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.

We thought we would need to do one or two boat dives but ended up doing 4 trips. There is no anchoring in Bonaire it is either moorings or marinas. The moorings are either just above the drop-off or below it, therefore it is very easy to dive straight off the boat. Every day and night some divers would go past us underwater.

Bonaire is a marine park around the whole island so the diving very much focuses on not touching the reef or anything on it. You need to do a check dive so they know you can handle your buoyancy and listen to a video on the park and also pay for a diving permit. There are over 100 dive sites and you can buy cards with them all listed. The shops offer unlimited diving as an option for your gear and tanks. They also have a great Facebook page just for divers with lots of great photos for those who are interested. https://www.facebook.com/groups/327908854707689/?ref=share

Divers and Cameras

We meet several interesting people on the dives. One couple runs a printing shop in the US but are avid photographers and each had their own set up with cameras and lights. I was impressed.

After several dives with my small light, Gopro, and old Canon I caved in and spent some more money. The shop did very well from us but was the first place we had been where you could buy any gear. I had to buy a new GoPro(since the old one had got water in it), an underwater case, and upgraded the light system. In the end I mounted the GoPro underwater case on the old Canon underwater camera case with the light system attached so I could use either.

The Canon is so old it does not have the same color compensation as the GoPro but is much better for close photos. So some of these photos are from the Canon and some from the Gopro(stills off videos). I have learned much more about the manual use of my old camera in three weeks at Bonaire than in the last 20 years!!

I have also started using a program to reduce the blue hue of the photos when taking medium photos but with the range in lighting, depth and distance factors some come out much better than others. Also some of the colour is not as well balanced as it could be but despite these imperfections I thinki it will give you and idea of the underwater life.

Another diver we meet was Benny, who was another fish, and we became very good friends so he came with us on the yacht to Curaçao and we also went diving together there as you will see in the Curaçao blog.

The following are some of the photos we took and I enjoyed learning so much about the fish and coral that I also had to buy a couple more identification books!! It is fascinating how much you can find in one spot if you just sit and look. To find the very small animals you just need to get very close and stop. To get good photos you really need a macro lens which I do not have but we do the best we can. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do.

Fish

Angel & Butterfly fishes

Damsel Fish

Silvery Fish, Snapper and Grunts

Tarpon were some of the largest fish we say up to a meter in length, just cruising above the reef.

Margate

Snapper

Bottom Dwellers

The flounder below is a beautiful colour with pale blue spots when he is not trying to hide. He is very difficult to find when he is and changes all his colours to pale sandy colour.

While the fish above try and blend into sand or rock the trumper fish tries to look like soft coral and will hide against sea rods or even posts and pipes. They can also change colour rapidly from yellow, to blue to white. Somestimes with a white body and blue head.

Fish that Swim with Pectoral Fins

Parrot Fish

Parrot fish are some of the most bearutiful fish in the reef. They also grow to a considerable size, and a huge range of colours. They often hadve a totally different juvenille form. We also watched as they attack the coral with their teeth seeming to really bash into it.

Wrasse

Reddish Fish

Odd Shaped Fish

The Soap fish is very strange. I lies on the gorund on its side and doesnt move leading you to belive it is dead or sick. Often with its head stuck under a rock/coral and the tail sticking out as seen here!!

Teh most elusive fish in Bonaire and the most sought after for photos is the very weird Frog fish. This one was about 4cm, but another we found was only about 2cm. The are very hard to see and dont move even when you get very close to them. There is a great web site for these strange fishes if you are interested.https://www.frogfish.ch/frogfish.html

Sponge

The next few photoa are all about sponges. The first lot are branching tube sponges, then elephant sponges, long tube sponges and finally the beautiful vase sponges.

Coral

Gorgonians or Soft Corals

Crustaceans

Molluscs

Turtles

We saw quite a few small turtles swimming past but this was a large older turtle, hiding in a cave in the reef about a meter below the surface. We went away and came back and he as still there just resting.

Eels

Anemonies

Worms

Well I think that is all for today. I may add and alter this blog later when I have edited all my videos. But if I do I will send out a notification of the edits.

Next Blog: https://kiwiflyingfish.com/2022/04/bonaire-national-park-interesting-inland/

Arrival

We had a good sail downwind from Grenada to Bonaire a few dolphins on the first day but not many other fish or birds.

The evening before our arrival we sat in the setting sun on the foredeck and discussed how great the spinnaker has been this year, how often we had used it, and would we replace it before the Pacific.

