Bonaire is a Caribbean island east of Central America and north of Venezuela. The island is part of the Netherlands Antilles together with Curacao and the distant trio of Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten. It is a flat, riverless island renowned for its dive spots. Its tropical climate is moderated by constant trade winds from the Atlantic Ocean. The temperature is almost constant at about 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit).
Cities
Understand
Climate
Tropical marine; little seasonal temperature variation
Terrain
The island is flat with a few hills, scant vegetation and neglible natural resources other than white sandy beaches and salt. The northern part of the island is a arid protected park. The southern tip of the island is a great field for sea salt production.
Get in
By plane
KLM offers daily non-stop service from Amsterdam to Bonaire on the way to Lima or Quito. American Eagle also offers daily non-stop flights from San Juan to and from Bonaire and other major U.S cities. Air Jamaica flies from Montego Bay, which offers many connections to the US. In December 2005, Continental Airlines launched weekly non-stop flights from Newark and offer connections in Houston. Several smaller airlines connect Bonaire with the neighbouring islands including Dutch Airlines Express and Arkefly.
Charter Airlines include Tiara Air.
There is a departure tax of US$25 which are usually not included in your ticket.
By boat
There are not currently any passenger ferries operating to or from Curacao or Venezuela. Cruise ships do occasionally dock in Bonaire. Bonaire is not a major cruise ship destination.
The most frequently seen cruise ship in port is the M/V Freewinds operated by the Church of Scientology.
You can also go use different Bonaire Water Taxis including Kantika di Amor and the Seacow Watertaxi.
Private boat moorage is available. Dive operators operate boats to many dive sites including those located off the small uninhabited island of Klein Boanire. Some boat operators also specialize in snorkel tours and their are regularly scheduled passenger boats to Klein Boanire. Some include the Woodwind, Bonaire Pirate Cruising, Oscarina, Bowalie and more.
Get around
By car
Automobiles can be shipped to Bonaire and Rental cars are available at the airport and at selected hotels. Reservations are strongly suggested as, especially during peak times, all vehicles may be rented. You can drive around the entire island in a couple of hours!
By bus
There is an informal bus system on the island that utilizes vans. There are a small number of medium sized tour buses on the island as well.
See
Do
Buy
There are a few shops on Bonaire:
Eat
Bonaire has many restaurants and quite varied cuisine given the overall island population. "Aki ta Bende Kuminda Krioyo" will inform a visitor that local-style food is available, generally heavy on soups, stews, fried foods and fish. Traditional foods that may be found on the menu include conch, cacti, wahoo and rock lobster. Much of the fish is caught locally by line fishermen in season. Though traditionally eaten, iguana is not generally served in restaurants.
Bonaire has no real fast food, though there is the "smallest KFC franchise outlet in the world" in a shopping plaza by the
Kralendijk and a Subway sub shop. Check out "Swiss Chalet", a local favorite serving Fondu. Bobbejan's is an extremely popular weekend-only barbeque joint. Other cuisines common on the islands are Argentine, Italian, Indonesian, Suriname, and lots and lots of Chinese. Island-made ice cream is available in many places, with Lovers Ice Cream being a local favorite. Arrive before noon, as they often sell out.
Almost all eateries are open for limited hours during the day, and all close briefly during siesta time between 2-3pm. Call or check ahead to determine if a restaurant is open for lunch, dinner, both, or only open on weekends. Some are closed certain days of the week, such as Sunday.
Sleep
Despite the small size of the island, Bonaire has a lot of possibilities when looking at placed to stay, from large resorts to small privately owned houses which you can rent on a daily basis. Along the coast you have multiple places that combine a dive school with cabañas where you can sleep for a moderate price. A few examples of good places to stay are:
Get out
Bonaire is an island in the Netherlands Antilles, and as such, is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Together with Aruba and Curaçao it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles. While Papiamentu, Spanish, and English are commonly spoken, the official language is Dutch.
Bonaire has a land area of 288 km² (111 sq. miles). Bonaire's Afdeling Bevolking (census) office reported that the population was 14,006 inhabitants as of December, 2006, which means a population density of 49 inh. per km². Uninhabited Klein Bonaire, nestled in the western crescent of the main island, is 6 km² (2.3 sq. miles). Bonaire is served by Flamingo International Airport. The island lies outside the hurricane belt.
The structure of the relationship between Bonaire and the Kingdom is being considered for change under proposed legislation.
