Bon Bini Bonaire

Bonaire is one of the beautiful Caribbean islands that is still officially apart of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. This Hero Traveler story is about the island, its inhabitants and its history.

The bushy landscape of Bonaire

After the Dutch occupied the previously uninhabited island of Bonaire in 1636, they immediately started to harvest salt from the island's pink salt ponds.

Salt lakes in pink

In Roman times, soldiers were already paid with salt, hence the word 'salarium' ('salary' or 'salaris’). In the 17th Century, aka the Dutch 'Golden Age', salt was still worth quite some money. Harvesting salt was quite laborious work, done by slaves - the Dutch refer to these stories as the ‘dark pages’ in their history books.

In Roman times, soldiers were already paid with salt, hence the word 'salarium' ('salary' or 'salaris’). The Bonairean salt ponds now belong to 'Cargill', a huge multinational that ships the salt crystals to all over the world.

One of Bonaire‘s laidback resorts

Attack!

I tried to take a picture of six iguanas sitting on a wall, but they saw my phone and came running towards it - I blamed the little apple on the back. Or my Targaryen blood, of course. 🐉

The people of Bonaire used to fish for 'karkos', aka conches, that live in the Lac Cai lagoon. They'd drill a hole in their shells to blow the 30 centimeters (12 inches) long mollusks out and threw the empty hulls on a huge pile, resulting in a massive 'shell graveyard'.

Karkos

Nowadays, karkos are protected creatures, and hunting them is illegal. Restaurant menus do offer grown, imported conches from Venezuela though (I haven't tried them yet!). 🐚

On Bonaire, snack bars are very popular because they sell alcohol for a low price and they’re open until late at night. We saw a lot of people drink and drive - one guy was sipping from a bottle of gin while driving his huge SUV.

A Flamingo skeleton

On the next picture you'll see George Thodé, the chief ranger of Bonaire's Washington Slagbaai National Park. He just came back from his first trip to The Netherlands. "I saw 'fog' for the first time," he told us, "I woke up and all of the houses were gone!" He liked the cold climate though: "It's nice and chilly. The wind is like the air-conditioning in my car.”

Mr George

Story by Hero Traveler contributor Joost Bastmeijer, a freelance travel writer and photojournalist currently traveling through Africa. Check out my photos on Instagram at instagram.com/joostbastmeijer, or visit my website to see some more of my work: joostbastmeijer.com!