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Donkey Itch

Crossing Donkeys: The Donkey Sanctuary

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Donkeys were originally brought to Bonaire in the 17th century by the Spaniards to use for hard labor and have roamed Bonaire for hundreds of years.  Once modern transport made these animals superfluous they were simply left to their own devices.  Unfortunately, they do not fare well with their new found freedom.

Many donkeys die from starvation, dehydration, or as a result of illness.  Moreover, these animals on Bonaire regularly fall victim to human abuse or traffic accidents.

The Bonaire Donkey Sanctuary provides shelter, care, food, and a loving life for these rescued donkeys.  Over 750 donkeys live at the sanctuary and they consume 75 bails of hay and 35 bags of seed every day.  It costs a staggering 8000 euros to feed these donkeys each month.  The sanctuary relies solely on visitor fees ($7 per person), donations, and fundraising to maintain the non-profit foundation.  No monies come from Bonaire or the Netherlands (how horrible).

Logo for the Donkey Sanctuary

Donkey Sanctuary Logo – so cute

The gift shop sells the $7 ticket (very reasonable) and gives you a brochure, and driving instructions.  You are greeted immediately by dozens of donkeys who want to be the first to have their head scratched.

I of course, rolled my window down and suddenly found myself nose to nose with several friendly ones – they were not shy about sticking their entire head in the window to get some love or as Matt thinks “AC.”

We decided to get out and get a closer look-they are so cute and friendly.  Very aware of you, your feet, and your car.

Fun donkey photos

Compilation of some of the funny donkey shots.

We passed by the retirement village:

Senior Meadow - we should all have such luxury!

Senior Meadow – we should all have such luxury!

We headed down the road to meet more furry friends and about half way through the property you come to a look out tower where you climb 5 stories to see the entire property.  Pretty darn cool.

Sweet donkey

His nuzzle is so soft – wish I could feed you..

We stopped at the “Special Care Unit” where they keep the babies, sick and injured animals.  To our surprise they had a 3 week old, 6 week old, 11 week old, and 3 month old babies.  They had exceptionally long hair and lovable dispositions.

Donate to this amazing non-profit  donkey sanctuary site

Or at https://donkeysanctuary.org/en/how-to-help-us/donor.

Matt and Donkey making friends

Hey Buddy – do you want to be friends?

Donkey wearing Matt's hat.

I scored a cool hat from that funny fellow.

Donkey smiling

hey, how is my breath?

Donkey with an itch.

Oh man, do I have an itch – can you help me?

Salt Pier dive

Diving the Salt Pier

Another day out on Ad Astra for a diving adventure under the Salt Pier also known as “Waf di Salina”.  The Salt Pier, one of the best dive sites on Bonaire, is also one of the most photographed sites on the island.

Cargil currently operates the Salt Pans which cover one tenth of the island’s surface and produces 360,000 to 500,000 tons of Bonaire salt every year.  The varying colors of the ponds reflect the various stages of production.  It starts with crystal clear seawater which then turns to green, then brown, and then the salt crystallizes turn pink.  The unique pink color us caused by bacteria which are enjoyed by flamingos.  Did you know, baby flamingos are born white until they eat the brine shrimp and bacteria?

Aerial view Salt Pier and Salt Pans

Overlooking the Salt Pier and Salt Pans. Photo courtesy of We Share Bonaire

Diving the Salt Pier takes you to depths between 5 to 15 meters, where you’ll explore a maze of pillars fully encrusted with sponges and corals shooting up, hanging down, and jutting out.  These sponge and coral covered pillars are in vibrant shades of purple, yellow, and pink.  Each pillar provides you with a unique sea community filled with sea life large and small.  Large schools of fish congregate in the shadows created by the salt terminal overhead.

Our first dive of the day was to get the “lay of the land” and give us Salt Pier newbies a quick glance of what the Salt Pier looks like during in the light.  We anchored at Jeannie’s Glory and decided to swim to the Salt Pier.  It was a pretty big distance, but we were able to mark our path by a large cargo ship mooring which indicated the half way point to the pier.  It also had a distinct “clink, clink” sound as the chain links bobbed up and down off the sea floor.

It was absolutely amazing to see the corals and sea life hanging precariously from each pillar which offered new and surprising communities.  We moved on to the 2nd and 3rd set of pillars to get a quick glance of everything before our night dive.  We were surprised to see the large amount of trash and tires, but I guess that is to be expected below a pier??

Salt Pier Dive

Salt Pier looking up from the sea bed.

Salt Pier Dive

Salt Pier Pillar with coral growth

At dusk, we jumped in the water in small groups as there were a lot of us diving (12 divers), we followed our dive plan and headed toward the Salt Pier with torches in hand eagerly anticipating what we might see.  Our goal was to swim slowly to the huge mooring, then over the reef to the first set of pillars.

New and surprising creatures appear during night dives that were not there during the day.  Flowers bloom, sea anemones pop up, eels and shrimp come out and so much more. It is an exchange of sea life where the day fish go into hiding and the night fish come out to play.