History
Original Inhabitants
Bonaire's first inhabitants were the Caiquetios, a branch of the Arawak Indians who sailed across from what is now Venezuela around 1000 AD. Traces of Caiquetio culture are at a number of archaeological sites, including those at Lac Bay and northeast of Kralendijk. Rock paintings and petroglyphs have survived at the caves at Spelonk, Onima, Ceru Pungi, and Ceru Crita-Cabai. The Caiquetios were apparently a very tall people, for the Spanish dubbed the Leeward Islands 'las Islas de los Gigantes' (the islands of the giants).
Control
Bonaire was claimed for the Spanish by Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda in 1499. The Spanish did little to exploit the island aside from enslaving the natives and moving them to Hispaniola. By 1526, the island was depopulated. That year, Juan de Ampues, regional governor, turned it into a cattle plantation and repopulated it with Indians.
In 1633, the Dutch, having lost the island of St. Maarten to the Spanish, retaliated by capturing Curacao, Bonaire, and Aruba. While Curacao emerged as a center of the slave trade, Bonaire became a plantation of the Dutch West India Company. A small number of African slaves were put to work alongside Indians and convicts, cultivating dyewood and maize and harvesting solar salt around Blue Pan. Slave quarters, rising no higher than a man's waist and built entirely of stone, still stand in the area around Rincon and along the saltpans as a grim reminder of Bonaire's repressive past.
The Netherlands lost control of the island twice, from 1800-1803 and 1807-1815. During these intervals, the British had control over the neighboring island of Curacao, and, by extension, Bonaire. During the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, Bonaire was a protectorate of Britain and the United States.
Geography
Bonaire is world renowned for its excellent scuba diving and is consistently rated among the top shore diving and Caribbean diving locations in the world. Bonaire's license plates carry the logo Diver's Paradise (in English). The island is ringed by a coral reef which is easily accessible from the shore along the Western and Southern sides. Furthermore, the entire coastline of the island has been declared a marine sanctuary, preserving local fish life. Bonaire is also consistently recognised as one of the best destinations for snorkeling.
The coral reef around uninhabited Klein Bonaire is particularly well conserved, and it draws divers, snorkelers, and boaters.
Bonaire also has several coral reefs where seahorses are common.
Bonaire is also famed for its flamingo populations and its donkey sanctuary. Flamingos are drawn to the brackish water, which harbours shrimp they feed on. Starting in the 1500s, the Dutch raised sheep, goats, pigs, horses and donkeys on Bonaire, and the descendants of the goats and donkeys roam the island today.
Washington Slagbaai National Park, located at the north side of the island, is an ecological preserve. The highest point of Bonaire, Brandaris, located within this preserve has a complete view of the island.
Lac Bay, (also known as Lac Cai or Lac Cay) on the eastern side of the island, is a windsurfer's paradise. Locals Taty and Tonky Frans in 2004 were ranked in the top five of the world's freestyle windsurfing professionals.
Finally, Atlantis Beach, on the western part of the island, is the local kitesurfing spot.
Schunck's Kledingindustrie Bonaire
In 1948, Pierre Schunck (1906-1993), stemming from a family of weavers and son of the builder of the famous Glaspaleis in Heerlen, the Netherlands (see Schunck), arrived to set up a clothing industry, which would become Bonaire's first real industry, providing employment (and health care) for a large part of the (young) women who were left behind because many men had left as sailors or to work for the oil companies on Curaçao and Aruba. Preparations for the operation of this company would also result in better electricity and water supplies and eventually it would account for half the export of the island.
Schunck had previously visited Curaçao and Aruba, but the conditions of employment were less favourable there. The government for the ABC islands had planned large scale industry, trade and tourism for the two larger islands, and smaller industries for Bonaire, especially for the women. So Bonaire appeared to be a better choice. Since the already present salt winning and ship manufacturing were small scale, this was to be the first real industry in Bonaire. As a result, there were no facilities or expertise to exploit and workers had to be educated first. Schunck asked the government the same perks that the industries, including the rich oil companies, on the other islands received (no import tax for 25 years), but he received no help there. So he turned to governor P. Kasteel, asking him to provide the basic necessities, most importantly water and electricity. This was granted, but supply of electricity remained dodgy for the next few years. Another problem was that everything had to be imported, from machines and building material down to the simplest screws. And all products had to be exported because there was barely a local market for them. This was problematic due to the long supply lines and the then obligation to let all shipping go through Curaçao. After half a year of trial production (in the later Zeebad), the new buildings (400 m² in Kralendijk, which would grow to 900 m² during the first expansion) were finished on 17 August 1948. For this, Bonaire's first waterpipe had been constructed, from Pos Calbas to the airport, passing by the factory, with a hydrant in Rincon. For the people of Bonaire, the new electricity grid meant that refrigerators became an option. But to save diesel, the generator wasn't kept running after midnight. As a warning, the lights started blinking at 23.30 h.
