Last Days in Bonaire

Our time in Bonaire is coming to a close. We will be leaving in a couple of days, weather permitting. I thought I would catch you up on what we have been doing with our time since we finished painting the coach roof. By the way it looks great.

We spent one afternoon with Tom and Bonnie from Toujours going snorkeling. They really wanted us to go diving with them, but I could not get diving gear as I am not certified. We discussed me getting certified, but decided that would not be feasible right now especially since I still find myself panicking sometimes when I am snorkeling. We headed north from our mooring to a diving site called The Cliff. We snorkeled and they dove. It did give us the opportunity to test out the “waterproof” camera I purchased when I was at home. We snorkeled for about an hour and only took 131 pictures. I’ve included a few in the blog and more can be seen in our Picassa web album (see link on the right).

We took one day and rented a truck. This was so we could tour the southern end of the island and pick up a few groceries that would be too heavy to carry (milk, juice etc.). The south end of the island is very different from the north end. It is mainly just one big evaporation pond for the water desalinization/salt production that the island is noted for. Bonaire has been exporting salt since the 1700’s and today that process is how they supply their water needs. We found the slave huts to be interesting. They were buildings that the slaves slept in and kept their personal belongings in. They were about 8’X8’ and had a shelf at the level where the roof joined the wall for their belongings. The walls were maybe 4 feet high. There was no mention of how many slaves slept in each of the huts. It couldn’t have been very comfortable.

It would have been interesting to be able to see how the salt was extracted. All we could see was the large piles of salt and the conveyor system to take it to the ships.

The other place we stopped that day was the Donkey Sanctuary. Donkeys are wild on Bonaire and the sanctuary has been set up as a protected area for them. The lady there said that the government is going to shoot the donkeys on the island next year. Right now the sanctuary has 350 donkeys and they hope to be able to expand to include 450 of the ‘wild’ donkeys by next year. The donkeys in the sanctuary are those that were in the area and those that have been found injured, mainly from collisions with vehicles and human mistreatment, or orphans. We met a couple from Quebec who come down 5 – 7 weeks a year and volunteer at the sanctuary. You can adopt a donkey for $175US per year and this provides food, medicine etc. for the donkey you choose. You get to name the donkey and receive pictures and updates twice a year. We had the opportunity to feed the mothers and babies palm leaves which are a delicacy for them. We then drove around the compound and fed donkeys along the way. As soon as we stopped the truck they would be over thrusting their noses in the window. Some of them would run alongside the truck when we started moving again.

We have enjoyed our time on Bonaire even if there isn't a lot to do on the island other than diving. The people are friendly and we have learned a little about the island customs. We head back to Curacao in the next couple of days. There we will be joined by the Perry's and Griff son Rob for Christmas. We are quite looking forward to that and will keep you posted.