Ruins of Landhuis Karpata / Bonaire

songographySunday, Sunday, so good to me… Sunday morning it was all I hoped it would be… Ahem, sorry, had to do that today. Kathy at You’ll-shoot-your-eyes-out Song-ography got me in a 60s mood and I love so many songs from that time including ‘Monday, Monday’ by The Mamas and The Papas. You, of course, noticed how I mucked it up, pardon me. But for our meme, Kathy chose: ‘Turn Turn Turn’ sung by The Byrds!

The one thing this song screams at its listeners is: Change. Change (or turn) with the seasons, in time, for better, for worse. But no matter what, there is a time for every purpose under heaven. And may I add, not only for every purpose, but for every living being be it human, animal or plant.

Landhuis Karpata

Landhouse Karpata ruins

These are the pictures that came immediately to my mind when I read Kathy’s choice for this week. Like so many I am showing you lately, these were taken on our last trip to Bonaire. They are the ruins of of Landhuis Karpata situated on the western coast. It is one of the many dive sites on Bonaire and we usually go there snorkeling at least once during our vacations. The underwater world is amazing, and as you can see in this video, very often David will even see turtles.

Landhouse Karpata

Landhuis Karpata Landhuis Karpata

But back to Landhuis Karpata. Ruins – are there any photographers that are not fascinated by them? Every ruin I stumble upon anywhere I go, I need to check them out. It must be the fact that there is a story, scrap that, there are many stories that ruins could tell us, if they could only talk. I look at them, wander through them or just sit and listen and cannot help thinking: What was it like on an average day 150 years ago? What was this room used for? What did people study up here while overlooking the far ocean? So many things come to mind. And then – it was abandoned, left alone for Mother Nature to take its toll. Taking back what once belonged to her. Why? Well, I assume it was the economical and cultural changes that took place. No more need for a plantation harvesting goat skin and meat. Better ways to produce aloe, charcoal and dyewood and so on.

Landhuis KarpataStudy/Landhouse Karpata

Landhuis Karpata

In more recent history, 1980, Landhuis Karpata was apparently an Ecological Center belonging to the Bonaire National Marine Park with information for visitors about Bonaire. The organization is now situated in Kralendijk and I am not sure what happened to the Karpata one. I did a little search on the internet, but have not found out so far. I will keep searching though and will update here when I find something.

That’s it for me for this Sunday and for this round of Song-ography. Hope to see you again soon.

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23 thoughts on “Ruins of Landhuis Karpata / Bonaire”

  1. Beautiful shots Claudia. I love ruins too and the possible stories behind them. I believe that buildings “imprint” activities and feelings. Hard to choose, but my favorite is the second shot of the empty room with the vivid colors of yellows in the windows.

    Reply
    • Thanks, Debbi. I knew that this (ruins) would be right down your alley. Maybe not your editing, but. The 2nd shot – so you like the color key, huh?! I thought it was very fitting, because of the contrasts between inside and outside.

      Reply
  2. Love these pictures!!! It’s so true – ruins are fascinating! In particular for me, old barns. I have no idea why.
    And I so so love how you wrote this. I think you should be a photo journalist! You could tell some to those stories. 🙂

    Reply
    • Glad you like them! Barns are also fascinating, but I am living too close to the city, not many barns around here.
      Awww – you are making me blush, Les, thank you so much. I wish I had it in me what it takes to be a photo journalist, or better yet, a (real) travel photographer. Have you heard Elia Locardi? Check him out over on G+. He really travels the world all the time and shares his stories and fantastic photos. I actually met him once last year, while he was doing a photo walk in NYC – a real nice guy!

      Reply
  3. Yes, every photographer (at least you and me!) is fascinated with ruins. This is a wonderful series of photos. And it does show the turning of seasons. It’s fun to imagine these places filled with people and life and noise not too long ago. I love the wide angle shots especially. Awesome!

    Reply
    • Hahaha – I think there are a few more of us, Sharon, but as long as we can find some solitude in the ruins I am o.k. with that.
      This is where a real wide angle can score, right? I could have, of course, straightened everything out, but sometimes I think it works much better like this. Thank you!

      Reply
  4. Breathtaking! I love ruins for many reasons…but the textures just always blow me away. I could spend all day some place like this with my camera just dazzled by the various textures of decay and crumble. Truly exquisite. I really like your interpretation of the song this week. You never disappoint! Thanks for joinig in at Song-ography.

    Reply
    • You know, Kathy, I was thinking about making one or two of my photos from this session into textures, because really they are amazing. I spent quite a while there, and not for the first time either. The only problem is – mosquitoes!!! You should have seen my leg afterwards – not nice. But I went snorkeling in the ocean right away, that helps.

      Reply
    • Thanks, Lady+Lilith. The air is usually really clear down there on Bonaire, so it really does work well for contrasty photographs. As for the 3D resemblance – I really do love clouds, any shape and size. I think I am driving hubby nuts when I am pointing out – ooh, these are nice HDR-clouds, or look at these puffy white balls in the sky – LOL. But seriously, if you try HDR i.e. bracket your exposure and then overlay the single pictures, you will get much more depth into the clouds.

      Reply
  5. Hi Claudia, what nice pictures these are indeed! Very very nice! I havent been to this place for a very long time, when I did I was stil a very small childe. I will soon be visiting it with my grandma. My grandma was brought up in this very landhouse for all the people who where asking about what happen and who lived here, she never got te publish her story. It has always remained in the family maybe after my visit I could bring the story to light and put it on the internet.

    Reply

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