half time treatit was not always a pleasure ridethe last sunset before arriving at Bonairethe bay of Kralendijk at sunrise; we slowed down to arrive in daylightwe had to pump up the fenders to dock at the marina; unfortunately this action resulted in loosing a fender, well sh.. happens
The first week in Bonaire
our first walk to town to check in; the marina staff gave us directions to find the customs office but forgot to tell us it was closed due to a bank holiday😂Altimate’s first anchorage; I liked the name of the boat on the rightour friends boat “Ruffian”ceiling art in Kralendijkpretty looking passagewe invited Fiona and Iain from Ruffian but I forgot to take a pic; instead another boring sunset at our second mooringwhile searching for a sipper slider we had the chance to get a feeling of Bonaire; it was flat and drythat was such a funny drive thru!!! I’m pretty sure that only exists in Bonaire; a drive thru to fill up dive tanksI just liked the muralthe marina the view from Altimate to shore; next to us Cathrine and Lars from “Tindra” a Swedish boat; behind them was Ruffiana cruising ship entered Kralendijk; that day the town was crowded; the ship only stayed for one daybest traffic sign everthe reason of the above traffic signon our way to the grocery store (that was always a very long walk) we found this small shop; a small Ikea outlet – and I thought we had already seen the smallest Ikea in La Palma…we sailors got so excited to watch a movie in a cinema; we were far too earlya bit later the open air cinema was slowly filling up; first row: Cathrine from Tindra, me and Fiona and Iain from Ruffian
I liked this iguana, he was so relaxed and didn’t mind getting filmed at all
Our first day with the car exploring the southern part of Bonaire
In fact we’ve seen almost the whole island on our first day. That was not a big deal as the island’s total land area is only 288 square kilometres. It is 38.6 kilometres long from north to south, and ranges from 4.8–8 km wide from east to west. The driving was a bit of a challenge as most of the roads were dirt roads. A dusty, bumpy and fun experience.
our first stop close to the solar salt works at the south end of BonaireI found these info in the www about the pink colour:”In these ponds we see the unique pink color which is caused by a microorganism called halophilic bacteria, which flourish in high salinity brine and in reality are not bacteria at all but a single cell life-form. The cell membranes contain carotenoid pigments which give the crystallizers the pink-red color.”that info sounds somehow nice, but it surly was terrible for the people to work at the salt worksslave hutssuper smallnot very comfimore slave huts I talked to some locals who were collecting this, they explained that they eat the pinkish looking small – what ever that is- raw; we were allowed to taste, it was very delicious a bit like oyster but firmthis is the yummi whatever; such a pity that we didn’t catch how they harvested thesethe slave huts from a different viewFiona watching the flamingoesIain taking pics of the stone menlittle stone manmany, many flamingoesthe lighthouse at the south tip of Bonaire Lac Bay in the south-east- it seemed like surfers paradisethe water was very shallow just perfect for water-sports like surfing or wing foiling exhausted, bored or fascinated? wild donkeyswet dirt roadsthe weather was crazy that day; here at a stop at the east coast right opposite of Kralendijka monument for a ship which sunk because it hit the reefthe power of watera very harsh environment but nevertheless very beautifula highlight in Bonaire- their longest tree
Indian Inscriptions at the north east side of Bonaire
The inscriptions were found in caves, now inhabited by many bats
interesting pikes at the wallone of the cavesinscriptionsthat looked like a mermaid to meit was very dark inside the caveIain and his friend Lenny or was it Larry?me dancing out of the caves
After visiting the caves we had a stop at Rincon to have a late lunch
Full we drove on to the west coast and headed up north as far as it was possible. Up to playa Frans to see more flamingoes at the Salina Frans.
the nice restaurant at Rincon, we had a long chat with Hectorthe nice owners of the restaurantone of the few wells in Bonairethey were and are still very important to the people of Rinconflamingoes…they were pretty and proudthey also seemed to stay being prettySalina Gotoa stop at Salina Goto and time for a selfieSalina Franswater walls?and more flamingoesthere were also a lot of chicken and roostersoooooo cuteain’t he proud?I just lov’ema figurehead at a house – I liked that
I would have loved to adopt him, he was such a sweety!
National Park Washington-Slagbaai
The Washington Slagbaai National Park is located in the northern end of Bonaire. It comprises of two former land plantations, Washington & Slagbaai, totalling just under 14,000 acres. These two plantations once supplied salt, charcoal, aloe extract, divi-divi pods (divi-divi is a large shrub or tree with thorny leaves), and goats for export to Curaçao and Europe. The Washington Plantation was secured in 1969, upon the death of the owner “Boy” Herrera. He negotiated with the government to take over the plantation upon his death with the condition that it was to remain undeveloped for the enjoyment of the people. Early on our second day we drove to the national park. As we were early enough we could walk the Lagadishi Walking Trail.
a stop somewhere on our way to the parkposing timeRincon the trail we walkedtypical cacti walking heatrough surroundingblowholevery fascinatinga lot of energywind powerI was wondering what animal eats the cactusa whale skeleton at the entrance of the park interesting bathroom sign
Further on in the park again with the car
a stop at another blowholeIain still had too much energy he was desperate to climb up the hill to the natural bridgewe saw many, many wildlife that dayvegetarian iguanaa ruin in the desertwest side of the national park, the area was much calmerchilling at the pebbled beach beautifulrelaxing in the shadeselfie in the car, slowly heading back we had a quick stop herea nice place to go diving or snorkelling inside the National Parkcacti leading the way Salina Slagbaaiour last stop
A few pics from our diving explorations
our first dive alone starting from Ruffian; so generous to lend us their equipmentmy way of trying to say thank you under waterour second dive when we took the big boat I have no clue what we were looking atand off we went into the big bluecoming back
A last few pics…
he was always sitting there when we passed bywe went for a drink with Ruffian on our second last day; I thought the seating was worse a picthe dinghy dock the last ride with our trusty dinghy; we gave it to a Dutch family fisher cleaning their catch and the pelican was hoping for some easy biteschecking out
SY Altimate 