 Facts at a Glance
Area: 285 sq km (110 sq mi)
Population: 13,000
Capital city: Kralendijk (pop 1800)
People: African descent (95%), Carib Indian, European
Language: Dutch, Papiamento, English, Spanish
Religion: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish
Government: Autonomous part of the Netherlands
Governor General of the Netherlands Antilles: Jaime Saleh
Lieutenant Governor of Bonaire: Richard Hart
GDP per head: US$10,000
Major industries: Tourism, salt production
 Environment
Shaped like the bit that Van Gogh discarded, Bonaire remains the least populated and least developed of the so-called 'ABC' islands (which it forms with Aruba and Curaçao). The island measures 40km (25mi) from north to south, about 8km (5mi) wide, and lies 72km (45mi) north of Venezuela. It's hilly in the north, flat in the south and dry all over. The highest point is the not quite towering 235m (780ft) Brandaris Hill in Washington-Slagbaai National Park. Bonaire's territory includes dinky Klein Bonaire, a 600ha (1500 acre) islet off the western coast.
Most of your four-legged friends on Bonaire are going to be lizards - they're everywhere, including splattered all over the road. Goats and scrawny donkeys graze the scrub, mostly running wild. The island's only native mammal is the bat - there are a couple dozen distinct subspecies. Over 200 species of birds flap and flutter around Bonaire. You can spot elegant flamingos in the salt flats in the south of the island and in the national park, in the northeast. Parrots and hummingbirds are amongst others to look out for. Four species of sea turtle share Bonaire's sparkling waters with the fish and crustacteans.
Enviro-conscious Bonairean authorities implore visitors to help keep the place spic, span and sporty by leaving dive sites as found, minimizing the quantity of disposable packaging brought and bought, and taking dead batteries off the island on departure. The Bonaire Marine Park was declared in 1979 - it protects all the sea around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire (calculated from the high-tide mark to 60m (200ft) underwater). Proceeds from the US$10 fee levied on your first dive go towards conserving the reef. Klein Bonaire, as yet untouched except by turtles who nest there and picnickers who munch there, has been bought by developers; there's a campaign to get the government to buy it back and declare it a sanctuary.
 History
The first known inhabitants of the island were the Caiquetios Indians, members of the Arawak group that came from Venezuela about 1000AD. Remains of their settlements have been found near the capital and at Lac Bay, and their petroglyphs are visible in caves on the northern side of the island. Within 20 years of their first contact with Europeans in 1499, most of the Caiquetios had succumbed to disease or had been pressed into slavery on Hispaniola. Immigrants to the island tended to be convicts from South America, or cattle and goats for the governor's ranch. Most people lived in small settlements at Rincon, in the north, or Antriol, just north of the present-day capital of Kralendijk.
In retaliation for losing St Martin to the Spanish, the Dutch took Bonaire in 1633. The island became a granary for the Dutch West India Company until 1791, when the Dutch government took over the island. Other than the African slaves brought in by the company to harvest corn, salt and lumber, most immigrants to the island for the next 200 years were white overseers. The abolition of slavery in 1864 sent the economy into a slump. The export market dribbled along with castor oil, aloe, charcoal and salted goat meat, but island economists didn't start smiling until the discovery of oil in Venezuela early in the 20th century.
Bonaire benefited from the oil refineries on neighboring Aruba and Curaçao and improved the harbor at Kralendijk and built an airport. The island's male population won the right to vote in 1936 and began agitating for greater independence from the Dutch Crown. Queen Juliana made Bonaire a Dutch protectorate in 1954, keeping the country on a long leash. Searching for new economic vigor (and something sexier than salt farming), the island found it in tourism. Thousands of American and Dutch soldiers stationed on the island during WWII fell under its charm, and internment camps for German prisoners were handily converted to hotels.
The country created the Washington-Slagbaai and Marine Parks in the 1970s, preserving sizable chunks of the island from development. Bonaire continued its conservationist tradition with the creation of a Flamingo Sanctuary at the salt ponds at the southern end of the island. Residents of Bonaire haven't striven as noisily as their Aruban compatriots for independence from the Netherlands. They have, however, started to cash in on Bonaire's diving fame and allow more development. As a result, the island is starting to shed its backwater feel and may gradually become more like other Caribbean islands.
 Economic Profile
GDP: US$2 billion for Netherlands Antilles as a whole
GDP per head: US$10,000
Inflation: 3%
Major industries: Tourism, petroleum refining and shipping, salt production
Major trading partners: Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, EU
 Culture
The multinational froth that is Bonaire's culture is evident in the local creolized language. Papiamento is based on Portuguese but is much influenced by Spanish, Dutch and the Arawak Indian language. It's an evocative language (drumi is sleep, for example), and if you try to remember a few phrases, you'll delight your hosts. Bon bini means welcome, bon dia is good day and masha danki is thank you very much.
