Over the last two decades, Bonaire has consistently ranked as the finest snorkeling and scuba diving destination in the Caribbean. A major reason for this prominence is the island's diligent stewardship of its marine resources -- all of the waters off Bonaire's coast have been legally protected since 1979, and it shows. But there is plenty more to do here. The unusually steady trade winds that wash over the island create ideal conditions for world-class windsurfing, and the sere beauty of its semi-desert landscape is home to an outlandish assortment of wildlife. Iguanas meditatively toast themselves atop the desert rock formations of Washington Slagbaai, while vast orange-pink clouds of flamingoes drift across bone-white salt flats. Divi-divi trees bend into surreal sculptures of the wind itself, and towering cacti stand as reminders of the Caribbean's diverse ecology.

We invite you to explore all these aspects of Bonaire -- and more -- in the pages that follow. Our dive pages offer the most up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of Bonaire diving on the world wide web, including site descriptions, service providers, and a Marine Park profile.



Welcome to Bonaire, or, as we say in Papiamentu , Bon Bini!

Location: 30 miles (48 km) from Curacao; 50 miles (80 km) north of Venezuela and 86 miles (129 km) east of Aruba, outside of the Caribbean hurricane belt.

Size: 24 miles (39 km) long by 3-7 miles wide, 112 square miles (290 km2). Highest elevation is Brandaris Hill, 784 feet (240 meters).

Climate: Yearly average temperature is 82°F (27.8°C); water temperature of 80°F (26.7°C); rainfall of 22 inches (56 cm); humidity of 76%. Sunny, all year round.

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Although Bonaire's future seems inextricably entwined with its remarkable coastal reefs and its austere natural beauty, the island's past is tied to an altogether different set of resources and attributes. With a comfortably dry climate and steady trade winds (the very conditions that have made it a windsurfing mecca), Bonaire has long been recognized as an ideal locale for the production of salt. For over three centuries, the island's culture and prosperity was dependent upon this most important of the world's spices. Salt is still produced on Bonaire, though the stunning salt beds of Pekelmeer are also home to one of the hemisphere's great populations of flamingoes. 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 visible 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). The name the Caiquetios gave to their island was adapted into Spanish as 'Boynay.'

After a falling out with Queen Isabella in 1495, Columbus lost his exclusive rights to explore the New World, and the Caribbean became open territory. Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci (from whom the Americas derive their name) were among the first to take advantage of the situation: in 1499 they landed on Bonaire and claimed it for Spain. Bonaire had neither gold nor sufficient rainfall to encourage large-scale agricultural production, so the Spanish saw very little reason to develop the colony. Instead, they forced the native Caiquetios into slavery on the large plantations of the island of Hispaniola. By 1515, Bonaire had been mostly depopulated.

In 1526, Juan de Ampues, governor of Bonaire, Curacao, and Aruba, began to raise cattle on the island. He brought in a number of Caiquetios and some Indians from Venezuela as laborers, and within a few years cows, sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, and horses were being raised on the island. Valued less for their meat than for their hides, the animals needed little tending and were generally let loose to wander freely around the island. Before long they greatly outnumbered the human inhabitants, and today the island counts substantial populations of donkeys and goats among its wildlife.

Over the next few centuries, few of the island's inhabitants were to arrive willingly. There was a small inland settlement at Rincon, safe from the predations of pirates, but development was not encouraged as it was in other, richer colonies. Bonaire's immigrants were mostly convicts from the Spanish colonies in South America. Dutch admiral Boudewijn Hendricksz dropped off a group of Spanish and Portuguese prisoners, who founded the town of Antriol. For much of the next 300 years, even after the island was ceded to the Dutch, Bonaire remained a notorious penal colony.

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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 cultivating dyewood and maize and harvesting solar salt around Blue Pan. They were joined by the few remaining Indians and convicts. 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.



