Just outside the park entrance one can look south to the new farm of wind generators -- not yet in service.	Skeleton of a whale that was washed up on shore of Bonaire	Typical style of signage throughout the park -- this one is at the park entrance ...	... and this handsome picture is the only identifier of the restroom for males ...	... just as this is the only identifier of the one for females
Many of the cactus plants have a woody tree-like base	Signage for an interesting cut in the shoreline	Boka Kokalishi is a deep cut that contains these interesting tiers that look almost man-made	Barb captured Chuck in his battle gear	Crested Caracara in a tree ...
... was hassled by a brave (foolish?) Tropical Mockingbird	Another Crested Caracara taken at a different site	Iguana	Troupial oriole	Pan of an almost-dry lake bed
Cliff along the west shore	Pan of cliff along the west coast	Lighthouse on the northwest coast	Terns at the lighthouse	Looking east from the lighthouse hill
Pan to the south from lighthouse hill	Some of the buildings at Boka Slagbaai	Lunch at Boka Slagbaai	Flamingos at Boka Slagbaai	Typical sign to keep folks from getting too close to the flamingos

South and East Bonaire

On the second day of our pickup rental we drove south from Kralendijk, past many of our favorite dive sites from the "old days" when we used to come to Bonaire by airline.  We passed the shipping area for the salt that is produced by the solar salt works that have been on the island since slave days.  There were four grades of salt produced, and in former days they were each amassed at different locations along the coast.  So that arriving ships would know which grades were where, obelisks were erected and painted different colors:  white, pink, red and yellow.  Small huts were built at several of these sites for sheltering slaves at night during the week; two of these have been restored and bear the name of the nearby obelisk.

We continued around the southern end of the island and up the east coast to Lac Bay, famous for its sailboarding.  After a very good lunch at the Kon Tiki restaurant, we drove up to the northeastern corner of Bonaire where the guide maps indicated that there were caves with Amerindian inscriptions.  To get to the caves we had to leave the main road and drive along an extremely bumpy trail that paralleled a cliff that extended for miles in a north/south direction.  The trail might be carelessly described as a dirt trail, except there really wasn't dirt.  Just an uneven surface of hard rock, for the most part.  There was no signage, and so we stopped at many likely-looking spots along the cliffs before we finally hit the jackpot.  Caves with hand-painted inscriptions in red, high on the walls and ceilings.  Some had faded almost to the point of not being visible, but others were surprisingly intact.  I noticed later in my photos that many of the intact inscriptions appeared to have areas of shiny reflectance.  My worst suspicions were confirmed by an obscure book found later in the Bonaire museum:  at some point a number of years ago the inscriptions were apparently "enhanced" by someone with red latex paint.  None of the references in the popular tourist guides mention this fact, but possession of the knowledge by local authorities may explain the lack of promotion and/or signage.

Piles of salt harvested from the Solar Salt Works at the south end of Bonaire		White obelisk near the restored "white" slave huts	Some of the huts at white slave -- named not for the color of the slaves but the color of the nearby obelisk	Barb rests in the entrance to one of the white slave huts
Site is also a dive site. This is a typcial marker for the shore divers	South of white slave are the "red slave" huts	Shore divers park their vehicles among the huts at red slave	Devi lends a hand to a photographer having trouble wading ashore	Windmills used to move water into and among the salt ponds
No, they are not plastic	On a quiet day, the only sailboarders at Sorobon were youngsters getting lessons	Parakeet	At lunch we were entertained by this Yellow Oriole ...	... that kept posing for me ...
... while this blue-eyed dove moped in the shadows	Mouth of one of the caves containing Amerindian inscriptions	Interior of one of the caves	Some caves were deep enough to be dark ...	... but a handy flash lighted the subjects ...
... including many of the inscriptions themselves
Unusual private residence found on the east side of the island

Bonaire Museum

On August 12 the Takks and Terns decided to visit the Bonaire museum.  We found that the museum had moved since our guidebooks had been written:  it is no longer in the former Governor's Building along the waterfront near the town pier; rather, it is now in a building near the large yellow Catholic church. 

The collection in the museum is rather eclectic and ragged.  There are a number of amateurish paintings by a local artist that attempts to portray the Amerindian myths concerning the origin of human life on Bonaire.  There are old farm implements and old kitchen utensils.  And there is the old book that revealed to us that the Amerindian inscriptions have in modern times been "enhanced".  Oh, and turtle decoys -- used to attract horny male turtles who at certain times in their lives will mount anything that looks even remotely like a cooperative female.  Etc.

Turtle decoys	HUGE metal trap	Barb shows off the tools that are/were used to manipulate the lengths of cactus used to make cactus fences

Lionfish Talk

On August 19 we attended a special talk about the efforts to stem the invasion of Lionfish into Bonaire waters.  The talk was given by a young researcher who is working on a Master's degree from an English University.  A native of Trinidad/Tobago, she secured an internship with the Bonairean research group CIEE out of concern that one day the Lionfish will begin appearing in Trinidad, and she wanted the experience of having worked with an organization that was actively resisting the invasion.  We learned in the talk about the aggressiveness of the Lionfish;  they are such prodigious eaters that they can -- by eating the young of other species -- soon virtually strip the reefs of most other species.  Apparently this has already happened in part of the Bahamas.  We learned that all of the Lionfish now invading the Caribbean came from just a few fish that were accidentally released in Florida by hurricane Andrew in 1992, a theory that has been validated by DNA sampling.

Here in Bonaire, divers are encouraged to take along a supply of yellow ribbons to tie to a piece of dead coral near any Lionfish.  (The ribbons are created by volunteers.  They are cut to a standardized length and a cork is stapled to one end so that in the water the floating cork will hold the ribbon in a vertical line.)  In the short term, the Lionfish tend to stay in a relatively confined space, so by marking the location (and reporting it immediately to the appropriate authorities upon returning to shore), volunteer divers can come find the ribbon and the fish.  By the way, Barb has quite the eye for finding lionfish.  She has found, marked and reported three of them recently.  The recovery volunteers are equipped with a large rectangular net on the end of a stick, and with several -- believe it or not -- fly swatters, which are used to "herd" the fish into the net.  The fish is then put into a suitable container and taken to CIEE as soon as possible so that the stomach contents can be analyzed.  How many Lionfish have been collected on Bonaire recently?  Don't recall the exact figures, but in the hundreds.

Young researcher from Trinidad	Booklet at the talk	Sample bottles of Lionfish and stomach contents	Humorous slide at the end of the talk	Talking with locals after the talk
Terns talking with Kim (who certified us to be level-3 fish surveyors for REEF) and the director of the Lionfish removal project	Lionfish (picture provided by Becky Bauer)

 

Return to Home Page