The ruins of Malmok Lighthouse, Bonaire

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1 year ago Robin

Bonaire is an island off the coast of Venezuela in the southern Caribbean Sea.
The easternmost and least populous of the so-called ABC Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, it has a permanent population of about 20,000.
The island was colonized by the Netherlands in 1636 and it remained under Dutch control throughout the colonial period except for brief occupations by British forces during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1815 to 1954 Bonaire was part of the colony of Curaçao and Dependencies.
It then joined the the Netherlands Antilles, a federation of the Dutch territories in the West Indies, dissolved in October 2010. Bonaire now has the status of an overseas municipality of the Netherlands and, together with Saba and Sint Eustatius in the Leeward Islands, they are known collectively as the Caribbean Netherlands.

Dutch is the official language in Bonaire although a Portuguese-based creole language called Papiamento is commonly spoken.
In Dutch vuurtoren is a lighthouse, lichtopstand a smaller light beacon, baken an unlit beacon, eiland an island, baai a bay, kaap a cape or headland, and haven is a harbor.
Bonaire is a very popular tourist destination but not much information is available online about its lighthouses, that are presumably maintained by the Bonaire Port Authority.

Located at the northern tip of Bonaire, the Malmok meteorological station/lighthouse was built in 1906 but was never lit and deemed too close to the sea, as it quickly became apparent that even mild waves would cause damage to both the tower and the outbuilding. It was replaced by another lighthouse, Seru Bentana, located nearby.
The Malmok lighthouse is now in ruins. It was reportedly struck by lightning during a storm in 1954, causing a fire that burned the structure to the ground.