The island's mix of music and dance is even more polyglot, with African Bari, European polka, Latin Joropo, West Indian merengue and the indigenous Simadan harvest song all frequently performed. Traditional instruments included animal bones and gourds partially filled with water. Hand clapping is common in Bonairean folk music, in contrast to most of the rest of the Caribbean.
Visual arts are dominated by woodcarving and fabrics but a smattering of recent eclectic painting in the Kralendijk museum elucidates local Indian stories. The Bonaire Art Gallery, also in Kralendijk, is a private concern with a community emphasis. Incorporating an art co-op, art supplies outlet and framing service, the gallery is a one-stop-shop for paintings, sculpture and crafty jewelry. Over 90% of the art displayed in the building is produced on the island - there's even a kids' section.
Islanders tend to follow the religious lead of their 'mother country' and worship as Catholics. Bonaire isn't a prudish place but locals will look askance at visitors traipsing the town in a bathing suit. Slipping on a shirt and shorts is as formal as you have to get to avoid causing offense.
 Events
Bonaire's biggest party is Carnival, which features music, dancing, and celebrations of the harvest from late February to early March. You can 'jump-up' on National Day, when most of the action happens in Rincon. The week-long October International Sailing Regatta brings a fleet of racers to the bay off Kralendijk.
Public Holidays
1 January - New Year's Day
Easter Holidays - Good Friday, Eastern Sunday, Easter Monday
30 April - Queen's Birthday
1 May - Labor Day
6 September - Bonaire Day
25 December - Christmas Day
26 December - Boxing Day
 Facts for the Traveler
Visas: Visas and passports aren't required of US and Canadian citizens, just ID. All other travelers need a passport. All visitors require a return or onward ticket.
Health risks: Sunburn, fire coral, sea urchins, jellyfish, dehydration
Time: Atlantic Standard Time (GMT/UTC minus 4 hours)
Electricity: 110-130V, 50Hz
Weights & measures: Metric (see conversion table)
Telephone: Country code 599, area code 7
 Money & Costs
Currency: Netherlands Antilles florin (NAf)
Relative costs:
Budget meal: US$5-10
Moderate restaurant meal: US$10-20
Top-end restaurant meal: US$20 and upwards
Budget room: US$60-100
Moderate hotel: US$100-200
Top-end hotel: US$200 and upwards
Despite its reputation for catering solely to scuba divers, Bonaire has opportunities for travelers of all kinds. Depending on whether you buy an underwater photo rig or a case of Cubanos, you should expect to pay around US$300 a day for top-end services. Moderate travelers will probably spend about US$200, and those on a budget about US$100. Remember that many resorts offer dive packages that include most costs; renting gear and organizing boats independently will probably cost more.
US dollars (bills only) are widely accepted but you're likely to get your change in florins. Travelers checks and credit cards are welcomed at most businesses. Most restaurant checks and hotel bills have a 10-15% service charge already included; this is the standard tip for taxi drivers.
 When to Go
The average daily high stays around 27°C (81°F) all year, and humidity is tolerable, so the best time to go is the low season of May to mid-December when rates come down. Bonaire is out of the hurricane belt so you don't have to figure the big blow into your schedule.
 Attractions
Kralendijk
Fewer than 2000 people live in this sleepy, two-story town, where the main street is a stone's throw from end to end. Although salt has been the island's economic mainstay for centuries, the town's name (Dutch for coral reef) reveals that it's the capital of diving - reefs being to Bonaire what cable cars are to San Francisco. The locals call it simply 'Playa.'
A walking tour pamphlet, available from the tourist office, will lead you on a merry jig to the town's modest attractions. One of the best sights is the 19th-century Fort Oranje (now serving as the Harbor Office) and its adjacent stone lighthouse. The Bonaire Museum is a sweet local affair, housing exhibits on the Caiquetio Indians as well as more recent art, artifacts and household items.
Created out of the grounds of two former plantations on the northwestern knob of the island, this park contains 5500ha (13,500 acre) of scrub-covered hills, lakes, hiking trails and over 100 avian species. The island's hilly northern extremity culminates in the 235m (780ft) Mount Brandaris, not far from the northwestern shore. The peak is a good place to take in the sweep of the island and the curve of the Caribbean horizon. Unlike much of Bonaire, the park has some good beaches. Playa Slagbaai on the western coast has bright yellow 19th-century buildings and good swimming; to the north, Playa Funchi has good snorkeling in calm waters full of parrotfish and coral. The park's saliñas (salt pans) host hundreds of flamingos but you're not allowed to get too close.
