Island Tour, South.

We rented a truck the other day and toured the southern half of the island. Bonaire is very different from the eastern Caribbean. The southern part of the island is quite low lying, with a combination of marsh and desert. Most, but not all, of the road around the southern end is one lane even though it is two way traffic. Everyone seems to be courteous driving along the one lane road, which was a nice surprise!

We stopped near Sorobon Beach Resort https://www.sorobonbeachresort.com/ , a few places along the rugged southeast coast, some ruins, the salt works https://www.cargill.com/story/making-salt-in-paradise , and finally a donkey sanctuary https://donkeysanctuary.org/en/ .

Cactus everywhere:

Salt marsh:

Wild donkey just to the left of that dead mound of vegetation:

More wild donkeys:

Lone power generator:

Tanya (waving in the truck):

We stopped near Sorobon Beach Resort and found some flamingos:

Wind surfers from the resort:

South east coast:

We were going to jump in for a quick swim but we were hungry so we decided to move on:

Cargill salt works. I think these are wind driven water pumps:

More flamingos:

There is very little signage on the island. It would be nice if there was a sign on the more prominent landmarks describing the significance, history etc. There was very descriptive sign on this lighthouse…Keep Out!

A flock of flamingos in a salt pond:

Ruins of an old house, walls about 18 inches thick…no sign, no idea:

Flamingos:

Ruins and reproduction buildings from colonial salt mining operation:

And of course with most Caribbean history it involved slavery. Reproduction slave huts:

There were four different color obelisks along the coast near the salt works. The colors indicate the different type or grade of salt. Ships would anchor in front of the appropriate color and wait for the laborers to load the salt.

The salt ponds along the south were white or aquamarine but as we came up the west side they turned pink:

https://www.cargill.com/story/making-salt-in-paradise

Mountains of salt:

Modern day obelisk, the automated salt pier:

More ruins and a blue obelisk:

Salt pier. This is one of the more popular dive sites and as long as there is no ship on the pier you are free to dive:

More salt:

The water is beautiful:

Lone flamingo walking along the street:

Then we made a stop at the donkey sanctuary. https://donkeysanctuary.org/en/ Rescued donkeys are put in this pen until they are healthy and old enough to be released into the sanctuary.

The donkeys can get a little testy with each other but they were very gentle toward humans.

Orphan, about a month old. They said he is doing well now. Just had a bottle of formula…sleepy:

They had turtles and iguanas too. I asked if they were rescues as well, she said no they’re just here for you to look at…

This young lady came over and laid down near us, looking for someone to scratch her chin I think:

They learn how to drink from these water fountains. Stick their nose in and press on the little valve:

I remember going to the zoo in Florida where they charged $3 for a leaf of lettuce to feed the giraffes. Before going to the donkey sanctuary we stopped at the warehouse grocery store and bought bags of carrots. I’m glad we brought our own because they were charging $3 per carrot at the sanctuary. I know they need to make money but $3 for one carrot? We got back in the truck and ventured out into “general population”:

Somehow I don’t think we were their first visitors:

We stopped at an observation tower and eventually got the courage to get out of the truck. The donkeys are very gentle:

We know you have to come back down:

Next group of tourists:

This one stayed at our truck until we came back down, then he followed us for quite a distance after. I’m pretty sure he got more than one carrot:

OK guys, I do NOT have a bag of carrots in my left pocket:

I said I DON’T…have a bag of carrots:

…please give us some carrots:

GIVE US THE DAMN CARROTS!

…one more?

Then back in the truck to continue our tour:

Donkeys in the shade:

After the donkey sanctuary we headed back toward the east to look around…more flamingos, and a random castle looking house:

Then back to the boat… I went on a couple dives including a wreck dive. Pics to follow.