You can also view the photos here.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Slide Show from Bonaire
I created a slide show of some of the better photos from our trip to Bonaire.
You can also view the photos here.
You can also view the photos here.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Bonaire October 2009, Day 7 & 8
Day 7, Friday, October 9, 2009.
We got up and had some breakfast and headed down to the hotel pier to do our final dive of the trip. As usual there were lots of shrimp and eels to photograph and we also got some good photos and video of some squid as we were headed back in at the end of our dive. After the dive we took all our gear up to the room and got it cleaned up as best we could so it could start drying out before we had to pack it up for the flight home.
After we got cleaned up, we headed down to Dive Friends to return our tanks and weights and settle our bill there. Then we headed downtown to have our final lunch at “Mandy's Place.” By now you can probably guess what Eric and I both had to eat there. After lunch we did a little souvenir shopping. Then we headed to the north end of the island to get some wildlife photos. Our little jaunt to photograph the parrots became quite frustrating.
As we were driving along the coast we managed to spot our first pair of parrots. Eric was able to get out and take some photos of them before they flew away. Little did we know these would probably be the best parrot photos we would get on our entire little “safari.” Then we headed to lake Gotomeer, which is a flamingo sanctuary. On the road to the lake we actually got some good photos of a fairly large iguana before he ran off. Unfortunately, almost all of the flamingos were too far away to get any good photos. I told Eric the ones we did get pictures of looked like pink swans as they were standing in water clear up to their bodies.
We continued on around the rest of the north end of the island in our search for more parrots. Every time we actually managed to spot any that were fairly close to the road they would fly off just as Eric got ready to take a picture. We was getting very frustrated with them. After several hours of chasing down parrots we made it back to our hotel room and began the task of packing everything up for our early morning flight back home.
Day 8, Saturday, October 10, 2009.
We got up about 4:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. Phoenix time) and started getting ready to head to the airport. About the time we decided to start taking all our luggage down to the car, it started to rain. We decided to wait a few minutes and see if it would let up. Unfortunately, it was no caribbean shower, it was a steady downpour that did not appear to have any end in sight. We had no choice but to head out into the rain.
We loaded our luggage into the car and headed to the car rental return. Of course that is all out in the open also. Since I was driving the “microcar,” I managed to find a place to park in a lake that had formed at the back of the packed parking lot. We unloaded all of our luggage into the rain and parked it in front of the return counter. The rental car building had a tiny overhang to get out of the rain. Unfortunately, that overhang turned out to be the hangout spot for every mosquito on the island that wanted to get out of the rain too. I decided I would rather stand in the downpour than get chewed up any more than I already was.
After we finally got the paperwork taken care of for our rental car, we each grabbed two pieces of luggage and started our run across the airport parking lot to check in for our flight. Once we made it across the parking lot, we encountered the very long check-in line for our flight. The Bonaire airport check-in counter area is all open air, so even though we managed to keep out of the rain, we still had to deal with more mosquitos. Many people in line decided to change and put on some dry clothes. We all looked like drown rats. The people who decided to change into dry clothes only stayed dry for a short time.
After a short wait in the terminal, they started to load passengers onto the plane. After the ticket agent took our boarding pass, we exited the building and went out onto the tarmac to make a mad dash to the airplane which was parked quite a ways out. Then we proceed up the stairs and into the plane. By this time everyone was sufficiently soaked again. Fortunately, almost every seat had a blanket and a pillow so everyone used their blanket to bundle up in to keep warm.
The rest of our trip home was thankfully uneventful. By the time we made it home we had finally dried out, but it was a different story for our luggage. When we got home and opened up our luggage everything was wet. Fortunately, we did not have anything that would be ruined by the water.
All in all, it was an excellent trip and of course it went by way too fast.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Bonaire October 2009, Day 5
Day 5, October 7, 2009.
Today we got up about 6:30 AM so we could have breakfast and get all our gear ready for our two-tank boat dive to Klein Bonaire. We got on the boat at Dive Friends at Port Bonaire and headed north to pick up two other groups of divers. Then we headed out to Klein Bonaire. The first dive was at Joanne's sunchi. Right after we got in the water a large eagle ray glided past above us. Unfortunately, it was too far away to get any good video or pictures. This dive we stayed with the group as they said there was a spot they usually saw a seahorse. We did get to see the seahorse, but it was in a very difficult spot for Eric to get any good pictures.
