Palau October 2012 Day 6

10/20/12

It is sad to say but today was our last day of diving.  It is amazing how fast time passes when you are on vacation.  We met up at the boat at 7:55 a.m. to get an early start to head out to Ulong Channel again.  I was hoping the visibility and current would be good again so I could get some video here after the mishap with the camera.  Unfortunately, the visibility was not as good and the sharks were not hanging out where they were last time.  Instead of drifting down the channel, we criss-crossed back and forth along the wall and found a large school of jacks and also a group of sharks that were hunting some small schools of scads.  Because we did not go down the channel I did not get any video of the large lettuce leaf coral formation.  

We slowly motored to our next dive site, Saies Corner, which is a corner similar to Blue Corner where they can get some really good currents flowing.  After our surface interval we all back-rolled in and dropped down.  Again, there was not really much current here either.  We were told that the currents really have not picked up here yet because the winds have not changed direction for the season.  We did see a few bumphead parrotfish, a gigantic puffer fish, and lots and lots of sharks circling around in what current there was--of course they were just a little to far out of range to get any really good video or pictures of, but they were amazing just to watch.

We then had lunch on the boat as we slowly made our way to our third and final dive of the day and of the trip, a site that is not really known about by many people and is not a regular dive site.  This is the site of a Japanese Zero from World War II that was discovered by Mandy in the 1980s and Eric’s dad became involved in an effort to raise and restore the plane to be displayed as a museum piece in Arizona.  The plane is pretty much intact laying upside down in the sand at about 50-60 feet.  The day before Shallum had mentioned to Eric that he now had the GPS coordinates to its location.  Eric and I and Fabio had attempted to find the site when we were here in 2010 to no avail.  Back then Fabio, Eric and I swam around for about an hour in a horrible current and extremely bad visibility and never did find the plan.  

Since Shallum had the GPS coordinates he sent a boat out and placed a buoy at the site so that we could find it.  Once we reached the site Eric gave everyone some history on the site and then Eric and I dropped down first to get some pictures and video before everyone else got there.  Everyone really enjoyed seeing the plane and knowing some of the recent history behind it.  Eric and I stayed behind after everyone went up and got more photos and video.  

Unfortunately, this was the end of the diving portion of our trip.  Tomorrow we have a free day for everyone to do whatever they would like to do.  I think some people are going to go watch the boat races, some people are just going to hang out and relax, and at least one person was going to go do a kayak tour of the islands.  We were very fortunate on this trip to have such wonderful people to dive with and wonderful weather to do it in.

Palau October 2012 Day 5

10/19/12

We all made it to the boat around 8 a.m. to set out a little early to see if we could hit the current right at Ulong Channel.  I think this is one of the prettier dives here in Palau, but like I said before, they are all pretty.  This dive can vary greatly depending on the current.  If there is a really strong current this dive can be a pretty wild ride.  Today we dove when the current was in its change-over from incoming to outgoing.  

The water was extremely clear and the current was very mild.  There were quite a few sharks at the beginning of the dive on the outside of the channel and quite a few people got some good photos and video.  Jody got some really close up video of a shark that swam right toward her.  She is becoming quite the shark enthusiast.  Unfortunately, I did not get any video on this dive because when my camera got installed in the housing Eric did not notice that the silica packet was in front of the lens.  This is unfortunate because I could have gotten some awesome shark video.  

Even thought the current was pretty slack we did manage to make it to the huge wall of lettuce leaf coral.  This is one of the most amazing underwater formations of coral I know I have ever seen.  I think everyone else that had not seen it before was pretty much in awe also.  Eric and I like to call it the giant fish condo.  We ended this dive right after the two giant clams that can be found fairly shallow on the reef.  

For our surface interval our boat captain took us over to Ulong Island (the Island where Survivor Palau took place).  This is a beautiful island with a very large incredibly soft white sand beach.  We spend about half an hour here wandering around checking out the island.  Fabio took some group photos of us on the beach.  

Then we headed out for a dive spot called Sandy Paradise.  This is a very pretty dive with tons of beautiful coral of all different colors and a nice sandy bottom where you can sometimes see white tip sharks resting and sting rays in the sand, etc.  Fabio took some group photos of us underwater here.  We saw another crocodile fish on this dive and the usual school of big eye snapper that hangs out here.  

After we surfaced we had lunch on the boat and slowly headed for our final dive site of the day--Chandelier Cave.  This is an amazing four-chambered underwater cave.  The first chamber has a really amazing formation hanging down from the ceiling, thus the name Chandelier Cave.  Everyone had fun checking out the different chambers.  We then turned off all our lights and exited the cave simply following the glow of sunlight coming from the exit hole.  It was really neat seeing everyone’s silhouettes as they exited the cave.