From the beginning of the seventeenth century until the middle of the nineteenth, only the military personnel who supervised the plantations and the prison houses were allowed on the island. When the Dutch West India Company dissolved in 1791, its properties were confiscated by the Dutch government, which continued operations on Bonaire. The slaves, now owned by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, came to be known as 'government slaves,' or, in Papiamentu , 'Katibu di Rei,' meaning 'slaves of the king.' Although the slaves were allowed to grow and sell their own produce, and sometimes even to buy their own freedom, living conditions on Bonaire worsened. By 1835, rumors of an uprising began to circulate around an escaped slave named Bentura. Fearing a rebellion, the Dutch transferred the remaining slaves from Rincon to a stronghold near the saltpans called 'Tera Cora,' which means red soil. Bentura was eventually captured, although he later escaped to safety. Slavery was finally abolished in 1862.

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During this period the Dutch had struggled to maintain possession of the colony. Twice at the beginning of the nineteenth century (1800-1803 and 1807-1815), the British captured Curacao, the capital of the Dutch West Indies, and thus gained control of Bonaire as well. They leased the island to Joseph Foulke, a North American ship-owner who exploited Bonaire as a source of lumber. When the islands were returned to the Netherlands by the Treaty of Paris of 1816, the small Fort Oranje was erected to guard against future attacks. It housed the island's commander until 1837, when it became a government depot and then a prison. Later, in 1868, a small lighthouse was built near Fort Oranje.

Although it lacked many of the resources that made other Caribbean colonies prosperous, Bonaire did have one precious commodity in great abundance--salt, which was a necessary ingredient for preserving meat and fish before refrigeration. Although it lacked many of the resources that made other Caribbean colonies prosperous, Bonaire did have one precious commodity in great abundance--salt, which was a necessary ingredient for preserving meat and fish before refrigeration. In the late 1620's, when tensions heightened between Spain and its former principalities in the Netherlands, the Spanish had cut off the supply of this essential mineral to the Dutch. A few years later, when the Dutch captured Curacao, Bonaire, and Aruba, they gained valuable control of Bonaire's salt pans. Over the next two centuries the salt industry on Bonaire expanded, first under the Dutch West India Company and then under direct governmental control. By 1837 Bonaire's salt production had grown so large that four obelisks were built near the Salt Lake to guide ships coming in to load. The obelisks were painted red, white, blue, and orange (the colors of the Dutch flag and the Royal House of Orange), and a flag of one of the four colors would be raised high atop a flagpole to direct ships to the appropriate pan. In the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the salt industry on Bonaire fell into sharp decline, as the abolition of slavery and increased international competition sharply reduced its profitability. In 1870, the island's nine salt pans were purchased from the government by E.B.F. Hellmund. Today, they are operated by the Antilles International Salt Company.With the end of slavery, Bonaire ceased to be a government plantation, and the land was put to public auction. Five plots, rich in lumber and in cattle, were sold in 1867 to J.F. Neuman & Co. and E.B.F. Hellmund (who later purchased the island's salt pans). The partitioning of property left the island's population disenfranchised and facing increasing poverty. Working for low wages, they lost even the sense of communal infrastructure they had possessed during slavery. Many left to take jobs in the copper mines in Venezuela. Shortly after the turn of the century, the discovery of oil in Venezuela led to the development of refineries on Curacao and Aruba bringing new prosperity to the islands. Bonaire benefited as well, and a public works project was begun. The island blacktopped its roads, renewed the harbor, installed electricity and telephone connections, and improved medical conditions. The old lighthouse at Fort Oranje was replaced by a stone beacon in 1932, and an airport was built in 1936. During World War II, the island was an internment camp for captured Germans and Dutch Nazis. Wooden shacks confined 461 inmates between 1940 and 1947.