The second dive was at Leonora's reef. We decided to go off on our own on this dive. This was a much shallower dive for everyone and we too stayed pretty shallow and just poked around looking for small critters to photograph. We did not find anything too out of the ordinary. We did see a large approximately 4 foot long green moray and several other smaller spotted morays.
After the two dives everyone got dropped back off at their respective docks and we headed back to our hotel. We cleaned up a little and then headed downtown to get lunch. We decided to try Papagayo's restaurant which we had wanted to try last time we were in Bonaire, but at that time they were on holiday and were closed. I tried the chicken salad and Eric had nachos. I still think “Mandy's Place” has the best chicken salad I have ever had.
After lunch we decided to wander around downtown a little bit to get some exercise on land. Eric ended up buying a T-shirt and hat. I did not manage to find anything yet, but we will probably spend Friday shopping and sightseeing and doing some land photography since we won't be able to dive much before our flight early Saturday morning.
After our lunch-time excursion we headed back to the hotel and got our stuff ready to head out for a late evening dive off the pier. Since there were too many creepy critters around at night we decided it might be better to try a dive just before dark when we did not need our flashlights yet. This dive proved quite rewarding. Eric only took about 20 photos on this dive, but almost all of them came out good. A big bonus was we did not have to deal with all the creepy critters swarming our lights.
After our dive we headed back to our room and had some of our leftovers from Cactus Blue. Tomorrow I think we will sleep in and then maybe head down to the north end of the island again. We are thinking about doing Oil Slick Leap again as there was a lot of good stuff to photograph in the shallows there.
Today we got up about 6:30 AM so we could have breakfast and get all our gear ready for our two-tank boat dive to Klein Bonaire. We got on the boat at Dive Friends at Port Bonaire and headed north to pick up two other groups of divers. Then we headed out to Klein Bonaire. The first dive was at Joanne's sunchi. Right after we got in the water a large eagle ray glided past above us. Unfortunately, it was too far away to get any good video or pictures. This dive we stayed with the group as they said there was a spot they usually saw a seahorse. We did get to see the seahorse, but it was in a very difficult spot for Eric to get any good pictures.
The second dive was at Leonora's reef. We decided to go off on our own on this dive. This was a much shallower dive for everyone and we too stayed pretty shallow and just poked around looking for small critters to photograph. We did not find anything too out of the ordinary. We did see a large approximately 4 foot long green moray and several other smaller spotted morays.
After the two dives everyone got dropped back off at their respective docks and we headed back to our hotel. We cleaned up a little and then headed downtown to get lunch. We decided to try Papagayo's restaurant which we had wanted to try last time we were in Bonaire, but at that time they were on holiday and were closed. I tried the chicken salad and Eric had nachos. I still think “Mandy's Place” has the best chicken salad I have ever had.
After lunch we decided to wander around downtown a little bit to get some exercise on land. Eric ended up buying a T-shirt and hat. I did not manage to find anything yet, but we will probably spend Friday shopping and sightseeing and doing some land photography since we won't be able to dive much before our flight early Saturday morning.
After our lunch-time excursion we headed back to the hotel and got our stuff ready to head out for a late evening dive off the pier. Since there were too many creepy critters around at night we decided it might be better to try a dive just before dark when we did not need our flashlights yet. This dive proved quite rewarding. Eric only took about 20 photos on this dive, but almost all of them came out good. A big bonus was we did not have to deal with all the creepy critters swarming our lights.
After our dive we headed back to our room and had some of our leftovers from Cactus Blue. Tomorrow I think we will sleep in and then maybe head down to the north end of the island again. We are thinking about doing Oil Slick Leap again as there was a lot of good stuff to photograph in the shallows there.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Bonaire October '09 Days 1-4
Day 1 – Saturday, October 3, 2009.
After our red-eye flight, we made it to Bonaire around 5 a.m. Bonaire time (which would be 2 a.m. Phoenix time). We picked up our two bags (which thankfully both made it) and headed over to pick up our rental car. We got a teeny-tiny little Chevy Spark. Eric says he believes the wheels on his Vespa were bigger than the wheels on this car. It is a cute little car that is an orange-copper color. We can just fit four tanks and all our dive gear in it with the back seat folded down.
We drove down the road a ways to our hotel and after we got all our stuff up to the room we ended up crashing on the bed and sleeping for 4-5 hours. Since we needed some food to have for breakfast every morning we headed down to the Warehouse (one of the two main grocery stores on the island). Unfortunately, it seems everyone on the island goes to the grocery store on Saturday also. After making our way through the packed store, we checked out and made it back to our hotel.
