Caribbean vacation: you can visit a little-known but charming island where there are more flamingos than people

Alison Fox is a writer for Travel + Leisure. When she's not in New York, she enjoys spending time at the beach or exploring new places and hopes to visit every country in the world. Now she has visited a little-known Caribbean island where the waters are bright blue and there are more flamingos than people. Next - from the first person.

Photo: IStock

Driving along a winding road overlooking wild cacti and centuries-old coral rocks on one side and the deepest blue sea I have ever seen on the other, I found myself sandwiched between two landscapes that seemed to be complete opposites, but somehow merged together.

I soon learned that this is the magic of Bonaire.

The Dutch Caribbean island, located just above South America and below the hurricane belt, is a specimen of contrasts. Bright pink flamingos outnumber people, shoals of rainbow fish swim just below the surface of the crystal clear waters, and wild donkeys roam free, surrounded by mountains spread over wide open land.

Bonaire is the B in the ABC Islands, a little-known paradise often overshadowed by its more popular neighbors, Aruba and Curaçao. Only 2019 people visited the island in 157, about 800% of them Americans, according to Statistics Netherlands.

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But what it lacks in tourists it more than makes up for in authenticity: no chain stores in sight, and no traffic lights.

“When you come here, you see the island as it is,” said Derhlien Vrolijk, marketing coordinator for the Bonaire Tourism Corporation. “We want to stay like this, we don’t want to change.” Tourists come here to see the island, eat and meet the people.”

Considered a "blue destination", the island is focused on sustainability and has a protected marine park, as well as a variety of nature-oriented activities - from shore diving (over 86 dive sites) to snorkeling under the mangroves.

“Bonaire is an untouched island. You can make it as relaxing as possible, or you can make it hardcore and sporty. It depends on what you want to do,” Vrolijk explained.

Bonaire has lifted all previous security requirements due to COVID-19, so travelers will only need a valid passport, according to the government. There are direct flights to the island from Miami (Florida) and Atlanta (Georgia).

It is said that there are more flamingos than people on the island, and Elli Albers knows this firsthand. In 2018, she opened a Bonaire Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center after about 500 flamingo babies and chicks were found roaming the streets in just a few months.

"I like animals. I think in this day and age when we're messing up the world, animals are actually great if you can [give] something back,” Albers said. “I think we owe it to the world and the animals.”

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Flamingos are not the only fauna on the island that seem to outnumber humans. Bonaire is home to about 1100 free-roaming donkeys, which can become the unfortunate victims of accidents. And here comes Marina Melis, who founded a shelter for them in Bonaire in 1993 after moving from the Netherlands.

Today, the 150-acre (60 ha) preserve houses about 750 donkeys that have been rescued from injury, illness or orphanage. And visitors can even take a four-legged friend.

If these donkeys had a rough start in life, you wouldn't notice it by looking at them. I was immediately introduced to the Buddha, who is about 10 years old and small for her age. Her gait was a little different from other donkeys, but she made her presence known as she followed me everywhere. Then there was Teddy, a two-year-old donkey whose mother couldn't take care of her and who was interested in my phone more than anything else.

As I was getting ready to go home after a stormy journey, I thought about everything the island had shown me over the past few days. Bonaire is more than just great Caribbean water, more than just great food (and there were plenty). This is a place that you must see with your own eyes - and I am very glad that I did it.

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