Tag Archives: living on a boat

A Bunch of Flamingos & 2 Jack Asses

We had a very slow start this morning, even though we intended to get up early to leave the boat by 8-830am. By the time we got to shore, tied Sweet N Low up, walked to where we thought the car rental place was it was blazen hot. I mean no breeze, sweat dripping in places you didn’t know sweated hot! I know you are feeling really sorry for us now, right? Along our walk, we did come across this really cool painting on the back of someone’s garage.

Cultural art on the back of a garage.

We got lost searching for a rental car place and walked for over a mile before we found a Budget. Unfortunately, they did not rent cars from this office but they were willing to drive us to the airport where they could accommodate us. An hour later we were on the road to the Washington Slagbaai National Park. Since it was late in the morning, we decided to stop in the town Rincon to have lunch since there are no places to eat in the park and our cooler was full of beer and light snacks. Eddy, our tour guide, suggested we try the Rose Inn. Time has come to a complete stand still in this local restaurant in the heart of Rincon. The Rose Inn has been a cozy, popular outdoor venue for ages and you can still order plenty of authentic local dishes under the trees. Wayne tried goat stew, I had chicken stew, and Matt had the fresh fish. It was pretty tasty and the beer was really cold. Even though it was a bit pricey, we will probably find our way back here.

As we were leaving Rincon, we spotted a strange site…what’s wrong with this picture?

Why is there a real phone inside the phone booth?

Just before you enter the park, you come across the windmill farm which is the home to 12 windmills that provide part of the power for the island. Makes for a pretty picture too.

Windmill farm.

We learned that if you buy your snorkel or dive permit ahead of time you get a discount off your $25 ticket to the park. (If you buy a $10 snorkel permit you get $10 off, if you buy a $25 dive permit you get to enter for free). Our park passes are good through 12/31/17. There are two driving paths you can take, one is 2.5 hours long and the other is 1.5 hours long. Both require a truck or high vehicle as the roads are rough. Since we had a late start and ate lunch in Rincon, we only had 3 hours in the park which was a bummer as there were several things we wanted to do. So, we had to make a change of plans. We would drive the long route today and come back tomorrow to do the short route, hike Brandaris, and snorkel. So, we headed off, bumping along in our pickem up truck, we stopped at Playa Chikitu which is the only park with sand dunes.

Playa Chikitu

The next stop, Suplado Blow Hole was one I had been looking forward to seeing as I love blow holes. Suplado means “spectacular” and it did not disappoint!

insert video blow hole

Malmok is an important historical and geological site where you can find evidence of past hurricanes and tsunamis. The ruins left behind are from the 19th century Malmok lighthouse which was built, but never lit.

Malmok lighthouse ruins.

Playa Benge had a rocky terrain so we moved on to Play Funchi. Wayne and I stayed in the truck as Matt just wanted to pop out to take a photo. As he was coming back we noticed a pack of iguanas, big and small coming toward the truck-a small invasion. It appeared they wanted the shade. As Matt hopped in, one large iguana lept on to the front passenger tire and dared us to move! He eventually jumped off but only after we moved the truck forward and back a few times.

Seriously, you want me to move?

The next stop, Wayaka Beach has three dive/snorkel sites (I, II, III). Since, we were planning on snorkeling here the next day, we just peeked and admired the pretty water! Until tomorrow.

Wayaka Snorkel Site II

The last stop, Boka and Salina Slagbaai is home to another flamingo sanctuary and they were out in full force! The boka, or bay used to be one of Bonaire’s two main ports. The name Slagbaai is Dutch for “Slaugher bay” as goats used to be slaughtered and salted next to the bay before being exported to Curacao. Luckily, the old port buildings are now used as picnic areas.

On the way out, which is an hour long bumpy ride, we saw a few jack asses that Matt tried to befriend, but they were not having anything of it.

Mr. Ass did not want to have anything to do with Matt, much to his dismay.

Stay tuned for our return trip to Washington Slagbaai National Park where we hike Brandaris and snorkely Wayaka II.

Discovering Bonaire-South Part I

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We had decided to take a combination tour that would show us the North and South side of the island. We selected Voyager Bonaire as our tour company. Our tour guide, Eddy was very informative, funny, and totally down to earth – someone we could certainly hang out with at the local pub. We packed a cooler, hopped in the dinghy and headed to shore for our 8:45 am pick up. As we climbed into the air conditioned van, we met our tour mates, Selena and Maria who are from the Netherlands (they speak Dutch and English).

We started our tour heading South and the first stop was the Salt Flats. Salt is one of Bonaire’s main industries so it is not surprising that the tour guide stopped at the flats. They have several pits (evaporation ponds) that they slowly fill with water. Within a week, the combination of the brine shrimp and bacteria in the ponds turn the water purple (a true purple color), as the water cools and the wind blows, foam forms on the side of the ponds and I swear it jiggles with the wind! As the water evaporates, it leaves behind industrial salt that is not edible at this stage. They are huge salt crystals which are moved into piles that form gorgeous white mountains.

Salt Flats week 2 turn the water purple

Foam caused from bacteria bi-product

Cool salt crystal

Young magazine video shoot with Mustang at Salt Flats

Back in the 1800’s slaves used to manage the salt flats by hand, but now they have a huge conveyor belt and heavy machinery that does the work.