Next we headed down to the dive shop to do our check-out dive and then came right back to the hotel to do our first dive off the pier (since we were all wet already). This dive gave us a good chance to both check out our cameras, Eric with his new digital SLR and me with our “old” digital camera. We got a few good pictures but it was mostly a learning experience for both of us. We actually did spot two different octopuses, but of course they were hiding pretty well. I think I have discovered I am better off just taking video for the most part.
After our dive we got cleaned up and headed out to find our first real meal since Houston the previous day. We ended up at one of the beach bars at Buddy Dive resort. We then headed back to our hotel very exhausted from a full day.
Day 2, Sunday, October 4, 2009.
We woke up fairly early. Eric looked out the window first thing and saw a “cruise ship” pulling in. We later found it was not a cruise ship but a ship belonging to Tom Cruise. Eric had some breakfast and went down to the pier to see if he could get some bird photos and also figure out our plan for the day, while I lounged in bed a bit longer. He was not gone long. It seems there were no birds to be found on or around the pier. Anyway, he had time to contemplate where he wanted to go, so we made plans to head to the north to two different dive sites, one called Oil Slick Leap and the other called Bari Reef.
We packed up the car with four fresh tanks and all our gear and headed north. We first went to Oil
Slick Leap. It used to be that the entry was via a giant stride into the water, but I guess the last hurricane that came through rearranged the landscape and made that type of entry much more difficult. Now most people use the very nice stairs to enter the water. As soon as you hit the water there is stuff to see. We did not see anything too out of the ordinary, but got some photos of a spotted drum and some blennies (the photos of the blennies are for the cats).
Then we got out of the water and decided to head to Bari Reef which is right next to the Sand Dollar. Again, nothing out of the ordinary as far as “wildlife” here, but we did see a large school of jacks. This was another nice dive, though. After our dive here we headed down to “Mandy's Place” as we call it. The actual name of the restaurant is El Mundo. I am convinced they have the best food on the island. I had a chicken salad sandwich, which I swear is the best chicken salad I have ever had anywhere, and Eric had the chicken sate.
After a fabulous lunch we headed back to our hotel to change out the batteries, etc. in our cameras and head out for yet another dive. We decided to make it easy on ourselves and just dive off the pier again. It was about 4 p.m. by the time we got in the water and I have never seen so many fish. There were school after school of different types of fish such as blue tangs and french grunts. We did a really long dive, about an hour and a half, and then headed back in.
After we rinsed all our gear off and got cleaned up we headed back down to Buddy Dive to the Lion's Den restaurant. We had eaten there last time we were here and the food was really good. It is a little expensive but most of the dishes make two to three meals. So now we have another two meals we can have in our hotel room (we have a fridge and a microwave, etc.). Tomorrow we have a dive planned on the east side, which from what we have heard offers the best chance to see large palagics such as rays, turtles, and possibly even sharks.
Day 3, Monday, October 5, 2009.
We woke up early this morning so we could eat breakfast and get our gear ready to head over to the east side for our scheduled boat dive with Bonaire East Coast Divers. Luckily the winds were relatively calm for Bonaire and thus the surf was relatively nonexistent. Yet, we were still diving out in the open water, so it was a tad choppy but nothing compared to usual. Our first dive was a bit disappointing. We were all geared up to see some large pelagics and only ended up seeing a hog fish. I think it was mainly because the seas were fairly calm that there was not much to see. Our next dive was a bit more interesting. We dove a place called The Hole. We saw some rays, at least 3-4 turtles, lots of tarpon, a huge green eel, several large schools of fish, and a lobster.
After our two boat dives we decided to eat at the Beach Hut next to Jibe City. The food was excellent and you can't beat the view. We sat and had lunch with our boat captains/dive masters and had a nice visit with them. We ended up being the only two people booked for the day, so our dives were like a private tour.
After lunch we headed back toward our hotel. Part way back I spotted a couple hawks that were diving into a shallow body of water to catch fish, so I pulled the car over and got some good video of them doing their dives. Further on down the road a ways we saw some wild goats and got a good picture of them. It was like we were on safari just heading back to our hotel.
Once we got back to our hotel we changed out batteries, etc., in the cameras. Then we headed down to the pier for another dive to check things out in advance of the night dive we were planning on doing later. We mostly stayed fairly shallow and found lots of good stuff to photograph. We found several eels, several types of shrimp, and several turtles.