After we exited the cave we found the resident group of razor fish that hang out there and then spent some time trying to see if we could get some photos/video of the mandarin fish that live in the coral head just outside the cave.  I spent quite a bit of time there and finally got some good video of the male (probably the best video I have gotten to date of a mandarin fish).  They are extremely hard to get pictures or video of because they tend to dart in and out of the swiss-cheese like coral head that they live in.  They generally only come out of their coral head to mate every evening.  This is an amazing site to see if you ever get the chance.  Just after sunset (every evening) the male and female will rise together above the coral and in a split second they mate and dart back down into the coral.  We actually got an opportunity to witness this on our trip to the Philippines earlier this year.  It was pretty amazing.  

I also got some good video of a really cute big eyed goby or blennie type fish that was living in a coral head just next to where the mandarin fish were living.  After that we surfaced for the short boat ride back to the dive shop.  We all got cleaned up and several people met us in our room for drinks and snacks and to swap and look at photos before we met up with Fabio in the lobby at 6:30 to head to dinner.  We decided just to go back over to the Drop Off because it is so handy to the hotel, the food is good, and they have free internet.

Palau October 2012 Day 4

10/18/12

We met up at the boat again around 8:15 this morning.  Our first dive site of the day was  the Iro Miru, a large Japanese freighter hauling gas and supplies that was blown up in World War II.  A lot of the guys in the group wanted to dive a wreck and this is one of the best ones in the area to dive.  Visibility was actually pretty good today for this particular site.  We started at the bow and made our way down the top of the ship, swimming through the engine room and the crane operators room, etc.  There are tons of coral and clams and anemones covering the surface of the ship after all these years.  

Our next dive site was Ngerchong inside.  This was a very nice, easy, fairly shallow dive with very little current and lots of little critters.  There was a large coral head with glass fish and an eel living underneath.  There were also cleaner shrimp, garden eels, gobies, etc., but the highlight of the dive were the cuttlefish.  I took a lot of video and Eric got some really good pictures.  They make nice subjects because they usually stay in one spot.  

After our dive we got back on the boat and headed to a nice sandy beach for lunch.  We spent quite a bit of time hanging out after lunch, waiting for the current to be right so we could go and dive German Channel again.  When conditions looked good we headed out for German Channel.  We ended up diving between the change of the currents, which was not great but gave us a fair chance of seeing something good.  We actually did end up seeing a one manta and there were tons of schooling fish and of course sharks.  

After this dive we headed back to the dive shop/hotel.  We all got cleaned up and then met up over at The Drop Off for dinner and so everyone could compare and share their photos from the day.  Several people were pretty tired so they headed off to bed early.  We are meeting at 8 a.m. tomorrow so we can see if we can hit the current right at Ulong Channel.

Palau October 2012 Day 3

10/17/12

After another good breakfast at the buffet here at the hotel we all met up at 8:45 at the boat for our first dive of the day--the nautilus dive.  Fabio had gone out the night before and set the traps to catch the Nautilus.  Apparently these prehistoric creatures have a taste for chicken, who knew.  He then went out about 6 a.m. to see how many took the bait.  They caught 10 nautilus, which worked out great because we had 10 divers so each diver got their own nautilus to hold and photograph.  

We took the nautilus out into the open water to take photographs, etc. to keep them away from any fish that might try and attack them on the reef.  After we all got our pictures of our individual nautilus’ we then gave them back to Fabio to put in his mesh bag.  We then swam along the reef at Short Drop Off for a while and then toward the end of our dive we swam back out into the open water and Fabio released all the nautilus together to let them make their way back to their home in the deep ocean.  Typically Nautilus live in deep water around 600-800 feet deep.  They generally only come up a bit shallower at night to feed and mate.  It was an awesome experience to be able to see such amazing creatures that have been around since prehistoric times.  

We then took another amazing boat ride to our next destination--Blue Holes.  Unfortunately the current and surge here were pretty intense so we were not able to drop down into the holes from the top, but instead we entered through the widow on the side of the reef.  It was still a really cool experience for everyone.  Then we swam out another of the windows on the side of the reef and swam along the reef down toward the Blue Corner area.  This is a really beautiful wall, but then again all the walls in Palau are beautiful.  There are fish everywhere you look.  Towards the end of the dive a large Napoleon wrasse circled Eric begging for his picture to be taken.  Then the wrasse spotted some other people and headed toward them to get his picture taken.  The fish here are so used to divers they have no fear of having their picture taken.

