My Queen is finally on the mend and felt up to getting out of the house a little bit. We opted for a travel trip versus doing some snorkeling and getting salty. Jumped into the car and lit out for a road trip around the South end of the island. It looked to be the easiest and quickest for our first real adventure on Bonaire. We were well rewarded for our patience. Bonaire is a MUCH prettier island than Curacao. Much better cared for, and the water is a magnificent blue that words and pictures just do not do justice to.
Swung down past the airport and headed South. Besides passing numerous dive spots (indicated by small rocks painted yellow with the dive site name on them)- our first attraction was the salt fields. Apparently Bonaire is one of the largest salt producing places on the planet, as apparent by small ‘mountains’ of Sea Salt. (see pics) These mountains are moved via conveyor belts to barges and shipped all over the world. Impressive, very impressive. Part of the large salt flats used to harvest the salt – also holds a beautiful flamingo sanctuary. Hundreds of the beautiful pink birds. You cannot get very close to them because of the sanctuary and the fact it is on private property. Not wanting to test the efficiency of the folks who patrol the area, we opted to take pictures from the safe confines of the road.
Went from the salt flats around the Southern most tip of the island heading for a haven for kite boarders called Lac Bay — nice little place, huge bay that doesn’t get over waist deep within the entire bay. According to a kite board instructor we know, the perfect training ground for learning kite boarding, sail boarding and stand up paddle boarding. Today was an ‘off’ day as the wind was very untypically not blowing, so activities in the bay were pretty slim. Instructor even said he didn’t have to work today because of lack of wind…… we stopped at one of the local beach bars there for some liquid refreshments and to take in the scenery. It is a very literally a beach bar, as there was not a floor – just sand for a floor. Down home kind of place, but the locals were friendly and everybody there was just chilling having a good time. Finally packed up and headed off to find the ‘other side’ of Lac bay, but I apparently missed a turn and we wound up back in the heart of Kralendijk. We both had just about had our fill for the day and decided to head back to the house. Stopped at the grocery store to restock the fridge a bit and headed back to the apartment.
Came back, made a drink and looked at pictures we took during the trip. Decided we would stay in for dinner, so I made my Queen a cup of Chicken Noodle Soup – while I nuked me a burger and washed it down with a good cold beer. It sure is nice to have my Queen back up on her feet. She should be 100% in the next day or two – and we can start getting wet and salty~!
Blij dat mijn koningin terug te hebben
Love the pictures, what were those white tbuildings, looked like large tool Boxes, guess maybe houses, but not sure?
Enjoying all these places through your eyes, and enjoy every minute of it, even the drinks, think you might be making me tipsy,,,as I don’t drink. An odd ball in this world for all these years, yes, have tasted it, had a little, and I mean little wine at wedding etc,,,but I didn’t like it, and wanted to take my calories in chocolate, but I smokes,,and yes, I still ant a cigarette,,,plus when I quit smoking,,couldn’t do it without coughing,,,gained 40 lbs,,,so guess my chocolate finally caught up with me,,,but I really enjoy your description of the various places, and drinks,, sand all the pictures. ,miss you,,…..grandma Vera
Hi Vera,
I am very happy that you are enjoying reading about our adventures and glad you have finally found my blog. There is usually a lot more pictures on here and a lot more detail as well. The majority of my friends don’t like Facebook (they say there is to much drama on Face Book) which is why I have been writing about our travels here.
The small white buildings are called slave huts, built in 1850. Slaves that worked in the salt fields stayed there and kept their personal belongs there. I crawled inside one of them. All I can say is they must have been some fairly small people. Not enough room to stand up and I could not stretch completely out when I tried to lay down in them. Built out of solid concrete with walls almost a foot thick, they were definitely built to last. 3 different colors of shacks (white, orange and blue) which were the colors of the grades of salt mined. I put up a picture of the plaque that describes it in a bit more detail, but the plaque was very hard to read while there and even harder to read in the picture.
I hope this helps.
We do kind of miss being home – but this adventure still holds a lot more for us to do yet. That and we do not miss the weather you all are starting to have up there. It is sunny and 85* almost every single day here.
If you have any more questions about anything you see, do not hesitate to ask. I love sharing our experiences with everyone.
I hope you are well~
Bill