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Kralendijk history - learn what once happend
The Dutch West India Company that had singlehandedly run Bonaire folded in 1791 and administration was transferred back to the Dutch King. Confusion over what to do with the island resulted in the English taking possession of the island several times in the early 1800's. White tradesmen settled down at ships' main point of unloading known as Kralendijk (coral dyke). The Dutch returned in 1816 but attempts to further tap Bonaire's resources failed to make any profit. After the abolition of slavery in 1863 the Dutch government sold its holdings in Bonaire to two Dutchmen who in turn sold off parts of their land, creating a number of plantations. The freemen on Bonaire slowly forgot about ideas of repatriation to Africa and began to see themselves as a separate group of people with their own identity. Life was still very hard on Bonaire, so hard in fact that many Bonaireans left for Venezuela to work the copper mines, Suriname to work on the railway and Cuba to work in the sugar cane fields. Bonaire developed its own traditions based on rituals and traditions brought from Africa. Maskarada (or masquerade) is a costume parade festival with music and dancing and is celebrated to this day; Bari is another festival (unique to Bonaire) that takes place at the end of every year and allows everybody to catch up on all the gossip and the news. Towards the end of the 19th Century work opportunities became increasingly scarce despite a well respected boat-building industry that saw Bonairean-built double masted schooners, merchant vessels and fishing boats travelling all over the Caribbean. Men left to find work captaining and crewing american merchant vessels and new jobs in the developing oil industry on Curacao and Aruba. This whole period was known as the "money-order economy" as Bonairerean men sent their wages from overseas home to their families. During this period Bonaire started developing its infrastructure through the erection of lighthouses, road improvement, the building of an airstrip, plus the installation of electricity and telephones. Cuturally, Bonaire has evolved into a unique blend; the official language, Papamientu, demonstrates this with its mix of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and a sprinkling of African, English, French and Italian. The faces of Bonairean people reflect this too. Their features are familiar but in many ways beautifully different - a mix of european, amerindian and african. And despite the changing timeswith the hi-tech world of diving, state-of-the-art windsurf boards and exotic mountain bikes things on Bonaire still have a timeless quality about them - local men fishing, local boys going for an afternoon swim or a lady wandering home with vegetables balanced in a bundle on her head.
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Kralendijk Vacations site
Our company is running one of the largest pc and mobile travel website networks, covering top hotel, vacation package, airline ticket, beach, cruise, all inclusive and honeymoon destinations worldwide.
We will also run a travel blog portal which centralises the blogs posted by our visitors on all of our websites and which represents one of the world's best travel information resources, totally build by people such as yourself.
In the link section, you can check more links to our travel website network as well as to other third party specialized websites as lastminute.com or orbitz.com which we suggest you to visit if are you planning a trip to Kralendijk Bonaire.
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