Bonaire: Part 1, March 28 - April 13, 2014

Bonaire, Part 1

March 28 - April 13, 2014

After our fun-filled week in Curacao, we waved goodbye to 6 of our friends.

The rest of us had another destination to share...

we were on our way to Bonaire, in our 9 seater Divi Divi plane.

We arrived safely...was there any question?

We were pretty happy with our home for the next week, a home they called Elkadia.

We were right on the sea…facing the sunsets...

The winds were smoking fast for some super fast wind-surfing...

and kite surfing.

Like Curacao, the coastline had different attitudes.  Calm and peaceful...

playful...

or wild and crazy!

However, even the angriest wave couldn't scare our friend Glenn.  He had received a kiss from a scorpion the day before.  He was prepared to face anything.

Flamingos...

and donkeys inhabited the island.

Salt was one resource that Bonaire had in endless supply. Bonaire used slaves to help in the production of salt.  These are replicas of the small huts where the slaves used to sleep.  The doors are about waist height.  The view looks so amazing…but the heat was incredible.  I can't imagine how many people would sleep in these small quarters.

The salt was moved from the salt flats to the ships using slave labour.  The slaves would sleep here during the week, then walk the 6 hours back to their families on the weekends.  

Historically, the most important use for salt was in the preservation of food.

Solar salt is a natural product of seawater, sunshine and wind.  In the natural salt lakes or salinas, wind blows the seawater on land.  Sunshine encourages evaporation to take place, and the salt is left behind.  The managed flats are flooded and filled with brine which helps to purify the salt.  We saw beautiful lakes of pink…and brown (look in the background)...

and turquoise.  I read that the different colours were caused by the various algae and bacteria in the lakes.

  Slavery was abolished in 1863.  It was almost a hundred years later that the salt industry was revitalized.  Machines have replaced slave labour.  The company Cargill now operates the collection and distribution of salt on the island.

But we didn't come to eat salt. We came to Bonaire to dive.  For a peak into the underwater world, see the next post.