Flamingo Sanctuary
The vast salt pans at the island's southern end are home to one of the largest flamingo breeding grounds in the western hemisphere. The pink wonders flock 10,000 at a time to the sanctuary's 55ha (135 acres). Nearby Witte Pan (Pink Beach) on the southwestern coast is one of the island's few good beaches, though it bears the scars of Bonaire's darker history in the form of cubby-house-sized stone huts in which slaves working the saltpans used to sleep.
 Off the Beaten Track
Klein Bonaire
This uninhabited islet is a short boat ride from Kralendijk. Surrounded by reefs, it's a popular picnic spot and jumping off point for dives. Unlike much of Big Bonaire, the little one has white sandy beaches. Due to its popularity with seabirds and nesting turtles Klein Bonaire is one of two local areas covered by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.
Radio Nederland Wereld Omroep
Fans of big pans will enjoy the novelty of exploring caves and spotting iguanas in the shadows of this massive broadcast and power generation park. If you've always wanted to laugh with the parakeets and run from the bees in a forest of antennas this nature park on Bonaire's southern coast is the place for you.
 Activities
You dive in Bonaire. There are forty top sites on the leeward coast alone, many within a few meters of shore. There are hawksbill turtles, peacock flounders, stingrays and seahorses off Pink Beach on the southwestern coast. There are good spots a bit farther north at the Salt Pier, where angelfish slalom among the coral-encrusted pilings. The wreck of the Hilma Hooker lies in 30m (100ft) of water near the Salt Pier. The ship's cargo of marijuana bales was its ticket to the deep - customs officers confiscated the load and sank the boat. Snorkelers can find dozens of good spots, including groves of elkhorn and staghorn coral just off Klein Bonaire, and the shallow waters of Boca Slagbaai, in Washington-Slagbaai National Park.
Constant trade winds make Bonaire a super sailing destination; anchoring is prohibited within the Marine Park but there are marinas around the island, one right by Kralendijk. There's decent windsurfing and kayaking at Lac Bay and Sorobon Beach on Bonaire's pin-drop quiet southeastern coast, though folk heading this way are likely to be off to drop their jocks at Sorobon's naturist resort.
Birders flock to Bonaire and not just for the tens of thousands of flamingoes who call the island home. There are dozens of native species and many more who pass by while migrating to South America. The flamingo sanctuaries at Goto Meer in the northwest and Pekelmeer in the south are vast tracts of feathery pink. You can also see frigatebirds, pelicans, red-necked pigeons and five different species of heron.
The island's nearly 300km (186mi) of roads and trails make mountain biking a good way to see the country. Unleash your inner paleoanthropologist by pedaling up to the northeastern coast and inspecting the Caiquetio Indian petroglyphs in the Boca Onima Caves. If the hilly northern end seems too strenuous, the southern flatlands are an easier ride. The 1835 Willemstoren Lighthouse near the tip of the island makes a fine picnic stop.
 Getting There & Away
The Netherlands has good access to Bonaire. ALM and KLM both fly from Amsterdam several times a week. From the US, American Airlines has flights between New York and Aruba, where you can get a connecting Air Aruba flight to Bonaire. Air Aruba and ALM have connecting flights from Newark, Atlanta and Miami. From South America you can fly directly from Caracas. Within the region, ALM flies from Curaçao, Aruba, Jamaica and St Marten. There's a departure tax of US$6 for the puddle-jumpers to Curuçao and St Maarten; US$10 elsewhere. There's no regular ferry service to the island.
 Getting Around
Renting a car is the best option since Bonaire has no public bus service. There are plenty of car rental agencies. Drivers licenses from the US, Canada and Europe are valid but you must be 21. Drive on the right and look out for unlicensed donkeys and goats wandering on the road. Unmetered taxis with fixed rates are plentiful and provide a good alternative for getting around, especially if you want a guided tour of the island. Bicycles can be rented in Kralendijk. Bonaire's Flamingo Airport is 5km (3mi) south of the capital; taxis are available for the short trip into town.
 Recommended Reading
- The Adventures of Captain Don is a collection of tales "guaranteed 85% true" from the sea salt who started the first diving operation on the island back in 1962. The booklet is available on the island.
- Tom van't Hof's Guide to the Bonaire Marine Park introduces divers and snorkelers to the underwater delights which await.
 Lonely Planet Guides
 Travelers' Reports
 On-line Info
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