In 1936, Bonaire males were given the right to vote, and local political parties emerged over the next decade. It wasn't until after the war, however, that the islanders began to press for greater autonomy. Self-rule was granted by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in 1954, although the Antilles remain a Dutch protectorate. Independence brought a greater emphasis on tourism. Bonaire, already a favorite of soldiers and officers, gained in popularity when Queen Juliana visited the island in 1944 with Eleanor Roosevelt. The Nazi internment camps were converted into the Hotel Zeebad, and the wooden shacks were replaced by charming stone bungalows. A second hotel, the Bonaire Beach Hotel, was opened up in 1962 on the Playa de Lechi. The Flamingo Airport, originally constructed in 1955, was expanded in 1972 to support the increase in traffic. Seven years later Bonaire's Marine Park and Washington-Slagbaai Park were established, ensuring the survival of the island's extraordinary natural attractions well into the future.

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Kralendijk
(pronounced 'Crawl-en-dike')
This diminutive cluster of red tile roofs hugging the island's western coast is Bonaire's lively capital. Its Dutch colonial houses, the Museo Boneriano and Fort Oranje give a glimpse into the island's past, while the town's oceanfront promenade offers stunning sunset vistas and a fine prospect of Klein Bonaire. The main street is a browser's collection of dive shops, boutiques, arts and crafts galleries, restaurants and bars.

Rincon
When the Spanish founded Bonaire's oldest town around the turn of the fifteenth century, they laid their foundations slightly inland to escape the roving eyes and ship-board cannons of passing buccaneers. Slaves from Africa, brought by the Spanish, were also housed here. Today the town is an entrancing collage of pastel cottages. The Saint Peter's Day celebration is held here June 28.


Lac Bay
Lac Bay is a windsurfer's paradise, with steady winds and smooth, clear, and conveniently shallow waters. Although Lac Bay is located on the windward side of Bonaire, its encircling arms protect the waters within and create a range of conditions that are as ideal for beginners as for intrepid windsurfing virtuosi.


Onima
Five centuries ago the limestone cave at Onima served as both shelter and artist's canvas for the island's Caiquetio inhabitants. The red-stained petroglyphs that adorn its walls remain undeciphered, offering visitors a glimpse of ancient Bonaire as mysterious as it is beautiful.


Goto Meer
Goto Meer is a favorite among Bonaire's abundant (and skittish) flamingo population, which gathers on this salt lake to consume the brine shrimp, brine fly and larvae which endow these great birds with their rosy hue. Like Salina Slagbaai, another of the salt ponds of Bonaire's Washington-Slagbaai National Park, Goto Meer becomes a veritable sea of pink during the January-July breeding season.


Nukove
Located on the sheltered leeward coast of Washington-Slagbaai National Park, Nukove is one of the island's most pleasant diving and snorkeling sites. Park visitors need only wade offshore to encounter brilliant, swirling schools of reef fish, including parrotfish and blue tangs . To relax, there is an intimate and inviting little white sand beach.


Cabaje
At Cabaje are found a number of picturesque and grimly fascinating stone huts. Waist-high, with small doors and no windows, these cramped quarters were built in the 18th century as housing for the slaves who harvested salt in the nearby flats. Also at Cabaje is a salt obelisk which was used as a marker for ships arriving to load the island's precious commodity.

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Lac Bay Kai
Every Sunday afternoon local residents gather here for an informal social party-there's dancing, live music, outdoor food stalls, and children playing everywhere as their parents and grandparents chat and eat and dance. There is no better place on the island to meet Bonaire's residents. As the afternoon wanes, you may see a few families heading home with captured iguanas, all set to prepare a Sunday night soup.
Sorobon Beach
Bonaire's highly-regarded naturalist (clothing optional) resort turns away sightseers, but day trippers can get an all over tan for a U.S $15 day entry fee. Sorobon Beach also has some of the best protected windsurfing in the Caribbean.

Pekelmeer
The salt flats of Pekelmeer spread out in front of a visitor in great squares of brilliant color, ranging from the turquoise of newly-flooded areas and the livid pink of pools filled with brine shrimp to the blinding white of dried salt. Off to the side lie enormous mounds of dried and drying salt, and in the distance stand great flocks of flamingoes, happily supping on the shrimp. Pekelmeer's deserted vistas are frequently more populated by birds -- including osprey, heron, frigate birds, cormorants, and other marine birds -- than by humans, making it an excellent spot for birdwatching.