For lunch we ended up anchoring in a very shallow channel.  The view was spectacular, but then again pretty much every view in Palau is spectacular.  We enjoyed our lunch and some good conversation and then headed toward our final dive site of the day, New Drop Off.  The current was pretty strong here as well and we ended up hooking in at the corner of the reef and several people got some really good shark photos as they were coming in pretty close to the reef.  We stayed hooked in for about 30 minutes and then we headed on down the reef.  We also saw a very pretty turtle and another large group of fish. 

Ricky, our boat captain then took us for an amazing ride back through the islands to the dive shop.  Jody and I had fun riding on the very front of the boat, enjoying the wind in our hair and the amazing views.  

Palau October 2012 Day 2

10/16/12

After a very filling breakfast at the buffet here at the hotel we all met up at the dive shop at around 8:15 for our first day of diving.  After everyone made sure they had all their gear we headed out for our first dive--coral garden.  This was a good easy dive that gave everyone a chance to test out their camera gear, make sure they were weighted properly and make sure everything was working properly, etc.  This was a very beautiful and easy dive.

After everyone climbed out we headed toward our the next dive site--the famous Blue Corner--one of the top dive sites here in Palau.  On our way to the dive site we came across a large pod of very playful dolphins.  Our boat Captain, Ricky, ran the boat around and around so that we could get the dolphins to bow surf and jump for us.  It was really great.  The dolphins were having a lot of fun playing.  Several people got some really good video.  

Then we made our way to Blue Corner.  After Fabio, our guide, checked the current we proceeded to get in.  The current was not overly strong but we had a lot of surge so it probably was not the best day to hook in at the corner, but Fabio had fun watching us all sway back and forth and try and hang on.  We did see quite a few sharks and several schools of different types of barracuda and MANY large Napoleon wrasse.  At the end of the dive we came across several really big Napoleon wrasse and three or four white tips hunting something in a coral head.  The white tips were going in and out of the rock and the wrasse were chomping down on stuff.  It was a real feeding frenzy.  Everyone really enjoyed watching the whole scene unfold.  

Unfortunately, that was the climax of our dive at Blue Corner and it was time to get out.  We then head to a nice white sand beach to have our lunch.  After lunch then we headed to German Channel to see if we could find some mantas.  We were told when we arrived that the mantas have been pretty scarce so far this season, but they should start coming in right about now.  After we all got in the water and dropped down we got really lucky and Fabio pointed out a young manta that ended up swimming around us.  We also saw several types of tuna and some other large schools of fish.  Everyone was just amazed at the numbers of fish everywhere.  Unfortunately, we had to get out eventually and then we headed back to the dive shop.

We made plans with Fabio to join us for dinner at The Taj.  Fabio called the owner of the restaurant and had him send a van to pick us all up.  We had heard a lot about Taj when we were here before but never went.  We were not disappointed.  The food was amazing and everyone had a great time.  Several people wanted to go back again tomorrow night.  By the time we all got back to the hotel I think most everyone was exhausted and went straight to bed.  Tomorrow we are doing our Nautilus dive, so it should be really fun.

Palau October 2012 Day 1

10/15/12

We made the long journey to Palau just fine.  All our flights were pretty smooth and uneventful.  Jordan, Eric, Tim, Jody and I were on the flight from Phoenix to San Francisco and then San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.  When we got to Hawaii we were joined by Jared.  So then it was six of us on the flight from Hawaii to Guam and Guam to Palau.  We got to Palau about 8:30 p.m. and Neco Marine picked us up at the airport and took us to the Sea Passion Hotel.  We all got settled in our rooms and climbed into bed.  I think we were all pretty tired by this time.  Jeff and Vicki arrived about 2 a.m. and then Matt and Scott arrived about 4 a.m.

We had plans to do a snorkel/jellyfish lake tour the next morning at around 11:00.  We planned it for later in the morning to give the people that arrived late a little bit of time to sleep.  So around 10:30 the dive shop showed up to pick all of us up and haul all our gear over for the week of diving.  

Then we headed to jellyfish lake.  Everyone really enjoyed swimming with the jellyfish.  Everyone was amazed at how soft and delicate the jellyfish were.  After we left jellyfish lake we headed to a nice beach to have lunch.  After that we snorkeled a spot nearby that had quite few giant clams.  

Our final stop we snorkeled along a shallow reef area.  The current was really moving so everyone got to experience a nice current.  Several people in our group got to see a couple black tip reef sharks.  There were also quite a few fish feeding because of the strong current.  

We were all kind of tired after that so we decided to head back to the dive shop and call it a day.  After we took our stuff back to our room we decided to go down the road to the supermarket and stock up on beer, soda, and of course mango juice.  

