Surface Interval Bonaire's Fontein ep. 34 | A Diver's Life

Fontein, A secret oasis in the middle of Bonaire. Records of its existence go back as far as 1681 when then pirate and explorer, William Dampier, documented visiting Bonaire in his journal, A Voyage Around the World", and writes about the existence of true fresh water spring known today as Fontein. Today, few on Bonaire knows of its existence or only have feint memories of it from childhood. Imagine a desert island with an oasis, at its center ,having 30 foot almond trees, sugar cane, tall green grass, and ancient swimming pools at least as far back as 1928! Constant rains and wind reversals for the past month have made filming virtually impossible. So, in this episode we decided to introduce an A Diver's Life surface interval. What can you do when you can't dive and film? Well, you explore of course! In this episode we will take you on an adventure, on land, to Fontein and share with you its history. We show you old maps, of Bonaire, from archives dating as far back as 1794. We hope you will get to visit Fontein on one of your Bonaire diving surface intervals.
* Important correction: Fontein was not sold to Fundashon Aruba Parke Nacional. The property is still owned by the Mansur family in Aruba. We apologize for the error. *
#bonaire
#adventure travel
#history
#nature
#bonaireisland
#caribbeanhistory
#scuba travel
=== Chapters ====
0:00 Monolog
3:12 A Diver's Life Intro
4:13 Opening
4:37 William Dampier and 1681 Bonaire
6:13 Fontein cartographic history and its spring
6:47 Ancient Fontein swimming pools
7:27 The famous L.D. Gerharts
8:08 Fontein Royal Barbecue for Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard
8:26 Fontein First Visit
13:31 Fontein Beyond the Pools
15:31 Buchie Frans and restoring Fontein
20:59 Fundacion Nationale Aruba Acquires Fontein
=====
Music:
Blue - Eklo feat. Jordin Laine (RFM youtube)
Dirty Mac - Endless Love
Lord of the Dawn - Jesse Gallagher
Moonlight Dreams - Megan Wolford (Epidemic Sound)
Pale Blue Skies - Ethan Sloan (Epidemic Sound)
Take Me With - Tevor Kowalski (Epidemic Sound)
The Guiding Light - Christoffer Moe Ditlevs (Epidemic Sound)
Videography, Script, Narration, Post Production
- Rich Schwerdtfeger
Cast:
Buchie Frans
Michael Pement
Doreen Schwerdtfeger
Simone Sweers
Fontein cleanup volunteers
Images:
Shipping goats in Bonaire to Curacao - Adolphe Debrot
L.D. Gerharts at Fontein - Dutch National Archives
L.D. Gerharts with glasses - Antilliaans Dagblad
KLM Stewardesses - blog.klm.com/the-first-stewar...
Playa Pariba Internment Camp - www.curacaohistory.com/files/...
1955 Fontein Estate Barbecue and royal visit by Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard, of the Netherlands, by Willem Van De Poll:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...)
1700s anchor 43 meters at Orange Pan by Rene Lipman
link.springer.com/article/10....
Brackish well near Orange Pan
link.springer.com/article/10....
Aerial Image Orange Pan
link.springer.com/article/10....
Topographic Map Orange Pan
link.springer.com/article/10....
1794 Map of Bonaire - Archivo Museo Naval de Madrid, PMNM, MN-25-C-5
link.springer.com/article/10....
1825 Map of Bonaire - National Archives, The Hague, 4.STS-178
link.springer.com/article/10....
1866 Map of Bonaire - Leiden University Library, Special Collections, 678062
link.springer.com/article/10....
1915 map Bonaire
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Dutch Merchant Fleet Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom - The Rijk Museum - www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/S...
Water Flow Fontein Image - Nexus interventions for small tropical islands: Case Study Bonaire
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Dutch Sloop model 17th century:
www.startedsailing.com/need-f...
Chief of Caquetio Indians
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caqueti...
Slaves working orange pan
worldkid66.wordpress.com/2014...
Color image slaves transferring salt near obelisk A.A Bierman
www.blue-oceans.com/index.php...
1930 Fontein Entrance - Eithel Pourier
Old Images pool, Fontein sign, and pool wall paintings - Benjamin De Palm
Flamingos, Lora - Steve Ando

[@Panguipulli-ks1nx]

great new segment 'surface interval' ! Looking forward to more.. Thank you guys!

