We enjoyed a slow morning at the suite, and put together a rough course of action for today over breakfast. By the time we found everything we needed to bring, liberally applied sunscreen, made lunches, and loaded up the truck, it was almost 11 AM. On the way out of the resort, we stopped and rented snorkel gear for a few days.
We stopped briefly at Donkey Beach, a few hundred yards up the road, to see how it looked. There weren't any donkeys, but there were some goats grazing across the street at the airport fence.
The water was beautiful, but the beach itself was somewhat rocky. I don't know if we just picked a bad spot, or if this is representative of the entire beach.
As we were evaluating options, a plane passed directly over us. I think this helped convince us to move along and seek an alternative location.
Somewhere near the Aquarius dive site, we stopped briefly to take in the view of the salt works. The salt pyramids are visible, in the distance. They're so large, I saw them from the plane during the descent yesterday.
Here, we found a donkey.
It seemed annoyed that I approached for a photo, and meandered slowly across the road to get away from me.
Continuing down the coast, we sort of intended to go snorkeling at the Salt Pier site, but snorkeling is prohibited while there is a ship docked... and there was a ship docked.
Thankfully, the entire west coast of Bonaire is littered with snorkel/dive sites, so we just drove along until we found a bunch of trucks parked at one of the next sites, and decided that it was as good an option as any other. We had stopped at Tori's Reef, without knowing. It turned out to be an excellent choice.
Shannon had never snorkeled before, so we did a brief group lesson in the shallow entry area. After that, it was straight into the deep water, and we made our way north along the shore.
Having been dragged snorkeling with me on at least a dozen different trips, Sabrina's a seasoned pro by now.
If you look closely, you might be able to see Shannon glaring at me. 🤣
We floated around for about half an hour before people got tired/thirsty/hungry.
Google results suggest the white-spotted/blue fish might be a yellowtail damselfish.
The water clarity was excellent, the surf was gentle, and there was no discernible current. This was all great news, considering it was Shannon's first time using a snorkel.
I think this is a parrotfish and some blue tang.
My three snorkel buddies bailed just before 1 PM, but I kept going for awhile longer, toward the south.
I'm not sure what they are, but there were seven or eight of them that didn't seem particularly alarmed by my presence. I followed them around for a few minutes, but they kept trying to circle behind me.
The little guy was difficult to photograph, as he was skittish and fast.
As I headed back toward the entry point, this group was still patrolling where I had last seen them.
I somehow managed to upload the non-leveled version of this one. Oops.
After snorkeling, we continued along the road to Pink Beach for a lunch stop, where we huddled together under the shade of a single palm tree. There isn't much to hide under, anywhere on the southern chunk of the island.
After lunch, we stopped at the slave huts. I did not attempt to limbo through the door, but Christie and Sabrina went for it.
There are two sets of huts, about three miles apart.
The yellow slave huts are also the location of the orange obelisk, which is one of four historic markers used by ships to locate the loading docks for the different salt pans.
It's also a dive site, of course. There are yellow painted rocks at each site, showing the entry/exit location (or the easiest one, anyway).
Continuing our tour of the southern coast, we next stopped at the Willemstoren Lighthouse. It was built in 1837, and apparently restored in 2012. We could not go inside, unfortunately.
It's also a dive site, but the water was extremely rough down there.
Shortly after leaving the lighthouse, we stopped to spot some flamingos from the top of the berm surrounding the salt ponds. There's allegedly a flamingo sanctuary in the middle of the salt works, but it's not accessible at all so the only way to see them is from the perimeter road with the assistance of binoculars. We were able to spot four or five of them in the distance, but they were barely without visible optical enhancement.
Continuing up the southeastern coast, we saw these three old windmills, two of which were turning. I don't have any more info, and a search for "old windmills Bonaire" turns up nothing but stock photos, oddly.
Next, we came to the fork in the road that leads to Lac Bay, but the road was closed (presumably due to the oil spill/cleanup situation). Undeterred, I asked the poor guy there (whose job is apparently to sit out all day and man the gate across the road) if we could get to the beach bar, and he basically shrugged, said "I think it's open", and opened the gate for us.
The original bar I had in mind was closed (probably because the road was closed, so they had no customers), but the bar at the fancy Sorobon resort was open. Their beach was closed, understandably; thus, the yellow caution tape. There were a few guests lounging in the shade, unable to enjoy the water.
The staff was puzzled enough by our presence to ask how we got there (specifically, it was "where did you come from?" I think); they were surprised (but also pleased) to hear that we'd been let through the gate.
We were officially advised not to enter the water, and I think one of the only other occupied tables was three or four guys who were there on oil-cleanup duty.
The bay would apparently be full of wind surfers, and there was a wind surfing school and rental facility next door.
Christie and I took a stroll up the beach, and I may have stepped over some caution tape to walk out onto the pier for the view.
After a refreshing beverage, a snack, and a bathroom break, we left Lac Bay and aimed back toward our temporary home base.
Along the way, I ignored the protests of my tired passengers and tried to stop at the donkey sanctuary, but they stopped admission at 4 PM and it was 4:08 when we got there. We'll probably go back some other day, as it's very close to where we're staying.
Back at the resort, we unloaded and regrouped. Sabrina, Shannon, and Christie headed to some lounge chairs by the pool, while I went across the street and down the stairs to the ocean to do some more snorkeling.
One of the more interesting fish was this shy spot-fin porcupinefish. I tried to coax him out from under the coral, but he was having none of it. It's tough to estimate without a good sense of scale, but it was probably almost two feet long.
The visibility and clarity was also excellent there (the Windsock dive site, I suppose), but the late-afternoon light really gave the auto whitepoint adjustment some trouble.
There were a handful of good-sized parrotfish, again, and they did not care at all that I was floating directly above them.
I popped up briefly to get my bearings at one point, and this rock was crawling with crabs. They seemed startled by my presence, and had mostly retreated into crevices by the time I thought to get a photo, but there's at least one of the spiny things near the left edge of the rock.
The award for Least Concerned fish easily goes to this palometa, though; I could have reached out a poked it, and I might have bumped it with my phone at one point.
These are not zoomed in... it would be difficult to zoom anyway, as it would require surfacing to use the touch screen.
This one I've seen before; I think it's a blue-headed wrasse.
The surf was getting a bit rough, and I got tossed around a bit when I got too close to the edge of the water. I hesitate to refer to it as "shore"; unlike the other location we snorkeled today, the land is a steep rock face here, and it's been undercut by the relentless action of the ocean over thousands (millions?) of years.
There were more parrotfish here, in a shallow area where I could just float above them without making any noise.
The bigger ones didn't seem to be shy, and I followed them around for a few minutes.
A bit north of the entry stairs, a pier juts out from another restaurant or resort. Under it, a school of trumpetfish was annoyed that I swam through them.
It was approaching 6 PM by the time I got out and returned to the pool area to find everyone. The sun was threatening to call it a night as we climbed the stairs up to the suite, painting a lovely pastel sky over the airport in the distance.
We enjoyed a pre-dinner appetizer and drink on the balcony as the sun set, while everyone got ready to go out for dinner.
Along the drive up to Kralendijk, we stopped to enjoy the view over a swampy area where the flamingoes apparently hang out, just north of the airport.
The colorful houses in the background seem out of place here, but that's how the Dutch like their buildings, I guess.
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