A Diver's paradise & Major Salt Producer

Today we were in the last of the A-B-C Islands, Bonaire. As you can see, we didn't visit these Dutch islands in alphabetical order. Aruba is known as the "Miami" of the three - being the most touristed island in the Southern Carribean. Bonaire has an amazing reef-lined and heavily protected coast so it's a diver's paradise. Curaceo is a treasure trove of culture, history and scenery .. and I neglected to mention yesterday - Baseball in Curaçao has become a significant part of the island's culture. Despite being a small country, Curaçao has produced more Major league Baseball players per capita than any other country! The three islands as a whole are the most concentrated area of multiculturalism in the world. Students learn 4 languages - Dutch, Spanish, English aand Papiamentu.

As for Bonaire - a national park covers 1/5 of the island, donkey's are protected here, and only 24,000 people live on the island. There are several world famous diving sites on the west side of the island including one called 1000 steps (because there are 72 steps to the water but it feels like a great deal more carrying your tank out and up the hillside at the end of a dive) and another called TOLO with an abundance of coral and sea creatures.

Other than donkeys there are lots of iguanas and flamingos on the island as well as goats. Oh, and we also saw a huge termite nest in a tree.

Harry Belafonte actually owned a portion of the island and he sold off lots on the south end that now are the location of homes worth $3 million or more. It's said he made more on real estate in Bonaire than he did with his singing. The south end of the island is also the salt production area of the island and where the slave huts are found. Bonaire produces 500,000 metric tons of salt annually with a labor force of only 40 people. The water is brought in from the ocean, lies in large fields where it evaporates in the intense sunlight. In 10 months the salt is removed and shipped on barges worldwide. It's primary use is in water softeners, and for medicinal purposes rather than cooking. Here's some photos from the miles of salt in the making. The somewhat pink toned water is the result of the evaporation process.

Prior to 1636, Bonaire was inhabited by native Indians from Venezuela and later by the Spaniards. Under Dutch rule, the island became a significant center for the transatlantic slave trade, with captured Africans forced to work on the salt pans. This dark period in the island's history is still evident in the form of the cramped slave huts that remain today. Imagine 4 people per hut!

So that's it for our tour of the A-B-C islands. Putting things in perspective you can see from this map we're very close to South America and will be continuing in a South-easterly direction as we explore more of the Southern Hemisphere. So you 'round!