After everyone got cleaned up, a couple people had appointments for Thai massages, some people started drinking, and others started looking through their pictures and video from today.  We all had plans to meet Fabio for dinner at The Drop Off.  After everyone had a nice dinner we were pretty tired and called it a night.  We have plans to meet at the dive shop to head out at 8:15 tomorrow morning for our first day of diving.

Bonaire July 2012 Day 9

Saturday, July 7, 2012

We got up about 5 a.m. to get ready to take Tim to the airport this morning for his 7 a.m. flight back to Houston and then to Phoenix. We dropped Tim off close to 6 a.m. and headed back to the hotel to do another dive (our last dive of the trip). I fixed omelets for Jody and I and then we all headed down to dive off the pier here at the hotel. It just was not he same without Tim along, though.

Not too long after we dropped in we all looked up to see a HUGE and I mean HUGE school of fish. This thing could have blocked out the sun. Eric and I have never seen a school of fish this large here in Bonaire ever before. I got some video of it and I think Eric got some good pictures. We swam along with it for a little while as they were not moving too fast and then in a split second they moved on. We were out for about 45 minutes to an hour and did not see anything else super exciting, but it is pretty hard to beat the huge school of fish. The visibility was probably the worst we have seen it this trip too.

After our dive we got busy rinsing all our equipment and clothing off really good so we could get stuff hung out to dry before packing it up this evening. After we all took a shower then we were ready to head out for our day of sightseeing. As per our usual Bonaire routine we went to the Donkey sanctuary first and drove through and petted a bunch of the donkeys. This time we decided to buy a bag of carrots to feed them too. Jody learned one thing, you don’t get out of the car with a bag of carrots. We all had to make a mad dash to get back in the car before we were trampled alive.

Then we headed over to Lac Bay for lunch and sat and watched the wind surfers. After our relaxing lunch at Lac Bay we then headed down the road that goes around the southeast end of the island. We got really lucky on our drive around here as we spotted some flamingos that were actually fairly close in so we pulled over to take some photos. Right after we pulled over another large flock of flamingos came flying in and landed with the group that we had originally spotted. It was really pretty seeing a large group of them airborne and then landing. I think Eric got some photos, but unfortunately I did not have my video camera out and ready or I could have gotten some awesome video.

We continued our tour on around the south end and got some pictures of the slave huts at White Slave. On our way toward downtown we dropped off the tanks that we had left in the car and then headed for downtown so Jody could see if she could find a souvenir Bonaire shirt. Since there was no parking close we dropped Jody off to shop while we went on down the road to Yellow Submarine to settle up our bill there and return our weights.

We then came back to the downtown area to pick up Jody and we found a parking spot so we ended up going into the dive shop downtown and buying a couple more things. At this point we were all pretty tired and decided instead of driving up North and doing the loop around the island up there that we would just head back to the hotel and get started on the packing. We had done a couple dives up that way already so Jody pretty much got the tour of the North end of the island already when we did those dives.

We made our way back to the hotel and Eric started the packing process while Jody laid down to have a nap and I typed up my blog. After Jody got up from her nap and we had finished most of our packing we had dinner here in the room. We had the large salad left over from Pasa Bon Pizza, some cardboard style dutch crackers with cheddar cheese, some white chocolate ice cream bars and what was left of the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I made and brought.

Bonaire July 2012 Day 8

Friday, July 6, 2012

We all got up about 7 a.m. this morning and lounged around for a while. Today was Tim’s last full day on the island and his non-dive day so I drove him down to the Plaza Hotel to rent a scooter for the day. After he picked up his scooter he came back to the hotel to see where we were headed for the day. We decided we would do our first two dives down south.

First we headed for The Rock since we liked this dive site and it had a very easy beach entry. Tim decided he was going to scoot around the island and he might meet up with us at one of our dive sites. We dove The Rock and had a nice dive but did not see anything too interesting. Jody had a real work-out during this dive though. A four pound weight fell out of her pocket when she was putting on her BCD and none of us knew about it. She could not figure out why she was having such a hard time staying down during the dive, especially toward the end. I ended up giving her a two pound weight out of my weight belt and then she was okay.

As we popped our heads up at the end of the dive there was Tim waiting for us. He helped us load all our gear and then followed us to the next dive site, Bachelor beach. He saw us off for our dive. We were on a mission to find the tiny blenny that we had seen the other day. We actually did find the same blenny and Eric ended up finding a couple more too. I also saw two scorpionfish. Jody spotted a juvenile trunkfish and also a really large crab who was hiding in a hole.

