Caribbean Christmas 12/24

This morning we started our adventures by heading to The Bonaire Donkey Sanctuary. You can find out more information here: http://www.donkeysanctuary.org/eng.html 

We had heard that the donkeys liked fresh carrots, and so took along a large sack. We had NO IDEA one sack of carrots would not nearly be enough! We ran out of carrots in the first 10 minutes. The poor little donkeys chased the car and any time we stopped they would try to stick their heads in the window asking for more carrots. We were MOBBED I tell you!

They keep the smaller donkeys in pens were you can go in and meet them up close. They were a lot softer than I thought they'd be.

After a good meet and greet with the donkeys, we looped around the island toward our next snorkel spot. On the way we spotted this cute light house. It had on old abandoned (what we think used to be a keeper house) structure next to it. So we explored it and had some lunch. Then Bill and JB built a fun sea side sculpture with objects they found on the beach.

It was mesmerizing watching the crashing of the waves.

We continued on through some slave huts that were used to house slaves who worked in the salt mines. These huts were so small! I can't imagine living in them. I would guess they were only used for sleeping, but I really don't know. These are called the red slave huts because they are painted red. 

You can read more about Bonaire's slave history by clicking here: 

http://www.bonaire-travelguide.com/history/

Finally we got to our first snorkel destination of the day. Red Beryl. I loved the coral, and we even saw a school of cuttle fish. They are interesting because they school in a straight line, not a bunch.

Bonaire's Salt Mines. We had intended to go snorkel under the Salt Pier, but when we arrived divers were coming out and said the waves were stirring up too much silt near the shore, and we would have to swim a long distance to even see anything. So, we just went back towards Red Beryl and stopped at a place called Margate Bay.

Near Margate Bay were some flamingos in the salt pans.

Then we headed back to our little apartment and another restful night of watching Lord of the Rings and snacking on Dutch Chips. Very interesting.....