The Violet Vengeance: Houses

like everything else here, Bonairean architecture is a mixture of styles. Much of it is european looking, filtered through the island aesthetic. (which is to say things are painted more brightly than your average drag queen.)

The majority of houses here are made of concrete, either concrete block or poured concrete.

This means that even when the buildings are abandoned they seem to stick around, just waiting for another coat of paint.

This old theatre is next to the Cadushy distillery in Rincon. It is the oldest movie theatre on the island, and currently they are trying to raise money to resurrect it.

The inside is mostly empty, apart from some old projection equipment, and it needs a new roof.

Most of the photos I took of houses were taken from a moving vehicle, so apologies for the occasional off-focus/frame and motion blur. The best gauge for how bumpy some of the roads are is my mothers car decoration, which spends most of any ride earning her singles like a madwoman.

My last full day on the island, my dad drove me around so that I could get pictures of some of the islands less-fancy accommodations. I generally find these more interesting than the larger, rich-folk houses, which tend to be in more European styles.

The first thing we saw was some donkeys, which may or may not have been real estate agents. Or maybe they were just for sale.

We saw a few houses that were made from old cargo containers. I think the main thing about houses for the locals here is that they seem largely to exist only to have a place to sleep. Larger houses require more cooling, which is not something everyone can afford. Smaller houses let the wind go through both sides, keeping things slightly cooler.

As you can see from most of these pictures, fences play a large role in island architecture. There is a fairly large division between the have and have-nots here. Some fences are mostly ornamental and seemed designed just to keep out wandering wildlife.