Bon Bini Bonaire – Island Tour

Bon Bini Bonaire! Welcome to Bonaire!

The Coast of Bonaire

Diving mecca and overall adorable Bonaire was a breath of civilized air for us after traveling through barely inhabited tropical paradises for the past month. Kralendjiyk is a quaint and colorful little town that lines the turquoise waterfront. There are 30-40 mooring balls that are lined across the bay in front of the town where for $10 you can tie up your boat. As John mentions in his post, we spent the first week or so just enjoying the town and figuring out how to enjoy ourselves without breaking the piggy bank. One of the things that John and I wanted to learn while traveling was riding motorcycles. We have dreams of getting a cool old bike and traveling through Central or South America this way. 

But back to the present. Being a 99% tourist oriented island, there are numerous rental agencies around town. You can rent anything from a little Suzuki SUV to weird go-cart like buggies. What we were eyeing was a moped! Though not as edgy as a bike, I had always wanted a little Vespa to put-put around town in. I had grand images of me on a little cute moped, with a long scarf, aviator goggles on my little helmet, and a loaf of French bread in the basket. But being that in America not only would I most likely get run over, but I had also not lived in a big city where it may even be remotely practical my images had remained a fantasy. Plus, how much French bread do I really need every time I go out? The island of Bonaire is very small, with only a few main roads connecting the island. Most people owned mopeds or very small cars as it only takes a few hours to cover the entire island. While on a walk about one day we ran across an advert for a rental moped that could be had for 24 hours for only $30. Well we jumped on it. Not only was it one of the best days we ended up having in Bonaire but we got to see the island three times in that 24 hours…including stopping a lot to take pictures, stopping to eat, sight see, and to sleep at night! So for you at home, I will try to recreate our island tour so that you can enjoy the sights as well.

We first headed South. Along the South Western seashore is where the Bonaire salt marshes are located. These large pools of water are filled with the ocean sea and left to dry out – leaving salt behind. Bonaire has been producing salt since the Dutch began colonizing the island. The mounds of salt rise up several stories and create sparkling white pyramids.

Salt Mound

Salt Fields

On our scooter riding through the salt marshes and ocean!

The Dutch in the 17th century used slaves to work the salt marshes. These little white houses built and used for the slaves are still in tact. They are situated right in front of the ocean with the sparkling salt marshes and Flamingos behind. For any other situation and time it could have been an ideal spot, though I doubt the slaves had much time to enjoy the view. There are several colorful towers along the waterfront as well. These were used by the Dutch ships as signals. The different colored towers signified the different grade of salt that the marshes produced, and the captains would anchor their ship in front of the grade of salt they would be transporting.

Slave Hut

Just Looking Around

Rows and Rows

Anchorage Signal From The Olden Days

The funny thing about the scooter we rented was it’s name!! Here’s Macho John posing with his Macho Scooter!

Macho Scooter Man

After we circled the southern point of Bonaire we began heading north along the Eastern shore. This side is the ‘windward’ side, the side of an island where the wind and seas come from, and thus is always more rough and rugged looking. The windmills along this tiny one lane road looked like something out of Don Quixote! And there were interesting ‘trash’ art along the water front as well. Like I mentioned in the last post about Tortuga, every island in the Caribbean gets garbage from its neighbors drifted to them. People come on! Stuff doesn’t magically disappear, it ends up somewhere and it could end up where you want to be! But other than that the windward side of Bonaire is dramatic and beautiful.

Windmills

Endless Road and Sky

The Light House That Didn’t Work When We Were Coming Around The Point At Night

After exploring the southern end we cut across town and headed up the western side. There is a national park on the northern tip of the island and we were eager to see it all before the sun set. We had heard that if you went up to the lagoon in the later afternoon that the Flamingos were right at the water’s edge. As you enter the national park you notice that the road is well maintained but very narrow. It hugs the edge of the water and winds it’s way between the ocean and the cliffs. On the scooter with the wind wipping at our sides the little road was the perfect size for our little ride. Up and down the winding roads we put-putted as fast as we could. In our imaginations it felt a lot like the intro scene to the latest James Bond movie where he is racing along the cliff roads. Of course we were excited if we made 50 km/h.

We stopped at the top of a cliff and enjoyed the view for a while. Along this road, and everywhere in Bonaire in fact, people stop their trucks and cars along the water’s edge and hoist on their scuba tanks and go diving. It is not unusual to see scores of abandoned looking vehicles along the road where people just went underwater for a spell.

Resting On The Cliff

Blue Horizons

After we left the water the road began winding up hill towards the heart of the island. One of the most amazing things to get used to on these islands is just how dry it is once you step off the water front. As we round our way across the interior we were able to see the Flamingos strolling around their lagoon. An interesting (?) factoid about Bonaire: they have a lot of wild donkeys and now a donkey sanctuary. These are historic donkeys, in fact, since they arrived with the Dutch hundred of years ago and have managed to inbreed and survive till now. Sadly with the expanding population their roaming and kicking and being stubborn habitat is getting smaller. That is why I heard that when you leave Bonaire by plane you are asked to donate to the Donkey Foundation. Just for those who may have ever or ever will fly out, there you go.

Flamingo Lake

After the exciting wildlife we stopped in the only other town on Bonaire, Rincon.  Rincon is an adorable and very local little town on the northern side of the island. We stopped by a little square where there was a little Chinese food stand where we ordered sweet and sour pork and enjoyed the shade while overlooking the local church.

Colorful Church Mural

After resting up and filling up ourselves we headed back down the eastern roads. There is a lagoon on the map that was a small point of interest according to the publishers and we decided to check it out. After driving through miles of desert landscape and passing over a flat field of dirt we hit the ocean again. Where was the lagoon? It turns out we had driven right over it without realizing since it was completely dried out. There was a small restaurant overlooking the now non-existent lagoon and I could not but wonder at the fate of that family.

The sun was setting, our fuel tank was getting empty (one tank), and it was time to return our now beloved non-walking mode of transport back. We were just starting to get used to not having to walk anywhere! I hope you enjoyed our tour of Bonaire, we will be uploading more pics of this trip to our PHOTO section so you will be able to see more as well. Let us know if you enjoyed the “virtual tour” format and we’ll start working on one for Curacao as well!

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