We completed our dive and packed up the car and by this time Tim showed up on his scooter. Jody decided to ride back to the hotel with Tim on the scooter. So Eric and I followed them back to the hotel. Those of us who had been diving got cleaned up and then we all went to the dive shop to get some tanks so Jody, Eric, and I could do a morning dive tomorrow. Tomorrow morning will be our last dive of the trip.

Tim had the idea for all of us to do lunch over at Lac Bay. So Tim joined us in the car and we headed across the island to Lac Bay. This is the large bay where they do all the wind surfing. They have a very nice beach cafe there where you can sit and watch the wind surfers. Since it was rather late in the day and we had not had anything substantial to eat yet today we decided to make this our main meal of the day. We all had panninis and we had a couple orders of fries and a couple orders of tortilla chip nachos. Everyone else had their beers and I had a mango smoothie and a pina colada smoothie and boy were they good (much better than beer in my opinion).

After our meal we wandered around on the beach for a bit and we looked into what it would cost to rent sailboards and take lessons (Jody thought she might be interesting in trying it). After that we headed back to the hotel to drop Tim off so he could return his scooter. Jody decided she wanted to ride with Tim to return the scooter, so we let them get about a 15 minute head start since the scooter only went about 30 mph at full throttle.

We picked them up at the Plaza Hotel after they gassed up and dropped off the scooter. Then we all ran to the grocery store to get some more beer and sodas and most importantly some chocolate covered ice cream bars.

We ran our ice cream bars back to the hotel and put everything in the freezer. Then we watched a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory and played some Uno (I creamed everyone again). We all headed off to bed then since we had to get up early to take Tim to the airport tomorrow morning.

Bonaire July 2012 Day 7

Thursday, July 5, 2012

We had made plans last night to get up and leave a little after 8 a.m. this morning to go to the dive shop (they open at 8 a.m.) and get tanks for our first two dives of the day. Then we were going to stop and get breakfast at El Mundo on the way through town since we were heading up north to do our two dives, one at 1000 Steps and the other at Karpata.

I think we got out of the hotel about 8:30 or so -- it is hard to get us all moving when we have adjusted to island time. Then we stopped downtown at El Mundo and had breakfast. Tim had a Dutch pancake with apple and the rest of us had American style pancakes. After stuffing ourselves, we headed on down the road to our first dive site, 1000 Steps.

This dive site has a bunch of steps to get down the side of the cliff to the dive site (like 60-70, just feels like 1000). Tim was nice enough to carry my stuff down and up for me since I did not want to aggravate my back. It is great having Tim along--he is our little pack mule. He has way too much energy!!! Jody managed to carry all her own gear down and back up--what a trooper. Of course we had to listen to her whine about any other steps we had to do the rest of the day...

We had a nice dive here. I got some really good footage of a giant lobster that decided to come out and wander all around the reef trying to find a new den--or at least that is what I assume it was doing. I have never seen a lobster do that ever before. Usually once they are spotted they back into their den and you don’t see much of them. We had a lot of things that were out of the ordinary today, though.

After we hiked back up the hill and loaded the car we headed down the road a little ways to our next dive site, Karpata. By the time we got there we still had about 30 minutes left on our surface interval so we watched some other people getting in the water to see how they did it. This entry was a little more challenging and there were some pretty good waves coming in.

As we were getting our gear ready there were a bunch of Iguana’s congregating around us. I think people must feed them at this dive site and they must have thought Tim had some food. Tim was not paying attention and two of them started running toward him and when he looked up they scared the crap out of him. I don’t know who was more surprised, Tim or the iguanas.

After our laugh at Tim’s expense we all headed down to the water to get in. It was a little challenging with the waves that were coming in, but we managed to get in with not too much trouble. Right after we got in we saw a big school of blue tang and a really big parrotfish swimming along with them. We saw a couple more lobsters, but nothing overly exciting until the end of the dive. At the end of the dive I was trying to get some more footage of the giant parrotfish when Tim used his noise maker to get my attention. I thought to myself this had better be good. I looked toward him and he pointed to an octopus that was out of its hole swimming around.

I swam over to it faster than you can believe. I got quite a bit of footage of this octopus. He was swimming, changing color and too busy hunting to worry about me taking video of him. It was amazing.

That was definitely the highlight of today’s dives and probably the trip. After we managed to get out -- some of us not as gracefully as others, we hiked back up the hill and loaded the car to head back to the hotel to have some lunch. We had left over pizza so that made lunch very fast and easy. As soon as we had some pizza we loaded up the car again to head down the road just a short bit to do our third dive at Bachelor’s Beach.

This is a nice sandy entry here so it make it a little easier to get in. We swam out a ways and took a group picture and then continued on with our dive. We saw a scorpionfish, at least two octopus, a very photogenic angelfish, a tiny and I mean tiny goby, and a couple snake eels out hunting.

