes and stops. After some discussion, we decided to take the long route even though we had started late in the day.

The park vegetation is generally thorny bushes and cactuses, much like the rest of the north. Wild goats and donkeys and attempts at agriculture have destroyed any undergrowth and the more palatable vegetation. There now seems to be a program in the park to fence areas off from the goats and donkeys, so hopefully things will regenerate.

The island only has 2 permanent sources of fresh water, we visited one in the park expecting to find a small pond/lake identified as such on the park map only to discover a muddy bog trampled by the goats and donkeys. As an aside desalination plants supply all the local water for the population.

Geology

The island is mostly raised platforms of coral of different ages which have formed as the seas have shifted heights and the land has also moved up and down. Additionally, there are also some older rock formations in the far north.

Reptiles

Birds

We were really glad to see some different birds even though we were there in the middle of the day. If we had been early or late we probably would have seen many more.

Beaches, Snorkelling and Diving

The following are a collection of photos of the various beaches mostly on the remote exposed west coast, however, they were so nice I could have stopped at any one of them for a picnic. Hew was reminding me that it was a “land day” – a chance to do something other than swimming!! So we only stopped at a couple – as many as I could get away with:):).

One of the first beaches we stopped at was Playa Chiktu. This beach was really just a chunk out of the reef open to the sea, but the inlet had allowed sand to form, and inland some water had carved out the softer parts or cracks in the reef.

We couldn’t believe it that looking down on the water from 7 or 8 m above the edge where the waves were breaking there were huge parrotfish in the water eating off the submerged coral at the edge. They were being tossed in the waves and Hew was glad I did not have my snorkel and flippers as I really wanted to get some close underwater photos.

Hew could also not understand the locals, who jump off the cliffs in their dive gear to go swimming on the reef drop off, and then return to land by swimming through the surf and over the rocks!!

North Eastern Coast

The Northeastern beaches around Wayaya are very pretty. Since the western beaches are very remote and we saw very few people or signs of people until we reached Wayaya. Further on, we started to see signs of picnic tables and thatched rooves for swimmers or divers to use.

There is no food and water al the way around the park so you need to bring your own but we did not know that. We had thought that we could get some near the end of the beaches, but no such luck.

This was one of the last beaches and very beautiful with a lagoon full of flamingos behind it. Lovely area to spend the whole day but you need your own supplies. Then there was the hour long drive back to get out of the park before it shut.

A lovely end to a long day. Also the end of this blog.