When I was driving around Bonaire a few weeks ago I saw some huge waves crashing on the rocks on the horizon. As I passed by, I saw an colorful obelisk with a story on it but didn’t take the time to read it at first. Instead, I went straight to the shoreline and climbed the big black rock to watch the waves crash.

It was incredible, standing at the edge of that huge rock. Each time a wave would hit the shore, my face was splashed by the ocean water and mist would linger in the air for minutes until the next wave came. You could feel the energy of the waves and the power of the ocean. I even screamed at the top of my lungs because in that moment I felt so free. Then a sat down and just kept watching this scene for what could have been hours.

When I finally read what was written on the statue, I was in awe because it was telling the legend of the Mermaid of Black Rock. How crazy was it that I was called to this exact place without even knowing what it was and that I went straight to that rock when I saw it?

The old legend tells of a Mermaid called Mamparia Cutu. She was half woman and half fish that would sit on the black rock, golden hair blowing in the wind, her fish body shimmering green, like a parrot fish. During storm, the residents of the nearby village would hear the waves hitting the holes and the rocks like huge drums playing. They would say that Mamparia Cutu (green flesh woman) was beating on her drums and making music with the corals. 

Good people would say that she was warning the sailors off the dangerous coast. Those not of the villages would say that Mamparia Cutu was enticing the sailors to the coast to be shipwrecked so that the people of the villages of Nikiboco and Terra Cora could take their plunder from the wrecks. 

Seven Colors 

This stretch of shoreline is so flat that from the sea you often can’t see the land during dark nights. No lighthouse existed on Bonaire until the 17th century so there were many shipwrecks on this shore. During high winds the sea waves would crash up on these mounds of finger corals and as the waves were pulled back out again they would pull corals down rolling over each other with a sound of tinkling bells. The coast was alive with this beautiful music of the corals like thousand little belles and with the pounding of the waves. The coral bells and pounding waves would warn off sailors at night from certain shipwreck on the shore.