Discover Jibe City & Sorobon Beach: The Ultimate Spot for Bonaire's Relaxation Vibes

Tap into Bonaire's east coast relaxation at Lac Bay (also known as Lac Bai). Home to over 1,000 catalogued sea turtles, Lac Bai is the ultimate spot for calm wildlife encounters. Explore tide pools with rock flower anemones, lounge on the beach, try windsurfing, unwind at Jibe City, or take a plunge into East Coast Diving. Sorobon has it all and is definitely worth a little day trip! 

Getting to Sorobon

Sorobon is the only town on Bonaire's East coast. The next town in Rincon which stretches east but is located more in the central part of the island, way in the north. You will need a car to get to Sorobon and its about a half hour drive from the city depending on which road you take. The scenic route will take you around the lighthouse and by great areas to spot wildlife and waves crashing. 

Diving around the lighthouse, you can begin to see the topography change as you round the southern point by Red Slave dive site and continue driving east. This route will take you an hour or so, depending on how much you stop. I did a four hour journey on this stretch of road stopping to explore and take wildlife photos. I highly recommend you do the same! This area is not usually suitable for diving unless Bonaire experiences a wind reversal which is uncommon but does happen a few times per year (especially during hurricane season)! 
If you chose to not take the scenic route, you can take a turnoff in Belnem which cuts through the island to take you on a straight shot to Sorobon. You won't see much wildlife on this route. ​

Did you know? 

Lac Bai is home to the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Dutch Caribbean! Because of its ecological importance and site significance, this ecosystem is legally protected and managed well. You can take tours through the mangroves. I did not take a tour but asked people and they surprisingly reported NO MOSQUITOS! Several people told me this (in fact it was unanimous from several sources) and I was shocked! Typically mangroves are dense with mosquitos which can really ruin your experience. Not here! I highly suggest going to enjoy this ecosystem. I truly missed out. 

Lac Bai also only has one small entry and exit point and the rest is closed to water movement. Take a look at Lac Bai from above in the video below! Because of its protection, the inside waters are calm and are home to many wonderful animals. Queen conchs feed on the seagrass and algae here. You will see mountains of their shells from ancient poaching. Turtles are also attracted to the protection, sleeping inside the bay at night and leaving in the morning to head to the reef. During this time, you will see hundreds of turtles on the move which gave rise to a dive site named Turtle City. Keep an eye out for many species of birds and the only two wild horses on the island!

At Jibe City, you'll see the seagrass beds roped off so windsurfers don't walk through and damage the ecosystem. I truly appreciate this conservation measure. Keep your eyes peeled always! The only shark I saw in Bonaire was a baby shark in the roped off seagrass area! Weaving between the wind surfers, this baby shark (just over a foot long) was so adorable! I unfortunately couldn't get a photo of it but I enjoyed the moment!

Jibe City

What's a Jibe City???? Great question!
Jibe City is basically a beach bar and restaurant! At Jibe City, you can enjoy a fruity drink, have a delicious meal, sign up for windsurfing, and even do a little shopping! It's a casual place of relaxation, friendly people, and good vibes. My boyfriend and I enjoyed a delicious meal here (I got a chicken sandwich and he got the special burger which was MASSIVE). He got a fruity smoothie to drink and I got a strawberry daiquiri. I have to say his smoothie might have even been better than mine. We sat right infant of the water and got to people watch the beginning windsurfers. This was when we saw the baby shark. We loved our meal, then headed out for a walk. Disclaimer: this place can become quite crowded and we were there in the low season. 

The water in the bay can get quite hot since it doesn't flow very much. And no I do not mean comfortably warm- I mean HOT. We poked around looking for marine life but quickly realized many people scared it away so we went to a different area. Here, we explored tide pools and found some insane seashells. 

While we were on our walk, we left our cameras with the desk at the small store at Jibe City. They gladly allowed us to store our underwater cameras behind the desk and nobody touched them they were very safe. This kept them out of the hot car and out of our hands (they're quite heavy). If you have valuables, I highly recommend storing them here. And I did lock the car with our dive gear inside and covered it with a towel. Car theft is pretty common in Bonaire so its safest to leave nothing in your car with the doors unlocked. For this, though, I locked the car. I figured any thieves would abandon it and try any of the other 30 cars there. Also a place like Sorobon which has a lot of visitors won't have as much theft. 

Don't miss out on the Jibe City shop! They sell some of the highest quality beach clothes. My boyfriend got a swimsuit (now his favorite) and I didn't bing enough cash to get anything but they had so many cute unique  clothes!

East Coast Scuba Diving 

Lac Bai and Sorobon is the place to be if you want to dive the east coast from the shore and from a boat. Bonaire East Coast Diving (via boat) leaves from the same general area as Jibe City if you're going by boat. If you're going by shore, you'll need to drive to the north side of the bay to Lac Cai (shown on the map) where you'll enter the water. This diving is not for the weak!!!! I'll be making a separate post on it though because it's so cool and definitely worth it!

You can stay at Sorobon too...

I noticed there was one resort located in Sorobon and it looked rather new. The name is Sorobon Luxury Beach Resort. This could definitely account for some of the crowds not to mention the island tours which usually take a lunch break at Sorobon. 

Thanks for reading! I hope you get a chance to visit beautiful Lac Bay :)