After our dive we headed back to our room and had some of our leftovers from the Lion's Den restaurant. Then we geared up again and headed down to the dock and waited for it to get dark. After it had gotten sufficiently dark, we climbed into the water. Once we got in and got started on our dive our lights were overwhelmed by small critters, worms, fish, etc. We did not end up staying out very long as they were becoming very annoying bouncing off your hand/body and getting in your face. However, Eric did manage to get a couple good pictures while we were out. One picture was of a banded shrimp and another of a brittle star. Then the tarpon showed up to get an easy meal by having us point out fish with our dive lights. Eric decided he did not want to play God with the fish, so we headed back
Day 4, Tuesday, October 6, 2009.
Well today was a lazy day. We slept in and when we finally crawled out of bed we decided to drive into town to see if we could find a place to eat breakfast. We ended up doing a lot of driving around as the place we wanted to go to had no parking because the parking lot had been blocked off for celebrations going on this week in town and everyone had parked on the street. We drove through town and then came back and stopped at the Last Bite Bakery and got a couple cinnamon rolls. As we needed to go to the dive shop downtown we ended up parking by Cultimara grocery store and walking back into town.
As we were right by “Mandy's Place” we decided to have breakfast there and save our cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning. Eric tried the Dutch pancakes and I had the American Style pancakes. After our breakfast we headed across the street to the dive shop to buy a new compass as the one we had with us broke. Then we headed back to our hotel.
We decided to have some more of our leftovers from the Lion's Den restaurant for lunch and then headed out to the hotel pier for a dive. We found lots of small critters such as several types of shrimp, a small eel, and an arrow crab on our dive.
We were planning on coming back to the room and having a snack after our dive and then head out for another dive, but we got lazy and just decided to rest and pick out pictures to post on the blog site. We are planning on heading down to have dinner at Cactus Blue tonight. Tomorrow we have another boat dive planned—this time to Klein Bonaire.
After our red-eye flight, we made it to Bonaire around 5 a.m. Bonaire time (which would be 2 a.m. Phoenix time). We picked up our two bags (which thankfully both made it) and headed over to pick up our rental car. We got a teeny-tiny little Chevy Spark. Eric says he believes the wheels on his Vespa were bigger than the wheels on this car. It is a cute little car that is an orange-copper color. We can just fit four tanks and all our dive gear in it with the back seat folded down.
We drove down the road a ways to our hotel and after we got all our stuff up to the room we ended up crashing on the bed and sleeping for 4-5 hours. Since we needed some food to have for breakfast every morning we headed down to the Warehouse (one of the two main grocery stores on the island). Unfortunately, it seems everyone on the island goes to the grocery store on Saturday also. After making our way through the packed store, we checked out and made it back to our hotel.
Next we headed down to the dive shop to do our check-out dive and then came right back to the hotel to do our first dive off the pier (since we were all wet already). This dive gave us a good chance to both check out our cameras, Eric with his new digital SLR and me with our “old” digital camera. We got a few good pictures but it was mostly a learning experience for both of us. We actually did spot two different octopuses, but of course they were hiding pretty well. I think I have discovered I am better off just taking video for the most part.
After our dive we got cleaned up and headed out to find our first real meal since Houston the previous day. We ended up at one of the beach bars at Buddy Dive resort. We then headed back to our hotel very exhausted from a full day.
Day 2, Sunday, October 4, 2009.
We woke up fairly early. Eric looked out the window first thing and saw a “cruise ship” pulling in. We later found it was not a cruise ship but a ship belonging to Tom Cruise. Eric had some breakfast and went down to the pier to see if he could get some bird photos and also figure out our plan for the day, while I lounged in bed a bit longer. He was not gone long. It seems there were no birds to be found on or around the pier. Anyway, he had time to contemplate where he wanted to go, so we made plans to head to the north to two different dive sites, one called Oil Slick Leap and the other called Bari Reef.
We packed up the car with four fresh tanks and all our gear and headed north. We first went to Oil
Slick Leap. It used to be that the entry was via a giant stride into the water, but I guess the last hurricane that came through rearranged the landscape and made that type of entry much more difficult. Now most people use the very nice stairs to enter the water. As soon as you hit the water there is stuff to see. We did not see anything too out of the ordinary, but got some photos of a spotted drum and some blennies (the photos of the blennies are for the cats).
