Touring Bonaire

CORRECTION - CORRECTION - CORRECTION
Some research from a better source than our primary (after we drove so far on the tour we figured something was wrong) tells us that Bonaire is 112 square miles with a population of 14,006 as of December, 2006. Sorry for the poor info before


As promised, our "Tour of Bonaire" blog. Actually we didn't tour the whole island, just part of the north. We picked up the car at 8:30 and took the West coast road to begin our journey north. We hadn't really intended to do any more than sightsee on the way to the Washington Slagbaai National Park. Our intended agenda was to go to the park and do one of the walks and then go to the historical town of Rincon to explore. As it turned out we had not gone too far before I had to stop so we could take pictures. As mentioned before, there are 67 dive points around the island proper and most of those are accessable via road. Sure enough before long we began seeing small rocks by the side of the road painted yellow with names on them like Jeff Davis, 1000 steps, Ol Blue and so on. The road was quite narrow but there were always parking spots at these named points. The vegetation along this road was quite lush and green. likely because of all the rain they have been getting. Their rainy season is "moistest" in November.

Eventually we turned away from the coast road at a junction that had an old plantation house there. It had been neglected so we didn't stay long but turned up towards Gotomeer, a brackish lake that is also a pink flamingo sanctuary. The options at the turnoff are to go up to Gotomeer or go into the oil refinery and deep sea port where all of the oil used on the island comes in. Of course that isn't open to the public so our choices were limited.

We arrived at an observation point for the flamingo sanctuary but there was little to be seen as Gotomeer was quite distant so we hopped back in the car and drove down. There was an island with a path built up so that is could be accessed from the road and we thought we would be able to see the flamingoes better from there. As it turns out an old islander lives there and the only thing there was a herd of goats behind a fence made of branches and cacti. The land looked like it had been plowed and planted with grass but if it was, there seemed to be no way for the plow to get over there so that will remain one of the great mysteries of life. We were able to get fairly close to the flamingoes a little further down the road and when we were finally able to get them one of them to take it's head out of the water we were able to get a few good pictures.

Eventually we arrived in Rincon and stopped to pick up some drinks but we didn't stay long as we wanted to get to the park, which, about 30 minutes later, we did. There are a number of ways to see things in the park but because of the amount of rain, we decided not to drive into the park but to take one of the self-guided walkng tours. The vegetation at the north end of the island, at least in the park, is much more desert type of plants, notably cacti. We set off on the tour which the literature said would take 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. It was quite interesting and very well marked and laid out. We came first to a cactus observatory point where the signage described the common cacti seen on Bonaire. The path led from there to a well that had been dug by two people and it must have been one heck of a job to do it. It was about 15 ft in diameter and probably 40 feet deep. It had been a usable well until the late 60's but a severe drought left is arid and it has remained that way ever since. After following a small cliff line we came to a fence that had been constructed when the land was part of a plantation. The sign described how it had been built by 16 men using hard labour only. It is built of coral blocks and was used to keep the animals on the plantation.

Next stop was another well, slightly smaller and constructed to take advantage of the rain rather than getting the water from underground.

The path between all of these sites was over limestone that was extremely hard on our sandals and quite difficult to walk on but it also showed a great deal of industry as it was marked with rocks over all of the flat portions.

We then reached the ocean where we saw an incredibly impressive blowhole. You can see it on the video so suffice to say it is formed by the action of the waves which along this portion of the coast are very strong and very consistent.

We were then on the homeward leg and although there was supposed to be a flamingo observation post on the way, it was so far away from the lake that we could see nothing so we headed back to the entrance. Before we left we visited a small but quite well done museum where we found out some interesting factoids about some of the animals and birds of Bonaire, including lizards, iguanas, flamingoes and I can't remember what else. One that stood out for me was about the lizards - do you know that when lizards feel really threatened, they can dislodge/throw off their tales. The really weird part of this is they do this because the discarded tail LIES THERE AND WIGGLES so it distracts whatever is threatening the lizard and they can get away. Who woulda thunk it!! They can then grow the tail back but they can't discard the second tail. We can only hope they learned their lesson on where not to go the first time!!

Since the agenda up to that time had taken a lot more time than we thought it would, we had to head back and turn the car in so we couldn't visit Rincon. Oh well, other days, other visits.

The answer to the road sign question is slow down speed bump as some of you guessed. Speed bumps here, however, are huge. They extend completely across the road, are as high as the curbs and are probably one compact car in length. So you definitely have to slow down for them.