Bonaire Slideshow

Well, we managed to make it home in one piece, barely.  We had a little bit of a scare when our pilot slammed our plane down onto the runway in Houston and then proceeded to take off again.  Luckily his second attempt at a landing was much smoother.  Can't say as any of us has ever been in a 737 that did a "touch and go."  Other than that, we made it home fine with all of our luggage intact.  Eric finally had some time to put together a bunch of photos this weekend.   Please click here to see some of the 600+ pictures we took on our trip to Bonaire.  Hopefully we will eventually get some of the videos posted too, but that may take a bit longer.  Enjoy!

Bonaire Day 7

Friday, June 5, 2009. This is the first day I actually slept in. Eric got up about 6 a.m. Bonaire time and went out on the patio and worked on his computer and enjoyed the beautiful morning breeze. I finally got up about 9 a.m. and had a bite to eat for breakfast and then Eric and I went for the final dive of our trip. We decided it was easiest to just dive off the pier in front of our hotel. It was quite windy again today and there was a fairly good current. Because of the wind and the current the visibility in the water was not very good either, but we still got a few good photos. We swam against the current for a ways and then drifted back to where we started. This was the strongest current we had experienced yet. We stayed out for about an hour, but did not go much below 40 feet. We got out of the water a little after 11 a.m. and headed back to our room to get cleaned up to go to lunch. Dick and Lou decided to go back to the north end of the island and ended up having lunch at Captain Don's Habitat. Eric and I decided to head over to the southeast side of the island to visit Jibe City (the big windsurfing spot). They have a nice little beach cafe there and it is also another one of the live webcam spots you can see at www.bonairewebcam.com. As a side note, there is also a nudist resort right next door. After lunch we drove back around the south end of the island and got some photos of the extremely rough surf and finally had our first sightings of Bonaire's famous flamingos. After our drive we headed back to the hotel to start getting our stuff packed for tomorrow's early morning flight out of Bonaire. Boy, a week sure goes by in a hurry!!

         

Bonaire Day 6

Thursday, June 4, 2009. Last night Eric and I opened the curtains in our room so we could wake up with the sunrise since there are no clocks/alarm clocks in our room and we did not feel like reading the instructions to set our portable alarm clock that we brought along. We ended up getting up about 7 a.m. Bonaire time and I fixed breakfast for Dick and I and we ate out on the back patio, enjoying the refreshing morning breeze. Eric then packed up our dive gear and we headed out about 8:25 a.m. to be at the dive shop by 8:30 a.m. for our boat dive trip to Klein Bonaire. We were the only two that got on the boat at the Port Bonaire Dive Friends location. We took off by boat and headed down the coast line to pick up the rest of the divers at the Yellow Submarine Dive Friends location. After everyone had gotten all their gear loaded on, we headed out to Klein Bonaire, which is a small island just off the coast of Bonaire. Klein Bonaire has 26 designated dive sites all around its coast. We did a two tank dive trip and our first stop was at a dive site called “rock pile.” Unfortunately, today was a VERY windy day and the waves were pretty large, so there was a fairly good current and the visibility underwater was not what it normally would be, but it was still some fabulous diving. We saw a very big spotted eagle ray, some eels, a scorpion fish, very colorful soft and hard corals, and tons of fish. This was my very first boat dive, so I got to have the experience of sitting on the edge of the boat with my tank and all my gear on and just rolling backward off the edge of the boat and into the water. Anticipating it was actually more scary than doing it. It was actually very easy to do. The hardest part was maneuvering around on the boat while it was tipping at a 45-degree angle or more from side to side in the large waves (not a very big boat). Our first dive was about an hour long. Then all the divers climbed back on the boat and we all switched out to new tanks and headed to the next dive site. We had about a 45 minute surface interval before the next dive. Our second dive was at a dive site called Joanne's Sunchi (Kiss). On the first dive Eric and I had kind of gone off on our own, but this time we decided to travel with the rest of the group. We got to see our first seahorse (an orange one), and several more eels, and we got some awesome pictures and video of another smaller spotted eagle ray that swam practically right in front of Eric's face. By the way, we will post many more photos and videos after we get home as our internet connection here at the hotel is not very fast. Again, this dive was about 45 minutes or so and then we all climbed out and headed back to Bonaire. If and when we return to Bonaire (which will probably be later this year), we definitely plan to visit Klein Bonaire again. The diving there is really nice and would be even better on a calmer day. When we got back to the hotel we quickly got cleaned up and headed out to lunch with Dick and Lou (they decided to visit the Donkey Sanctuary while we were out diving and very much enjoyed their visit with the donkeys.) We tried another new restaurant for lunch—Chibi Chibi, which is at the Divi Flamingo Beach Resort and Casino. The atmosphere was nice (right on the water) and the food was good too. Then we headed to the Last Bite Bakery to pick up our Key Lime pie at 3:30 p.m. Unfortunately, when we got there she had just put it into the fridge and she told us it really would not be ready until about 4:30 p.m. So since we were already on the other side of town, we decided to take the scenic drive down the coast line to the other end of the island. We did kind of a speedy tour since we only had an hour before we had to be back, but we did see a few wild donkeys and of course lots of goats, but we also saw a crested caracara. We got back to the bakery just before 4:30 p.m. and picked up our pie and Eric and Lou also bought some homemade Gingersnap cookies. We then headed back to the hotel, sufficiently stuffed from lunch, and a bunch of us laid down for a little while. Eating a good meal and then going for a drive can easily put one in the mood for a good nap, especially while on vacation. Since we had such a late lunch, we decided to dine on cheese and crackers, Gingersnap cookies (for Eric and Lou) and of course Dick and I had to cut into the Key Lime pie for dinner. As tomorrow will be our last full day on Bonaire, Eric and I plan on doing an early morning dive and then that will be it for the diving part of the vacation. We will probably plan on driving around and seeing some more of the island and/or shopping, etc., or whatever we feel like really the rest of tomorrow.