Eric and Tim decided they were going to do a night dive too, so we came back to the hotel and they had a little snack before they headed down to the hotel pier to do a night dive. Jody and I decided we were tired and stayed behind in the room. The guys said their night dive was really cool. They said they turned off their lights a couple times and it was the best light show they had ever seen before--the bioluminescence. After the guys got done with their night dive they were pretty hungry so they came back to the room and we all had some more left over pizza before we headed off to bed after a tiring but fun day.

Bonaire July 2012 Day 6

Wednesday, July 4, 2012.

I think we were all on Bonaire time today. We all had breakfast this morning and then decided what the plan was for diving. We decided we would head back down south and dive White Slave and then Invisibles. We got to the White Slave dive site and there was no one there. We thought it would be a good day to try diving this site as it can have some pretty good current and today didn’t seem to be as windy as other days, thus we thought it might make it an easier entry with less wave action.

There was not much current when we got in and we swam out a ways before we dropped down. Right after we started going down I looked beneath me and there was a spotted eagle ray feeding in the sand. Right after everyone had seen him he quickly swam off. I did not get any video and Eric didn’t get any pictures either. We had a nice dive but towards the latter part of the dive the current started ripping. It was all we could do to swim and stay in place, so we headed back for the shore. Unfortunately, we had to fight the current all the way back in to shore. We definitely all burned some calories on this dive.

By the time we got to Invisibles we still had about a half hour left to complete our surface interval before we could get in the water again, so we watched all the other divers coming and going. When we had completed our hour surface interval we gathered all our gear and jumped in the water. There was much less current at this site, thankfully. There were a lot of fish at this dive site and it was a very nice dive.

We all had a good laugh and Jody put on quite a show for everyone when she went to get out of the water. She had all her gear on and fell down and could not get up and was being washed around like a beached whale--I didn’t laugh quite as hard about this as everywhere else as I have been in this situation before. After we hoisted Jody out of the water we all got out and loaded up the car.

By the time we completed these two dives it was definitely lunch time, so we headed back to the hotel to drop off all our gear and get cleaned up a bit to head out and find some lunch. Jody was craving a burger, so we decided to go back to El Mundo since they have just about everything on the menu and their food is really good. So we drove downtown and had lunch at El Mundo and then after lunch we stopped by the dive shop and picked up four new tanks so we could do a dive off the pier at the hotel when we got back.

At about 4 p.m. we headed downstairs to dive off the pier here at the hotel. I decided to get some over-under shots of Jody, Tim, and Eric doing a giant stride off the hotel pier into the water. Then after some above water picture taking we got ready to drop down. Tim stuck his head under the water and looked down and spotted a giant ray. We all threw our heads into the water to see a GIANT spotted eagle ray who had obviously spotted us too and was taking off in a hurry. Of course Eric and I attempted to chase it down to get some pictures or video--which was a losing proposition.

We watched the ray swim off into the blue and continued on with our dive. It was a nice dive but we did not see anything else super spectacular.

We finished our dive and decided it was time to hunt down dinner. Tim had not been to Pasa Bon Pizza yet as we went the day before he got here, so we decided to go back there again. Their food is so good. We stuffed ourselves and then headed back to the hotel with leftovers for tomorrow. We decided we were going to get up early tomorrow morning so everyone pretty much headed off to bed as soon as we got back to the hotel.

Bonaire July 2012 Day 5

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Eric and I slept in until about 7 o’clock and Jody got up about 6 a.m. or so. After everyone was up we all had some breakfast and finalized our plan for today. For our first dive we decided to head up North to the dive site called the Cliff, which is at Dive Friends Hamlet location. We had been told that there was a frog fish at this dive site that we could get very good directions to find.

So we loaded up the car and headed in that direction. This time we only got out of the parking lot before we remembered Jody’s weights, so we just made a U-turn to come back and get them. Then we got to the dive site and I remembered I had forgotten my long sleeve rash guard top. So I dove sleeveless today.

We got directions from the staff at the Hamlet Dive shop and headed out in search of the frog fish. We made a beeline for the area where the frog fish was supposedly located and actually were able to find it. I got some video of it, which no one will probably be able to figure out because frog fish sit perfectly still. Eric hopefully got some good pictures of it. As I was trying to get some video of it I accidentally bumped a small bit of fire coral on my wrist. So now I have experienced fire coral for the first time. You definitely know when you have hit something, but it was not terribly painful. After a short bit it was like nothing had even happened. However, it is not something I would want to do repeatedly.

