Bonaire is great for scuba diving, and also for dock diving.
We rented the world’s smallest car for the weekend, which was a bit of a mistake considering we hadn’t done laundry in a couple of weeks. The laundry pile in the backseat was causing the car to bottom out. One of the things I really enjoy about small island life is the trust. I reserved the car online and got a message back a while later saying he was no longer at their in-town location but he’d be happy to drop it off for me. I told him where we were, and he said, “Perfect, that little blue sailboat right next to you is mine. See you at one.” He showed up on time, handed me the keys and said, “Just give me a call when you’re all done.” I hadn’t paid, or signed any papers. It’s a tiny island. Where are you going to go?
Cargill owns about a fifth of the island of Bonaire, employing all of forty people to get salt from the ocean to your icy roads.
Classic trade wind palm.
Bonaire has done a good job of preserving some of its history. This is a slave hut, where two slaves that worked the salt pans would have lived. There are rows and rows of these scattered over a couple miles. The yellow rock that says White Slave next to this one is a dive spot marker. The dive spot is so named for its proximity to the white slave huts. All the dive spots around the island have yellow rocks out front with the names on them. There were four different areas where ships would pick up the different types of salt back in the old days, each with a different color so they could be spotted from sea and they’d know where to anchor.
The day’s road trip gave us some good opportunities to discuss race, slavery, and whitewashing history, with the kids. While Bonaire has preserved some of the historical landmarks of its slave past, it isn’t immune to “confusing” slaves with workers. I thought this was a particularly egregious example. Slave women carried loads of salt so heavy it took two men to lift them up onto their heads, but they get described as workers, and mermaids singing beautiful songs while they worked.
An overseer’s house, with rows of slave huts nearby.
The salt pans make for a great place to turn flamingos pink. You know you aren’t in Minnesota any more when you see flamingos fly overhead.
The west side of the island is really windy. Trade winds blow a pretty steady 20+ knots along here, making all the kite sports a big deal.
I doubt any future generation will ever see a windward beach that isn’t an ever increasing ratio of plastic to sand.
This $20 lens filter screws over the top of a nearly $2,000 camera lens. This is the second time one of these has saved this lens.
Lac Bay seems too perfect to be natural. A huge bay, never more than maybe 3 feet deep, with an outer reef to knock down the waves, but leave it wide open to the wind. One of the top windsurfing spots on earth.
If Ali ever gets a farm, the first animal to inhabit it will be a donkey. Here we were driving along when we spotted No. 7 standing on the side of the road. If you get that reference, I salute you. Bonaire is full of wild donkeys—leftovers from an earlier era.
10 Comments on “Windward Bonaire”
I could be way off base, but if that was a Grizzly Adams reference, well done!
Indeed it was. Man, I loved that show.
I love how you’re teaching them. And that pic of Ouest and Ali- how did she get so big??? Still enjoying your adventures, thanks!
Ugh, right. I’m preparing to be the shortest in the near future.
I enjoy seeing your and Deena’s FB posts – your group of friends have a good time. 🙂
Donkeys are indeed special creatures. Ali and I are kindred spirits <3
I always wondered what happened to Number One through Three. They are very long lived animals.
Awww, Mcgker. 🙂
They are really sweet. The 750 at the donkey sanctuary were a bit too many (hungry ones) for me and the kids. But even the kids said that with how much Pat got along with them there, that he would “probably” get me one “some day” – awww.
Oh how I love learning from you Pat. I am in love with Ali’s skirt and share her love of donkeys! I’m so glad you are writing more; I’ve always enjoyed your perspective.
Hi Stacie, thanks for the kind words. I’ve gotten a few cool skirts from this store – they are changing the selections all the time which I like. When I was visiting Pat’s mom in a very small retirement community – I wore a jean flower one to my MIL’s doctor appointment and a few days later wore it again to the grocery store – and had a lady stop and talk to me – saying she saw me the other day and wanted to ask if I did the stitching myself and how much she liked it. 🙂
https://www.amazon.com/stores/YESNO/page/933AB4A4-46C4-4AE4-AC5E-836CC518BFBB?ref_=ast_bln
Old number 7, that takes me back. I can still here the voice… Been following along since you first left FL. Godspeed and thanks for sharing.
We tried to get the kids into watching, probably because we like to follow along, they didn’t take to it. Damn kids. 🙂