Washington-Slagbaai National Park
This 13,500 acre park occupies a substantial portion of the island's northern tip and is filled with the fascinating flora and fauna of semi-arid Bonaire. In its own way Washington-Slagbaai is as much a gem as Bonaire's more celebrated Marine Park, with more than a hundred species of birds, a startling variety and diversity of terrain and wildlife.


Bonaire Marine Park
A magnificent and pioneering effort in the preservation of the Caribbean's invaluable underwater ecology, Bonaire Marine Park today ranks among the world's premier destinations for both divers and snorkelers.



Klein Bonaire
Klein Bonaire lies just off the western coast of the island, a smaller, pristine sister to Bonaire. It is surrounded by a multitude of outstanding dive sites and is a popular spot for picnicking and barbecues-in part because it is completely undeveloped. Klein Bonaire can be reached only by boat, and visitors should remember that they must bring with them all they need.

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Banks:
ABN/AMRO Bank, Antilles Banking Corporation Bonaire, Banco de Caribe and Maduro & Curiel's Bank. Banking hours are Monday through Friday from 8 or 8:30 AM to 3:30 or 4:00 PM.

Currency/Money:
U.S. currency, Travelers checks and major credit cards are welcome everywhere. The local currency in the Netherlands Antilles is the NA Florin or Guilder, and is pegged to the U.S. dollar. The current rate of exchange is US$1.00 = NAF1.77. Other currencies including Canadian Dollars, Deutsche Mark, English Pound Sterling, French Francs, Dutch Guilders, Venezuelan Bolivars and Aruba Florin can also be exchanged.

Drinking Water:
Bonaire's seawater is distilled and purified to become one of the purest drinking waters in the world. Imported water is available.

Electricity:
127/120 volts, 50AC. Converters are available in the hotels. Most U.S. appliances will work on Bonaire, though slowly. Many dive shops have adapters for charging lights, strobes or delicate equipment.

Medical Facilities:
San Francisco Hospital has 60 beds and is fully equipped to respond to any emergency. Bonaire has its own recompression chamber, with trained medical personnel, on call 24 hours a day. There are 7 medical doctors on the island.

Passports & Immigration:
U.S. and Canadian citizens need proof of citizenship, a passport or certified birth certificate with a photo I.D. are required. All others require a valid passport. A return or continuing ticket is also required along with sufficient means to support yourself during your stay. Maximum stay: 14 days with the possibility of extending the visit to 90 days.

Personal Safety:
Bonaire has a reputation for being one of the safest islands in the Caribbean, but exercise normal precautions; i.e. don't leave valuables laying unattended in hotel rooms (use the hotels' safes) or in rental cars or on the beach.

Shopping Hours:
Monday through Saturday 8:00am to noon and 2:00pm-6:00pm.

Taxes:
Bonaire has a US$20.00 airport international departure tax, a hotel tax of US$5.50 to $6.50 per person per night. Car rentals are taxed at US$3.25 per day. There is also a 5% tax on car rentals, meals, services and general purchases.

Telephones:
CCalling the U.S. is easy from Bonaire. Most hotels offer USA Direct calling service, or can connect you with a U.S. operator for calling home. Local numbers can be reached by dialing the 717 plus the 4 digit number.

Television:
Most hotels have 28 cable channels, with CNN, ESPN, Disney, NBC, premium movie channels and local stations. Bonaire has NTSC system.

Time Zone:
Atlantic Standard Time, one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time and the same as Eastern Daylight Time.

Tipping/Gratuities:
Same as in the US -- 10-15% depending on the service. Some restaurants will automatically add the gratuity. If in doubt, just ask. Give porters and bellhops 50 cents per bag, taxi drivers 10% of the fare

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