We also saw a really friendly turtle on this dive and this time my video camera was working, unlike the first day. I got some really good video of the turtle going to town munching on some algae. I also got some good footage of a couple midnight parrotfish and a very large barracuda. That dive lasted a little over an hour and everyone really enjoyed that location. This location is probably one of the few in Bonaire that actually has a small wall.

We got out and rinsed all our gear off and got eight new tanks and then we all got some sodas and sat in the shade and chatted with the lady working at the Hamlet. Then we all loaded back in the van and headed down the road to our next diving destination, Oil Slick Leap.

Tim decided he wanted to do a giant stride off the cliff edge into the water at Oil Slick Leap and Jody decided she wanted to try it too, so I videotaped all three of them doing a giant stride into the water. Then I got in and we started our dive. We saw a couple schools of blue tang, gray angelfish, arrow crabs, a spotted drum, and another very large midnight blue parrotfish just to name a few things.

After that dive we were all pretty hungry so we loaded up the car and headed back to the hotel to rinse off and get a bite to eat. We still had pizza left over so we had pizza and snacked on whatever we could find lying around and then watched some of my video from today to see what kind of footage I had gotten. After that Tim and Eric decided they were going to do another dive off the pier here at the hotel to see if they could find the octopus Tim had spotted on the night dive last night.

Tim wanted to do a giant stride off the end of the pier and Eric told him he would do it too, so I went down and videotaped them both doing their giant stride into the water. The large resident iguana that hangs around here was down on the pier sunning himself, so of course I had to get some video of him too. Jody has named him Henry Jones, III.

Tim and Eric had a good dive. They saw the octopus again and a very large flounder, a super-size barracuda, and some fire worms, etc. As they came back in from their dive I got some video of them coming up the ladder. I also got some footage of the KLM flight coming in for a landing.

After they both got cleaned up we were all hungry so we decided to head downtown for dinner to another one of the restaurants we really like, El Mundo. We sat outside and enjoyed the full moon and the beautiful Bonaire breeze. Jody and I had the crab salad sandwich, Tim had the tuna salad sandwich, and Eric had the chicken satay in peanut sauce. The food there is really fresh and they make everything from scratch, even their bread. Everything tasted sooooo good.

After dinner we walked down the street to the Gelato shop and we all had some super good gelato. Then we walked back to the car and drove back to the hotel. Tim was pretty tired so he headed to bed and Eric and Jody and I played a couple rounds of Uno. Of course I won...Jody said she was just tired or she would have smeared my ass...

Bonaire July 2012 Day 4

Monday, July 2, 2012

Since there was really no reason to get up early today, Eric and I slept in until a little after 7 o’clock. According to Tim, Jody was up about 3 or 4 a.m. After we were all up and somewhat awake we sat around and relaxed and decided what the plan was going to be for today. I made Jody and Tim and myself cheese omelets and after we got done with breakfast we all got our swim suits on to head out for the first dive of the day.

We had decided that we would do the Hilma Hooker first and then a new dive site we had not done yet called The Rock. So we got to the Hilma Hooker and got all our gear ready to get in. Jody went ahead and got in the water and took my video camera and then Tim got in the water and Eric carried my equipment down and put it in the water so Tim could hang onto it. At that point we realized that neither Eric or I had our masks. So Tim and Jody stayed in the water and waited while Eric and I ran back to the hotel to get our masks. We zipped back as quickly as we could and then got in the water.

Our little mask issue actually worked out for the better. By the time we were ready to get in the water and go down for our dive all the other people were gone and we were the only ones there. When we had first arrived there were actually quite a few shore divers there and two dive boats from different dive shops. So it was rather nice having the whole dive site to ourselves.

There were quite a few barracuda hanging around the Hilma Hooker and we also found one tarpon hanging out down in the shadows of the boat. We also saw a couple eels on the swim back in over the reef. Tim and Jody both really enjoyed the dive. This was Jody’s first wreck dive.

After that we headed back to the hotel to get some more mask drops and then headed back down the road to just past the Hilma Hooker to our next dive site, The Rock. This is actually an unmarked dive site just the other side of the Invisibles dive site. This has to be one of the easiest entry and exits for a dive site of any we have done here on Bonaire. It was a beautiful sandy section of beach where you just walk right in--no scrambling over slippery rocks to get in the water here.

At this dive site you actually swim out quite a ways, as there is just a lot of sand and a few coral heads on the way out, and then you drop right down onto this giant coral sea mount--thus the name The Rock. We saw quite a few Lion fish there and there was a nice sandy bottom with lots of garden eels. We also saw a lobster that could have fed a small African nation. On the way back in there were also a few eels and I spent quite a bit of time following a flounder all over the place. I think everyone really enjoyed this dive site.

