There are a
lot of private initiatives on Bonaire that are run as non-profit organisations.
This morning we’re going to visit one of them, the donkey sanctuary. There are
donkeys in many places in the Caribbean islands, as they were brought in by the
early settlers to perform hard labour and for transportation. With modern ages,
they became superfluous and the donkeys were just left by themselves in the
wild.
The islands like Bonaire are not a good habitat for them, as it is very dry and
there isn’t a lot of plants that they would naturally eat. In addition, there
is now a high risk of accidents with cars when then wandering around areas
having heavy or fast traffic.
The donkey sanctuary is rescuing the ones that are injured, sick, starving or
badly dehydrated. They now have more than 600 donkeys on their site that are
cared of. When you enter the huge enclosure, you’re immediately met by a crowd
of donkeys that are really eager to find out if you have some delicacies. We
bought a couple of bags of carrots at the entrance, but we quickly realise that
driving though them with the windows opened is a challenge! Most of the donkeys
aren’t shy and they pass they heads well into the car to get their due.
We continue exploring Bonaire’s east coast. It’s much less built than the west side and there is basically only one road. We leave the tarmac lane and go on a dirt path that goes around a mangrove. There are smaller salt pans and wild animals here; some flamingos find plenty of food on the shallow swamps.
At the end of the path, we got a beach. And yes, that is what we were looking for. There is a little bar that even serves food, a sandy beach with easy entry in the water. Some places are deep enough to swim, and the water is really warm. There aren’t any sunshade or sunbeds, but we brought a couple of inflatable ones, so all good. A cold beer lying on the beach, what else?