After we left the Salt Flats we came across the first set of “slave huts.” They had three sets that were marked by color: red, white, and orange. Basically, as the salve ships came in to port, they were directed to one of the three areas to drop off the slaves. Eddy told us that 2-3 people slept in each hut but he believes the number to be closer to 7-8. They were remarkably small and bare. Hard to believe that one person slept in each one let alone 7-8.

Slave huts

Matt at door and me swing him thru window

As we drove around the southern tip of the island we came upon Pekelmeer Flamingo Sanctuary, which is one of four areas in the world where Flamingos breed. The Sanctuary is located on the vast salt pans at the southern end of the island and home to over ten thousand flamingos. Unfortunately we could not see very many from the road, but I was able to capture a baby and its mama.

Mama and baby Flamingo

The Willemstoren Lighthouse is still operational and warns traveling boats of the many reefs on the south side of the island. The ruin to the right used to be the home of the caretaker of the lighthouse. It has not been maintained well, but the basic structure is still standing.

Willemstoren Lighthouse

Lighthouse caretaker house

The last stop on our southern island tour was Lac Bay which is home to Jibe City, the windsurfing school. It is a totally laid back atmosphere, casual, easy going group of people that have created this amazing community to teach people how to windsurf, SUP and more. In addition to the school, they have a restaurant, massage area, sun bathing area, free wifi, and small store. This is definitely a place we could hang out for a few days. The professional instructors are champions. In fact, Bonaire is home to four of the world’s top windsurfers, so you learn from the best. Lac Bay is only a few feet deep and is a few miles to the closest reef so beginners have a huge area to practice on without any danger. We met several of the champions as Eddy seemed to know everyone.

Jibe City Windsurfing Sails

Windsurfers learning at Lac Bay

Stay tuned for more on the Northern part of our tour.

Dushi Island

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As we explored the island we kept seeing a lot of stores, signs, and shirts with “dushi” on it – “Dushi Dive” “Dushi Bonaire” and all sorts of other “Dushi” things. How weird. In America, “Dush” is a derogatory word. So, I had to ask the lady a local what “dushi” meant and to my surprise she said it was a term of endearment, meaning “sweet/sweetheart.” Well now that makes a lot more sense! Still, I do not think I can bring myself to buying a shirt, hat or trinket with “dushi” written on it – or can I?

Bonaire is a quiet, charming, and pretty clean island with about 19,000 inhabitants. The government has determined that they will only grow to the size of 30-35k inhabitants. Bonaire is part of the Netherland’s Antilles, with its sister Islands, Curacao and Aruba. Other Antillean islands include St. Maarten, Saba, and Statia. They capital Kralendijk (pronounced crawlen dike) which is the main port and the only mooring area. The entire island is only 12 square miles and the inhabitants only occupy about 5% of the island. Another 25% of the island is the National Park. The two main industries are salt and tourism even though they do not really cater to boaters.

Being the third best dive spot in the world makes diving a huge part of their tourism business, but they also have a booming business in snorkeling, windsurfing, and bird watching. In addition, you can enjoy parrot, donkey, and flamingo sanctuaries. Windsurfing takes place on Lac Bay, a large lagoon on the windward side of the island which is protected from seas by a low lying reef. The depth is only about 1 meter and it is 2 miles from shore to the reef which makes a large protected area for beginners to learn how to windsurf. Professional windsurfers run the windsurfing school called Jibe City. Bonaire is home to the top 4 windsurfers in the world so you can learn from the best!.

Jibe City Windsurfing School

There is only one stop light on island and it is not used for traffic. It actually says STOP FOR PIZZA. Love it.

Stop For Pizza

There are 12 massive windmills on the North Eastern side of the island and they each provide 1 megawatt of energy. The island however, uses about 22 megawatts of energy so they built a plant which can generate up to 24 megawatts of energy during the time the windmills cease to provide their share (September-October).

A tour is definitely in order to help us get the lay of the land so to speak. It appears that most of the site seeing places require a car so we might have to look into that as well. Places of interest include Washington Slagbaai National Park, parrot sanctuary, donkey sanctuary, Rincon, Salt Flats, Cave tour, Cadushi Factory, Blow Hole, Salt Flats, Famingo Sanctuary, Slave Houses, Seru Largu, Lighthouse and ruin and the dive sites including 1,000 steps, pink beach, Klein Bonaire, and more.

Currency is the U.S. dollar even though it is a Dutch island. I believe some places still take the guilder (sometimes called the florin) which is about 1.78N to the $1. We used guilder while we were in St. Maarten a few times.

The main languages in Bonaire are Dutch, English, Spanish, and Papiamentu which is a mix of languages that started with the slaves who did not understand, Dutch, English, or Spanish. A small glossary of words can be found here.

Bonaire is really flat, dry and full of cactus which is very different from the Caribbean islands we are used to which are filled with mountains and lush terrain. Most people think that Bonaire is a volcanic island but we learned it is really a tectonic island (meaning the plates in the ocean push up the island over time). But to me, when you look at the island it looks like a choral island as it is filled with choral everywhere.

The Adventures of Sugar Shack

– Sailing Aboard a Catana 471

Tag Archives: living on a boat

A Bunch of Flamingos & 2 Jack Asses

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Discovering Bonaire-South Part I

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Dushi Island

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