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you

[@elericorulez911]

Headed to Bonaire in December 2022. Love watching your videos to get an insider perspective of everything beautiful Bonaire has to offer!

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you

[@klamacchia3515]

Rich and Doreen, this is really great! Never knew anything about it. I'm really enjoying learning more about the island. Thanks for what you do!

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you for the kind words! You are very welcome.

[@axetube88]

Nice video Rich. Another fascinating piece of Bonaire. :)

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you!

[@rgorji]

Really enjoyed this video. Thank you.

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you Reza.

[@PokerCPAEvil]

Thanks Rich - this was great!

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you so much!

[@stephanieando9368]

Excellent video Rich!!

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you!

[@KevinandLizGrogan]

Wow, this is truly some of your best work. Thanks for sharing! And thanks for making me late for my next appointment 😅

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you so much! We really love the Bonaire history and have been collecting the research and of course the video content for some time. We do hope the Aruba National Parke Foundation opens it up for public access.

[@dakicpopovich]

Very interesting... Cool video

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you Dacik!

[@cindycooper1612]

Great video Rich! I didn't know about this place and found it really interesting.

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you!

[@rudolfdavelaar]

Between 1970-1979 I used to go there with my parents and sister. There was a Portuguese family living there and they managed the place. I used to swim with some of their children through those arches. Jumping from one pool into another. The water was a lot clearer back then. We used to use flashlights and go into the cave where the water came from. I remember there were bats in there and the tunnel split into two at one point. That's all I will say about that. Different fruits and vegetables were grown at Fontein by the Piloto family. The place was open to the public on Sundays. After it closed, the family moved to Kralendijk and lived behind the Bernardus school in Playa. To my knowledge, two of those "children" still live on Bonaire. They must be in their 60's now.

[@ADiversLife]

Rudolf, thank you so much for sharing that. What beautiful memories. You made our day!

[@jellavanberkum8096]

Very nice to make a video about this place. I remember the time that everybody could go there and enjoy nature around the basins. Till suddenly the gate was closed and never opened again. Very disappointing😩 The years before LVV used the land from the neighbouring lot to grow vegetables because the had good wells there. A pity it isn't in use anymore for growing local food. Hope one day the wil start growing vegetables there again also. Good to hear that they are going to restore Fontein and will open it to the public again. Thank you for the nice video and update about the place!👍

[@ADiversLife]

You are most welcome Jella and for sharing your memories of Fontein.

[@franklinnicolaas7733]

Hi Rich this is a cool video, I live in Bonaire but never know about the Fontain, My Father probably know the story about the Fontain. I would love to walk around someday. Also did not know that Mansur from Aruba is owning it, but what i can tell you that de Fontain selling tho our Bonaire government is almost complete as from to today latest update news 8-14-2023.

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you. If Bonaire buys it my hope is that the nature in the area is preserved vs just converting it to just farmed agriculture or as a water source for Bolivia. After hearing plans for Bolivia I am concerned. This is a natural wonder of Bonaire. It does belong to the people of Bonaire vs. an owner in Aruba.

[@franklinnicolaas7733]

@@ADiversLife Bonaire government has the buy almost don with the Mansur., they are going to renovate Fontain to maintain its original status. As for the locals but also for the tourists who would like to enjoy the nature of Bonaire. its part of the culture of Bonaire, Bonaire whants it back

[@ADiversLife]

@@franklinnicolaas7733 that is excellent

[@ChrisOjustWatchingTheTube]

Thanks for taking us to a private secret site. This was one of my favorite. It will be great if it really opens as a park!!! Keep us updated on the progress. And some news on that large development would be interesting too

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you. Will do

[@rogerkahn]

We notice the sign each time we're on the Rincon road but we did not know about this magical place. Thanks to you, we have a visual baseline for the restoration work that will hopefully come.

[@ADiversLife]

You are most welcome.

[@ADiversLife]

Corrected the English subtitles

[@Chogogo717]

Man, what a blast from the past. I used to swim in those pools as a little kid. How did you get all the historical data for the old maps. It was interesting to see.

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you Caleb. Much of the sources for my research is in the description. I spent a lot of time on line and in Facebook research. It was a lot of work but I like to share the stories and history.

[@Chogogo717]

Doh!!! That was obvious. 🤣

[@camilalook4168]

I'm 68 And I used to swim there tooo late sixtes early seventies . !! We were not supposed too