Solar salt is a natural product of seawater, sunshine and wind. In the early years, the Dutch used slaves for the production of salt. Slaves had to carry salt to ships. At two places around salt lake, you still can see some slave huts. During the week, they slept inside these small huts. Their families lived in Rincón where they stayed during the weekends. There was a small shop called Mangazina di Rei ('warehouse of the king') for food.

At some places of Bonaire, you can see natural salt lakes (saliñas). Wind blows seawater on land and remains here. Water evaporates because of sunshine and salt remains. Before the sun evaporates this seawater, another amount of seawater flows by wave and tidal into the salt lake. Just before this water reaches full saturation, they pump brine into the crystallizers, which are flooded periodically to maintain a constant level of brine. They will harvest the solar salt in each crystallizer once a year, loaded into trucks and transported to a wash plant. They slurry the salt with brine and remove it from impurities. After washing, it dries for at least several months before transportation to the Eastern United States and the Caribbean.

The Dutch used slaves to do this work until the abolition of slavery. Years after the abolition, Akzo Nobel took over this salt lake. In august 1996, Akzo Nobel announced to sell salt lake to Cargill. The original salt pans are now reservation areas for pink flamingos. Around Salt Lake, you can have a nice view at this huge salt lake.