Production focused on company clothing for large companies like Shell (a major employer on Curaçao) and uniforms for police and customs officials and the initial production capacity was 700 overalls, 300 trousers and 400 shirts, with a 45 hour work week. Work was organised by the bundle-progress specialisation system, which the women favoured because (unlike Dutch workers) they preferred not to rotate work.
Because of the former relative lack of electricity, few knew how to work electric machinery, so 2 qualified men were hired to teach (initially) 10 women. By January 1951, there were 72 employees, 27 of whom experienced. The education had cost 70 000 gulden over that 2 year period. Another year later, there were 110 employees. All overhead staff were male and all workers were female, but the former numbered only 5 and remained the same, while the latter grew in numbers, providing a major source of employment for the women on this small island. Export of the company's produce was on average just over 200 000 gulden, which constituted about half the total export of Bonaire.
But productivity was only 30% of that of European workers, due to Bonairians traditionally not being industrially-minded, the climate and resulting lifestyle, and the poverty and resulting malnutrition (worse than on surrounding islands). To combat the latter problem, Schunck introduced factory-paid meals and health care, with additional care at home for the employee's families by the white-yellow cross, assisted by Pierre Schunck's wife Gerda Schunck-Cremers. As a result the mortality rate for young women dropped considerably, as the table shows.
As a result of the high cost of education and health care, and lack of support from the Antillian government, the company had to be liquidated in 1954. But because closing of the factory would cause serious unemployment, the Dutch government took over the company and from 1955 to 1960 it operated under the name Bocofa (Bonaire Confectie Fabriek) N.V. Despite the fact that this company did receive government support it couldn't cope either and by 1961 it started operating under yet another name, Cambes Textiles N.V. (the first letters of the six Dutch Antilles), of which all shares, worth 400 000 gulden, were in government hands. By 1975, there were 175 employees and the yearly turnover was over 1 million gulden. In the early 1980s the company had received a blow from the closing of the Shell and Lago refineries on Curaçao and Aruba, two important customers, and the number of employees had dropped to just 74. the Antillian government sold the company to Texport/Unitex, for only a quarter of the estimated value of 1 250 000 gulden, to ensure a continued employment for the women. But the new company was only interested in profit and not in the wellbeing of the Bonairean population and closed the factory on 20 December 1991, sacking all 85 employees.
Ultimately, Bonaire turned out to be a bad location for a clothes factory. But for the women of Bonaire, who constituted a large part of the population, it was a blessing because it made them economically independent and socially emancipated. It had also laid a basis for other industries, with a better water and power infrastructure now in place. The new hope for Bonaire's economy is tourism, in which watersports play an important part.
Cities/Towns
The only generally recognized towns on the island are Kralendijk and Rincon.
Kralendijk has many suburbs/neighbourhoods (on an island with such a small population, the distinction is not always clearcut). Kralendijk's suburbs/neighbourhoods include:
Other smaller settlements include
Several smaller towns had existed in the national park, but are now abandoned. They were: Labra, Ishiri, Kokorobi, Jan Doran, Vlijt, Rigot, Porto Spano, and Kunchi.
Gallery
Image:6846_aquaimages.jpg|Homestead with a cactus fence.
Image:6849_aquaimages.jpg|A cactus fence.
Image:6840_aquaimages.jpg|Iguana.
Image:7104_aquaimages.jpg|The clear water of Bonaire.
Image:6581_aquaimages.jpg|Divers and a large orange sponge.
Image:6591_aquaimages.jpg|French Angelfish with dive boat in background.
Image:6742_aquaimages.jpg|Two Caribbean Reef Squid.
Image:6774_aquaimages.jpg|Divers and a large orange sponge.
Image:6798_aquaimages.jpg|Christmas tree worms in a brain coral.
Image:6804_aquaimages.jpg|Pederson's Shrimp.
Image:6903_aquaimages.jpg|Close-up of a Long-lure Frogfish.
Image:6943_aquaimages.jpg|Diver on the wreck of the Hilma Hooker.
Image:6983_aquaimages.jpg|Oscellated Frogfish.
Image:7008_aquaimages.jpg|Diver under the Salt Pier.
Image:7042_aquaimages.jpg|Sponges and Cup Corals at night on the Town Pier.
Image:Bonaire 048.jpg|Freshly caught Wahoo by local fisherman.
External links
Mapquest zoom level 7 only has the Kralendijk region; this region is also available in zoom level 8, 9, and 10.