      

Bonaire Day 5

Wednesday, June 3, 2009. We got up about 8:00 a.m. Bonaire time and enjoyed sitting on the balcony facing the ocean and enjoying the cool morning breeze. Eric and I then headed back down to the Windsock dive site which is a very short drive down the road. The entry for this site is probably the easiest you will find around here. We were actually the only ones on the entire stretch of beach and thus had the water all to ourselves. We saw a very rare mola mola, some very beautiful Queen Angelfish, Bar Jack, a big snapper, Rock Beauty, of course lots of parrotfish, squirrelfish, several different types of scrawled filefish, a large honeycomb cowfish, and several big spotted scorpionfish. The water at the dive site is just busy with fish—kind of like swimming in an aquarium. After our dive we headed back to the hotel to clean off and enjoy lunch on some of our many leftovers from the various restaurants we had been to in the previous days. After lunch we headed out to visit the Donkey Sanctuary. They have a very nice facility where they take care of abused and abandoned wild donkeys and feed them and give them medical care, etc. They have over 400 donkeys. It is kind of like going on safari. You drive around a big loop on the property and all the donkeys come up to your car and stick their heads in wanting food (you can buy a bag of food to feed them). We did not buy any food, but they still mob your car to see if you have anything good to eat. We were told if you do have food, they will practically climb in the car with you. They are actually very smart. It seems they all work together—one stands in the middle of the road to stop your car and then all the rest crowd around to see if they can get some goodies. When we first went into the sanctuary I had to actually back the car up to get them to move away enough so I could go forward again. This is where they also have the Donkeycam at the “donkey cafeteria” that is another one of the live webcams featured on the www.bonairewebcam.com website. After we got done at the donkey sanctuary we headed downtown to the dive shop and the Last Bite Bakery. We went into the bakery to see if they had key lime pie and they did not, but the lady in the bakery is going to make a whole key lime pie just for us, which we will be picking up tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. After dinner Eric, Dick, and I decided to try a night dive off the pier of our hotel. Eric and I had never done a night dive before. We did not go very deep but got some awesome pictures and saw a couple things we had never seen before. We actually got better pictures during the night dive with extra lighting from flashlights than we have so far during the daytime dives. Tomorrow morning we have a two-tank boat dive planned to Klein Bonaire which is an island just off the shore of Bonaire. We will be leaving at 8:45 a.m. and will be back by1:00 p.m.    

   

           
   

