Back to Bonaire, & a day out

Wednesday 17th September

In the morning Bob and Niki returned the rental car while I prepared the boat for sail.
Bob decided to fix the problem with the auto helm before leaving this morning. It took way longer than expected to fix, and was approaching mid-day before we motored out of Spanish Waters.
The sail back was lovely, we were into the wind, and fortunately Daisy likes it that way. We arrived back at Bonaire just before sunset, and easily picked up a mooring in the bay.
We went ashore for dinner to one of the local Chinese restaurants, the food was OK but not great, but it was lovely spending the evening with Niki. I just wish we had picked a nicer restaurant.

Thursday 18th September

Bob hired a car; we loaded the cooler with drinks, and set off around the island. We drove through Rincon (Spanish for corner), Bonaire’s first permanent settlement founded in the late 15th century. Spanish settlers chose the location deep in the island’s interior as a safe haven from pirates.

Later under the Dutch, Rincon became home to many slaves that worked on the plantations. Today Rincon is a cluster of pastel cottages, small stores and street side café’s/restaurants, and the birthplace of many of the islands political and business leaders. There is not much to see here other than on festival days, which occur with amazing frequency. On market day dozens of booths are set up along the main road, selling locally made handcrafts, fish, fruit, vegetables and locally made foods.

Our first stop after Rincon was the Bonaire National Marine Park. The park encompasses the entire coast of Bonaire including Klein Bonaire and Lac. This area is about 2,700 hectares, and includes coral reef, sea grass and mangroves.
Parrots, Flamingos, Parakeets, iguanas are only a few of the many endemic species that live within the park. The beaches inside the park are important nesting grounds for all four species of sea turtles found in the Caribbean.

We stopped to look around the little museum at the entrance to the park before heading out. I found the history of the development of the island to be of particular interest.

We took the long drive around the island, stopping first at Salina Matijs a large lake where we saw many Flamingos. We were able to get quite close and take photographs. Playa Chikitu, was our next stop, a rocky cove backed by sand dunes and a nesting ground for turtles. Boka Chikitu followed that, and was a treasure chest of fossil shells and coral. From there we drove on to Seru Grandi, a high terrace about one million years old, Niki and I built a “spirit hut” each by piling little stones on top of each other, something thousands of visitors before us must have done, as there were literally thousands of “spirit huts” everywhere we looked. Bob had trouble pulling us away from our building projects.

Suplado the next stop better known as ‘The blow hole’ proved to be a bit of a disappointment as the sea was quite calm, so there were no spectacular splashes to be seen. Poor Niki had the most dreadful headache, and we had nothing to give her. We drove out to Malmok the most northern point on Bonaire, and climbed up to see the lighthouse. The lighthouse is no longer in use and has been concreted to prevent people from entering, however the view from the top definitely made the climb worth the trouble. The scenery was quite spectacular.

We saw a multitude of colorful lizards and birds as we drove around the island, occasionally stopping to take a closer look. We drove on to Pos Mangel where we parked the car and followed the trail on foot, Niki spotted a very large bees nest in the trees, buzzing with activity, so we moved hastily along. We eventually came to Pos Mangel, which, probably due to the very dry weather had shrunk to no more than a large puddle. I was concerned about the possibility of mosquitoes so we didn’t stay very long their either.

A very large and inquisitive iguana approached us, obviously looking for food, feeding them is prohibited, so again we made our way quickly back to the car. We drove on past the beaches of Boka Bartolk, Boka Katuna and stopped to look at Plays Benge, a dive site with a white sandy beach, it appeared to be a difficult climb to reach the beach so we drove on. We passed the dive sites of Playa Funchi, and Bise Morto to stop at Wayaka, it was also not an easy access so we hurried on to Boka Slagbaai, we had to get there quickly as the park rangers move you out at 3:30, and it’s about an hour drive back to the entrance of the park. Niki’s headache was so bad now, and she was feeling sick. We stopped at Slagbaai, where there was a bar open and a few people around. We asked if anyone had anything for headaches, and an older English gentleman obliged with 3 aspirin.

Slagbaai was a beautiful beach, with historic buildings and picnic area. The snorkeling looked great but we didn’t have time as the rangers arrived to move everyone on. So we all piled into our vehicles and headed back. The roads around the park are not so much roads as clearings through cactus forests, huge boulders and rocks, potholes and dead cactus branches littered the path, it was an unbelievably bumpy, rough ride, that shook the car violently and caused us to be thrown out of our seats, this did not help poor Nicolette’s headache at all and we had to pull over several times for her to get out as she felt so sick.

Eventually we reached the exit. We stopped in Rincon to try and get Niki something to eat, but the only place we could find that was serving food the server didn’t speak any English, and I wasn’t very happy about the food on sale, so we left and hurried back to the boat. By the time we got back Nicolette was feeling better.