Here for more info. As license plates inform you, Bonaire is A Diver s Paradise. Each year, underwater aficionados from around the world flock to this tiny island in the Netherlands Antilles to explore reefs that have never been poached or polluted. In fact, Bonaire fiercely protects its subaquatic treasures, as well it should.
Reefs here are among the planet s finest and most accessible.
Because reefs are close to shore and the water is exceptionally calm, you can dive from anywhere on the island, day or night. And with only 12 inches of rainfall annually, there s no freshwater runoff, so water visibility exceeds 100 feet all year long But water isn t everything in Bonaire. The first European to set foot on Bonaire was Amerigo Vespucci, who was greeted by Arawak Indians after he landed here in 1499. Spain attempted to colonize the island, but it was the Dutch who made it prosper. By the mid 17th-century Bonaire was thriving with sorgham, salt and cattle plantations.