Then we got out of the water and decided to head to Bari Reef which is right next to the Sand Dollar. Again, nothing out of the ordinary as far as “wildlife” here, but we did see a large school of jacks. This was another nice dive, though. After our dive here we headed down to “Mandy's Place” as we call it. The actual name of the restaurant is El Mundo. I am convinced they have the best food on the island. I had a chicken salad sandwich, which I swear is the best chicken salad I have ever had anywhere, and Eric had the chicken sate.
After a fabulous lunch we headed back to our hotel to change out the batteries, etc. in our cameras and head out for yet another dive. We decided to make it easy on ourselves and just dive off the pier again. It was about 4 p.m. by the time we got in the water and I have never seen so many fish. There were school after school of different types of fish such as blue tangs and french grunts. We did a really long dive, about an hour and a half, and then headed back in.
After we rinsed all our gear off and got cleaned up we headed back down to Buddy Dive to the Lion's Den restaurant. We had eaten there last time we were here and the food was really good. It is a little expensive but most of the dishes make two to three meals. So now we have another two meals we can have in our hotel room (we have a fridge and a microwave, etc.). Tomorrow we have a dive planned on the east side, which from what we have heard offers the best chance to see large palagics such as rays, turtles, and possibly even sharks.
Day 3, Monday, October 5, 2009.
We woke up early this morning so we could eat breakfast and get our gear ready to head over to the east side for our scheduled boat dive with Bonaire East Coast Divers. Luckily the winds were relatively calm for Bonaire and thus the surf was relatively nonexistent. Yet, we were still diving out in the open water, so it was a tad choppy but nothing compared to usual. Our first dive was a bit disappointing. We were all geared up to see some large pelagics and only ended up seeing a hog fish. I think it was mainly because the seas were fairly calm that there was not much to see. Our next dive was a bit more interesting. We dove a place called The Hole. We saw some rays, at least 3-4 turtles, lots of tarpon, a huge green eel, several large schools of fish, and a lobster.
After our two boat dives we decided to eat at the Beach Hut next to Jibe City. The food was excellent and you can't beat the view. We sat and had lunch with our boat captains/dive masters and had a nice visit with them. We ended up being the only two people booked for the day, so our dives were like a private tour.
After lunch we headed back toward our hotel. Part way back I spotted a couple hawks that were diving into a shallow body of water to catch fish, so I pulled the car over and got some good video of them doing their dives. Further on down the road a ways we saw some wild goats and got a good picture of them. It was like we were on safari just heading back to our hotel.
Once we got back to our hotel we changed out batteries, etc., in the cameras. Then we headed down to the pier for another dive to check things out in advance of the night dive we were planning on doing later. We mostly stayed fairly shallow and found lots of good stuff to photograph. We found several eels, several types of shrimp, and several turtles.
After our dive we headed back to our room and had some of our leftovers from the Lion's Den restaurant. Then we geared up again and headed down to the dock and waited for it to get dark. After it had gotten sufficiently dark, we climbed into the water. Once we got in and got started on our dive our lights were overwhelmed by small critters, worms, fish, etc. We did not end up staying out very long as they were becoming very annoying bouncing off your hand/body and getting in your face. However, Eric did manage to get a couple good pictures while we were out. One picture was of a banded shrimp and another of a brittle star. Then the tarpon showed up to get an easy meal by having us point out fish with our dive lights. Eric decided he did not want to play God with the fish, so we headed back
Day 4, Tuesday, October 6, 2009.
Well today was a lazy day. We slept in and when we finally crawled out of bed we decided to drive into town to see if we could find a place to eat breakfast. We ended up doing a lot of driving around as the place we wanted to go to had no parking because the parking lot had been blocked off for celebrations going on this week in town and everyone had parked on the street. We drove through town and then came back and stopped at the Last Bite Bakery and got a couple cinnamon rolls. As we needed to go to the dive shop downtown we ended up parking by Cultimara grocery store and walking back into town.
As we were right by “Mandy's Place” we decided to have breakfast there and save our cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning. Eric tried the Dutch pancakes and I had the American Style pancakes. After our breakfast we headed across the street to the dive shop to buy a new compass as the one we had with us broke. Then we headed back to our hotel.
We decided to have some more of our leftovers from the Lion's Den restaurant for lunch and then headed out to the hotel pier for a dive. We found lots of small critters such as several types of shrimp, a small eel, and an arrow crab on our dive.
We were planning on coming back to the room and having a snack after our dive and then head out for another dive, but we got lazy and just decided to rest and pick out pictures to post on the blog site. We are planning on heading down to have dinner at Cactus Blue tonight. Tomorrow we have another boat dive planned—this time to Klein Bonaire.
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