We went back to the cockpit as the sunset. Five minutes later we hear a ripping sound! Our good old spinnaker split along the head, down both side tape, and then dived under the yacht. A quick disconnect of the autopilot and a turn into the wind and we managed to fish most of it out of the sea and all the sheets. Unfortunately, it will not be going any further. A quiet night under headsail only followed. The next morning for the final few hours we hoisted the main again and sailed into Bonaire in 25kts. We watched dozens of kite surfers have a great day sailing as we passed them down the coast.

An easy arrival into the marina followed then off to customs and immigration. When the paperwork was finished it was followed by lunch at a dock cafe close to the town center.

The cafe juts out over the water and as can be seen below the water even in the center of town is beautifully clear.

Bonaire

Bonaire is administered by the Netherlands and treated as if it was a village(“a special municipality”). There are 20,000 residents. The island is 38.6 kilometers long from north to south, and 5–8 km wide from east to west. The island is much drier and they grow very little so all the food is imported. Therefore fruit and vegetables are more expensive and also depend on what has arrived on a ship and delivered to which supermarket on the day. There are many more large supermarkets and no street stalls.

A Dutch colony of old the main industry here has been salt with large lagoons in the south drying salt. Originally a labour intensive activity with slaves harvesting the salt and loading it onto ships from all over the world. Now it is a highly mechanised operation obvious on arrival with huge pyramids of salt shining in the sunlight with long conveyors to load the ships.

The official language is Dutch but most locals speak Papiamentu and are fluent in English and often Spanish. If you grow up here and want to go to university in the Netherlands then you have to have a very good level of Dutch which most of the locals don’t. The schools are trying to rectify this. The teachers may teach in Papiamentu which the children speak at home but then once the children understand the concepts they need to reply to the questions in Dutch. As you might imagine trying to teach a subject in multiple languages is not without its problems.

The reefs, beaches, and on-island reserves located on both Bonaire and Klein Bonaire are under the protection of the Bonaire National marine park and managed by Stichting Nationale Parken Bonaire (STINAPA). Most visitors come to Bonaire for diving which can be done straight off the beaches or by boat. A common sight is utes driving around with dive tanks in the back as most dive sites are accessed off beaches rather than by boat.

There are over 100 dive sites on the island. The reef is very close to the shore and the colours in the water are as beautiful as those of the houses.

Kralendijk and Colourful Buildings

The waterfront of the main town, Kralendijk, has many very pretty and colourful buildings. The bright colours apparently came about because one of the colonial governors in the early 1800s decided the place needed to be something other than white which he claimed gave him migraines.

Even the courtyards of the cafes are painted and decorated. Many different styles.

There are also many good resorts scattered all the way along the coast, including a new waterways development.

Street Art

One of the most striking aspects of the town is the spectacular street art. This takes the form of painted murals on buildings and painted signs for shops or other notices. Where normally signs are made here they are all painted either on walls or on boards and hung up. Also, there is very artful graffiti. Later we found many more examples around the country. These really tell the story of Bonaire.

Flamingo’s are an island symbol with reasonable numbers living in the lagoons on the south end of the island.

Even the signs of political disagreement are painted.

Marinas, Moorings, and Cruisers

The Marina is adjacent to Harbour Village Resort.

It is quite a small marina next to the main road on the windward side and also an open undeveloped dry estuary. When the wind blows – which did all the time we were in the marina, the dust covers the yacht. The best thing about the marina was the two Pelicans that lived there and easily few around the yacht masts and dived into the middle of the marina catching fish. They were much better flyers than those we saw in Carriacou.

After a few days, we decided to shift out of the marina onto a mooring in front of the town which was far nicer. You can just dive off the boat into clean clear water on the edge of the reef which is very healthy and full of coral. You are not allowed to anchor in Bonaire as the whole island is a reserve. The moorings are placed and maintained by the park but administered by the marina.

There is a cruising community in Bonaire though not as big as Grenada. They also seem to be mostly returnees, Americans, Canadians, and Dutch cruisers. There are poker nights, dominos nights, and jam sessions. We have only so far made the last social event. They also have a Facebook page.

Nautica runs a small jetty close to a restaurant that is called ” It Rains Fishes”. They allow the cruisers to tie their dingy up there and drop off rubbish. The restaurant also has beautiful food and a lovely view over the harbour.

The next Blog will talk about the famous reef and underwater aspects of Bonaire. There is so much to say and so many photos that I need time to sort them. A third blog will be on a trip around the interior of the island. Enjoy.