Bonaire Day 4

Tuesday, June 2, 2009. I slept in a little longer today as my back bothered me all night long and was still bothering me this morning. We decided to do our first dive of the day off the pier out in front of the hotel to see if I was going to do okay with my back. As soon as I got in the water and dove down my back felt much better (probably because all the pressure was taken off the muscles under water). Shortly after we went under water I realized I had forgotten to put on my dive computer, but not to worry as we each have an extra pony valve pressure gauge and Eric can read the pressure in my tank with his computer also. We continued on with our dive, but did not see anything that we had not seen before. We did get to have the experience of being under water when a boat went overhead. That was a totally new sound and experience for me. You hear a noise that continues to get louder and louder, but you cannot pinpoint it in the water because of the way sound travels underwater, until it goes right over the top. We dove around and checked things out for a while and then headed back in. Upon getting back to the pier we were unable to locate Dick. Upon surfacing we noticed him on the surface way out in the water where the reef wall dropped off underneath him. He was swimming back and forth without his BCD on and we could not figure out what he was doing. I jokingly told Eric he probably lost our camera (our newest camera that we had let him use on the dive). Eric decided to paddle out and see what he was doing. Sure enough, he got out to Dick and he was busy trying to find the camera somewhere down below him. The camera housing has a couple of weights on it to weigh it down so it does not try to float to the surface when you are diving, but if you happen to remove the strap from around your neck, it will drop to the bottom like a rock. Luckily the neck strap is bright yellow and Eric was able to spot it. We then managed to all get out of the water with all of the equipment we went in with and in one piece. After we got dried off and were getting ready to head downtown for lunch and shopping, I happened to look outside down at the Pier and saw a very big iguana. So of course we had to throw him some crackers and Dick got some good video and Eric got some good pictures. Then we headed downtown to hit the dive shop. Eric wanted to get some new booties with a heavier sole on them as it has been very difficult to walk on the rocky coral shores here with the lightweight booties we have (especially having to haul two peoples tanks). Of course, you can't go in a dive shop without spending more money than you originally intended. Eric and Dick dropped some money at the dive shop and Lou and I looked around one of the other shops downtime that had some neat stuff. Then we ate lunch at a place downtown where we ate a few days ago and the food had been very good. We then headed back to the hotel and Eric and I decided to do another dive a little later on. We did not want to have to go too far so we went to a dive site called Windsock, which is just a short distance down to the road. The entry for this dive was the easiest so far and after we got out under water it was fabulous. It was like swimming around in a fish tank. There were all different kinds of fish and some we had never seen before. We saw at least three sea cucumbers, the biggest lobster either of us had ever seen, the largest spotted drum we had ever seen, a baby green eel, some arrow crabs and a bunch of really big fish. Of course, half way through the dive again our battery died, so we did not get pictures of some of this stuff, but we intend to go back to this dive site tomorrow morning. We had decided the day before that we were going to go to dinner at The Lion's Den restaurant which was at the Buddy Dive Resort. They boasted having Bonaire's best Key Lime pie. We headed there for dinner and had a wonderful dinner overlooking the water, but when it came time to order dessert we had a big let-down as we were informed they had no Key Lime pie. Oh well, dinner was still very good and the setting was very nice and the weather was perfect—what more can you ask for. Oh yeah, they also had a cute little kitty cat that we had to share some scraps with. Tomorrow morning we plan to head back to Windsock, so hopefully will get some more good pictures.      

   

 

Bonaire Day Three

Monday, June 1, 2009. Well today was kind of a lazy day (in some respects). We slept in until 8:00 a.m. here, which is really 5 a.m. Phoenix time, so technically I guess it was not sleeping in. But hey, we did not have to get up and go to work. After breakfast Dick, Eric, and I headed to the south of our hotel to do our first dive at Angel City which is down by the salt farm. The dive went very well, but getting into the water was a little comical for some of us. I ended up slipping and falling on my way out into the water, thereby giving Dick a good laugh. Dick had his payback, though, when he made his way out into the water and bit it in the same spot I did. I subsequently had a good laugh watching him flop around like a flounder that had been beached. Poor Eric missed seeing both of us, as he was busy hauling everyone's gear into the water for us. I somehow pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve or something in my back (probably from not being used to lifting and hauling the 94 pounds around on my back.) Therefore, Eric spent all day hauling his tank and equipment and my tank and equipment both. Pretty much all the diving here is shore entry, but the beaches are very rocky coral and very tricky to navigate. We had a nice dive, though, and had a little better luck getting out. We then headed down to the road towards the south end of the island. We took some pictures of the salt farm. It is really something to see all the huge salt pans filled with pink water. As the water dehydrates from the pans it leaves a very thick salt layer that they then scrape up with the same type of equipment they use to rip up asphalt. They then shoot it into huge pan-type haulers and haul it to the main yard where it is put into huge piles. We drove a little further down the road and took some pictures of the slave huts that used to house the slaves for the salt farm. On down the road a little further we came upon a guy that was kite surfing. He was pretty amazing to watch. Every time he would turn around to go in the opposite direction he would come about10-15ft. off of the water. After we completed our short sightseeing trip we headed back to the hotel to pick up Lou and head to lunch. We ended up heading down to the north end of town to Eden Beach Resort. For those of you who I had told about the Bonaire Webcam website, we sat right at the table where the webcam is aimed. The day prior we also were downtown and waved at the live webcam that is down on main street. We had a very nice lunch at the beach bar at Eden Beach Resort. They have a crew of huge lizards that come and clean up the crumbs from under your table while you are eating and after you are done. After lunch Dick and Lou headed back to the hotel and Eric and I headed to our next dive destination at the Cliffs. That was another tricky entry, but of course Dick was not there to laugh at me when I fell down. We had another very good dive and I saw my first Scorpion fish. Again, lots of great fish and coral, unfortunately we did not take the camera with us this time as the battery was dead. After we managed to find our way out of the water again, we headed back to the hotel to pick up Dick and Lou and head to dinner at Cactus Blue, the restaurant we had actually tried to find two days earlier and never could find. The food there was excellent and of course Dick and I had to have the Key Lime pie, which was very good. Tomorrow is another day. We look forward to more relaxing, more diving, and more good food.