Kayaking in one of the largest protected mangrove swamps in the south of Bonaire and snorkelling through channels. We saw upside down Jellyfish (Quallen), attached to the bottom, and a lot of fish. Mangroves are breeding places for fish, that are well protected from predators (Verfolgern) here.
For many birds in Northern Curaao, it seems to be much easier do feed on sugar in Jaanchies Restaurant – even if there is a fierce competion – than to search for fruits in the dry wilderness.
Green birds with yellow masks on their head fly with loud screams from one tree to another. The Caribbean brown throated parakeet is searching for fruit. It is a own subspecies of Bonaire.
I will never forget this sound: thousands of Hermit Crabs (Einsiedlerkrebse) that bump into each other when walking around, thus producing a crackling sound. They arrive in the afternoon after tourists have left this remote island two hours away from Curacao – and eat everything one hundred visitors have left over after their rib and hamburger lunch.
As Bonaire is very dry, the very few fresh water wells had been very important for inhabitands in former time. The people in Bonaire now produce desalinated water, but the Bronswinkel’s Fresh Water Well is still important nowadays for a lot of animals, including birds, iguanas, lizards and goats.
The grey feathers of flamingos turn pink in the wild because of a natural pink dye they obtain when feeding on shrimp and blue-green algae. The wetlands and lagoons in Bonaire provide a rich amount of food for these animals.
In the bird rehab in the South of Bonaire we saw the younger flamingos kept there to have grey feathers. The Mangrove Info Center opened the Wild Bird Rehab as a bird sanctuatry to provide a home for the island’s sick or injured birds.
Able to fly for weeks on wind currents, frigatebirds spend most of the day in flight hunting for food. Their main prey are fish and, as in this case, squid, caught when chased to the water surface by tuna – or privded by a fisherman. They occasionally rob other seabirds for food.
I have never seen so many squids. At the Tugboat Beach in Curacao there seemed to be several families with adult animals and children that were swimming in the shallow water.
The Tug Boat (Lotsenboot) Beach is said to be the best snorkelling site in Curacao. It is snorkelling in an industrial area, right next to a huge dock and possibly a ship that stays there for maintenance. However, there is a nice bar and in a depths of only three meters deep you find the sunken tugboat.
An old man was feeding Iguanas (Leguane) at the Tug Boat Beach in Curacao. He knew that the smell of moisture atracts these herbivorous lizards. And I knew that Iguanas are commonly eaten in Curacao, as soup or stew (Eintopf). I asked wether he eats them, an he answered: “This is Curacao”. I took that for a yes.
