Bonaire is a small, barely inhabited island with less than 20,000 people. It lies less than 100 miles from Venezuela and because of its location, it does not experience hurricanes like the other ABC islands (Aruba & Curaçao).

 

It is known for its scuba diving sites because the water gets deep quickly off of shore. Since we had never been here, we chose to do another island bus tour. Like St. Croix, there wasn’t a whole lot to see here, but there were some unique things that we had never seen before.

Kralendijk, Bonaire

We began our tour from the capitol of Kralendijk and took off north along the western shore. We passed by a number of dive sites that were labeled with bright yellow rocks. The sea waters were beautiful. Further north, the landscape reminded us a lot of Aruba, with the cactus and the rock formations.

 

The highlight of the tour was when we approached Lake Gotomeer. We began to see a small flamboyance of flamingos, but then saw more and more. These American flamingos are the only ones native to North America, and they typically live to be as much as 40 years old, although some have lived in captivity until 80.

09/14/17—09/23/17

We continued to Rincon, stopping a few times to let some iguanas cross the road. In town, we passed by a pre-school yard and the children ran to see us on our bus. We also went by the attractive Catholic church.

On the southern part of the small island, we passed by the Cargill Salt Works, where they harvest sea water and let it evaporate so they can have sea salt.

In that same area, we saw the slave huts on the beach. Slaves used to work the salt mill and other things, and they lived in these tiny homes where they couldn’t even stand up.

After our tour, we walked around town some more.