Bonaire

Bonaire (pop. 12,000) is an island in the Netherlands Antilles. Together with Aruba and Curaçao it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands. While English, Papiamento and Spanish are commonly spoken, the official language is Dutch.

Exploiting its natural topography, Bonaire has been a major supplier of salt to the USA for many years, and continues to do so through the flooding of flat-lands with sea water. It is also famed for its flamingo populations and its donkey sanctuary. Bonaire is world renowned for its excellent scuba diving. The island is ringed by a coral reef that is easily accessible from the shore along the Western and Southern sides.

Bonaire Washington Park, located at the north side of the island, is a ecological preserve. The highest point of Bonaire, Brandaris, located within this preserve has a complete view of the island.

Lac Bay on the eastern side of the island is a windsurfer's paradise. Locals Taty and Tonky Frans in 2004 were ranked in the top five of the world's freestyle windsurfing professionals.

Klein Bonaire is a small, uninhabited islet just off the coast of the main island, within the rough crescent formed by the main island.

External link

• Lonely Planet - Bonaire
• Caribbean Adventures - Bonaire

Maps of Bonaire 12.16° N -68.23° E

• MapQuest: out 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 in
• Multimap: out 4M 2M 1M 500k 200k in
• MSN World Atlas: out 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 in

Mapquest zoom level 7 only has the Kralendijk region; this region is also available in zoom level 8, 9, and 10.

Bonaire is also a place in the state of Georgia. See Bonaire, Georgia.

In addition, with a somewhat different spelling there is Bon Air, Virginia.

See also: Bonaire, ABC islands, Aruba, Bon Air, Virginia, Bonaire, Georgia, Coral, Curaçao