Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Bonaire Terrain, Flora and Fauna
As you can see from these pictures, Bonaire isn't exactly "tropical." There are some Palm trees but there are far more cactus and low-lying shrubs. Also, when taking a closer look at the ground you'll find it's mostly coral - at higher elevations you can actually see where the water level was thousands of years ago.
I wasn't able to capture all of the fauna on camera - but here is a picture of a lone donkey we met while traversing some "back roads" in an attempt to find the northeast coast of the island (luckily Nate is an ASTOUNDING navigator :o). There is a donkey sanctuary on the island that is helping to reduce overpopulation, I believe the overall effort is to phase out the donkies altogether as their primary purpose used to be transportation of salt.
Other animals you might see crossing the road include goats, chickens, iguanas, lizards, cats, dogs, etc
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
East Side of the Island
The eastern coast of Bonaire is notorious for it's rough seas - only highly experienced divers are permitted to explore this side of the island and as I'm sure you guessed by looking at the shore... they can only dive by boat. An interesting article I read while there said that the marine life on this side is nothing short of incredible (hawksbill turtles, stingrays/eagle rays, green moray eels, shipwrecks , and untouched coral reefs)
More pics as promised...
Pictures from our afternoon/evening at the slave huts. Located on the southern tip of Bonaire, you can get an amazing sunset and watch as the flamingos make their daily trek back to Venezuela (over 60 miles each way). I was able to get a couple of shots of the birds as they were making their way home - but I wasn't able to zoom in enough to truly capture their color or size. Also, I added a picture of Nate's mom in front of one of the huts to give you perspective of size - four to six people to each hut during the height of the salt trade. An amazing view but certainly not very accomodating for the workers once housed there.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
(hikers and passers by add new pieces to the stacks). This view
stretched for at least a couple hundred yards. We were able to tour
pretty much the whole island of Aruba by rental car during our 7 hour
layover this am. Put over 100 km on the car and can honestly say that
I don't need to go back - some beautiful scenery but it's too built up
and we saw it all.
Super bowl Sunday
So we're chillin' at a DC airport, watching the super bowl and munching on some french fries. Feels strange to be back on the states but am glad that we're almost home (can't wait to see the pet menagerie). We left Bonaire at 6 this morning and should be back on the farm by 1 am. We have lots more pictures and stories to share which we'll start posting tomorrow. Thanks for keeping up with us and for all the great comments :-)
Aruba
we are driving around. Here is downtown Oranjestad - cruiseship
central. Aruba is night and day from Bonaire.
Eating lunch in an awesome Dutch pancake (crepe) house.
Indian inscriptions
ocean currents and safe landing sites on the island, as well as pieces
of an astrological calendar.
The countryside
window of the interior of the island.
Belated post from Saturday.
circumnavigation. It took 7 hours. The "roads" through much of the
island leave a little to be desired. Actually they leave a lot to be
desired mainly pavement, or at least driveable gravel, any type of
roadsign at all and widths over 6 feet (on a two way road).
Here is a typical bonairian beach. Hard, sharp, endless stretches of
reef left bare when the oceans receded. It's about 15-20 feet down.
Looks great for snorkling. Getting in is easy. It's the out that I'm
hesitant about.
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