Large tarpon surrounded us checking us out – some as large as our bodies.  They have no fear and will often swim very close to you which is unsettling when you don’t see them in the dark until they are in your peripheral vision or right in front of your face.

A delightful slipper lobster was cruising around the bottom of the sea bed in between the pillars.  You can’t tell from the photo below, but at night his eyes glow and his tentacles reflect the light from your torch.  He moves slowly and methodical – pretty spectacular.

Slipper Lobster dive

Slipper Lobster photo courtesy of Info Bonaire.

Salt Pier dive

Salt Pier Pillar coral growth

Cruiser

Cruisers Helping Cruisers

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I find it hard to explain my relationships with other cruisers to my land lubber friends – do other cruisers have this problem too?  One type of relationship does not demean the other in any way, but they are uniquely different.

With other cruisers you have a shared way of life, comparable highs and lows, and similar problems and solutions to those problems (be it mechanical, electrical, plumbing, etc…).  You are thrust together into a situation where you know the other is transient and will move on and you may or may not see them again for months or years. Yet, you instinctively find yourself bonding and relying on other cruisers rather quickly.

In the small sailing community of Bonaire (there are 42 moorings), Matt and I have had to good fortune to meet, assist, benefit from, and enjoy many new cruiser friendships.  It is a community, where like so many other cruising communities, where you rely on others to help you.  And I just wanted to share a few examples of cruisers helping cruisers:

  1. Cindy, Jane, and Rose walk me daily (yes, I need to be walked to keep my joints from barking and having a regular walking group motivates us all).
  2. On one of our walks I mentioned our Splendide washer/dryer issue and Cindy on Tranquility mentioned she has had the same problem with her machine and might have spare parts.  Their machine has given up and they generously gifted us with multiple spare parts enabling us to repair our machine without having to ship parts from the U.S.
  3. About a week later, the fridge/freezer compressor decided to take a hiatus on Cindy’s boat, so we stored frozen tuna, salmon, steak and shrimp in our freezer until their compressor arrived – it was a challenge not to cook up some of that amazing fish!
  4. Jane has had some engine issues right when she needed to move into the marina to do rigging work.  Cindy, Lee, Matt, and I used our dinghies as propulsion (a whopping 3 km/hour) to get them to the marina and Dan and Rose assisted with docking – everything went smoothly!
  5. Moorings are far and few between this year with so many boats here from the hurricane ravaged islands and Bonaire’s 50th regatta anniversary, so when one boat moves another is on it immediately. Some moorings are temporary and you cannot be on them during the regatta, other moorings are better for smaller or shorter boats, and yet other spots have better moorings (concrete blocks vs. sand screws).  So, we pre-arranged a mooring swap:  when Cheetah II went into the marina, Sugar Shack took their mooring and Badger’s Set took our mooring.
  6. Wifi is a hot commodity on a boat and we are constantly shuffling to see where we can get the best signal.  Matt helped Ad Astra with some cables and connectors until they were set up and then worked with them to diagnosis and repair their wash down pump, engine, and compressor.
  7. Ad Astra has generously taken Matt and I out on several dive excursions, filled our tanks, taught us tricks and tips for better diving, loaned us equipment and oh so much more!
  8. Matt lent his muscles to Mara who is replacing their main sail and needed assistance removing their old sail since it is big and bulky.
  9. Pay it Forward:  Matt is always one of the first people in the water when a dinghy is in trouble offering a tow.  You never know when you will need one yourself.
  10. Earlier this year, Matt and I had taken our dinghy to shore (St. Barth’s) to go on a big hike and the tide came up sweeping Sweet N Low into the sea.  Many other boaters rushed to our aid (unbeknownst to us) to retrieve her and place her safely back on shore. Pay it forward.
  11. Bonaire did not have a forum where other cruisers could communicate (no morning net or Facebook page), so I created a Bonaire Cruisers Facebook group for information sharing.
  12. Matt and I met our friends Exit Strategy (Rose and Dan) and Jane at a dive site called “Cliff” but someone was already on that mooring, so we took another mooring that was fairly close.  Typically you are not supposed to tie two boats up to one mooring, but our dinghies are small so we thought why not.  We assembled our gear, jumped in and began our dive.  When Jane came up, she noticed that the dinghies were missing, WTF?  Some locals shouted that they were drifting away so she flagged a dive boat that picked Matt up so that they could retrieve the dinghies.  Luckily they had two huge engines and were able to get them before they made it to Venezuela – they had drifted several miles before Matt retrieved them.

 

Dive boat retrieving our dinghies that floated away.

Dive boat retrieving our dinghies that floated away.

This is all in addition to the shared recipe’s (thank you Exit Strategy and Noel’s Delight), tips for cleaning, cooking, baking, and sewing.  Life on a boat is so much easier with the feedback and guidance of others.

If it is not one thing it’s another as things break on a boat and parts are not always easy to come by on a remote island.  Having other cruisers to rely on makes it so much easier.

Good friends!

Me, Cindy and Jane.