By this time I think we were all getting pretty hungry so we headed back to the hotel to rinse out all our gear and take a quick shower before we took all the empty tanks back to get full ones. Then we went down the road a little further to get a few groceries. We decided to check out the new grocery store that we were told was down the street from the Warehouse (the supermarket we usually shop at). We went into the new store and it was very nice, so nice that you had to pay to rent a shopping cart. We looked around and did not think their selection was as good, so we headed back down the street to the Warehouse.

We got everything we wanted at the Warehouse and we did not have to pay for a shopping cart either. We finally headed back to the hotel to get some lunch. I think by this time it was about 4 p.m. We had ordered a couple pizzas last night so we could have the leftovers for lunch today. So we had our pizza and for dessert we had the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I had made at home and brought...Yummmmm!!!

Tim and Jody were tired so they laid down and had an afternoon nap. We decided tonight was the night we would do our night dive, so about 7 p.m. we headed out to the hotel pier. Jody was a little nervous about it, but we told her she had to at least give it a try. We got in about sundown and head out in front of the hotel not to far. We spent about an hour swimming around and seeing what there was to see. We saw quite a few eels out hunting, lots of banded coral shrimp, basket stars, brittle stars, tarpon, flamingo tongues, and some type of hairy little red crabs. On the way back into the pier we also saw a small octopus.

Jody survived the night dive and I think she actually enjoyed it. I think she would be a little hesitant to do a night dive on her own, but she enjoyed having someone show her the ropes.

After the dive we rinsed and put away all our gear and got cleaned up and had a little snack and some good conversation before heading to bed.

Bonaire July 2012 Days 1-3

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday June 29-July 1, 2012

My dad picked up Jody, Eric and me about 1 p.m. and we headed off to the airport. There was a fairly short line at the check-in counter and a fairly short line at security so we made it through relatively quickly. Then we headed for the United lounge and relaxed for a bit until our flight. Eric and I got upgraded to first class on the flight from Phoenix to Houston, which was nice. We were fortunate enough to leave Jody sitting in coach, Ha!

We made it to Houston okay with only a little bit of turbulence. We had about a four hour layover so we got a bite to eat at Ruby’s diner in the airport and then went to the United lounge to relax before our flight to Bonaire. The flight to Bonaire leaves around midnight and is about four hours long. I think we all got a little bit of sleep on the flight but not a huge amount.

When we landed in Bonaire it was still raining a little bit and it looked like it had actually been raining a lot just before we got there. At most airports that would not be a big deal, but in Bonaire you take the stairs down off of the plane and walk on the tarmac to passport control and then you stand out in the open as you wait in line to get your passport checked to enter the country. We experienced the rain at the Bonaire airport once before so this time we came prepared with rain jackets in our carry-on luggage. Luckily we did not have to use them, though.

We were towards the front of the plane so we got to passport control and got through relatively quickly. However, that did not help us in getting out of the airport any faster. I think there was only one little old man to take all the luggage off the plane, drive it over to the luggage carousel and unload it. Thus, the entire plane had gotten through passport control and was waiting for their luggage before anything started moving on the carousel.

Luckily one of our checked bags was the first off the plane, so I took that and headed over to the rental car pick-up while Jody and Eric waited for the rest of the bags. I got to the car rental window and filled out all the paperwork and got everything signed and she pulled the car around. When she pulled the car around I noticed that the right front tire was about half full of air. I asked her if she could air it up and she acted kind of indifferent. Luckily, because it had been raining the tire was wet and as I inspect it I noticed the side of the tire bubbling through some water. I told her that tire was going to need to be fixed. Unfortunately, they only had the one minivan (which I had called to reserve about two months ago). So she ended up temporarily renting us a small

SUV that we were to bring back at 11 when she said she would have the tire fixed on our original rental.

So we came back at about 10:45 a.m. to pick up our fixed rental car only to find no one at the counter and our original car still parked in the lot with the half flat tire. Finally she showed up in a different minivan and we were on our way.

Then we came back to the hotel and we all got our dive gear ready so we could head down to Yellow Submarine to do our check-out dive and get all our paperwork filled out, etc. We went ahead and did our first dive there too. Jody did really well for her first Bonaire dive. Unfortunately, my video camera would not record for some unknown reason, but of course we did not figure out it was not working until after we got in the water. Eric tried to fix it underwater, but could not figure out the issue. So instead I decide to point out stuff to Jody and write it on a slate so she could start learning some of the things she was seeing.

We came across a very friendly turtle who was too busy eating and doing its own thing to be bothered by Eric taking its picture. So Eric spent quite a bit of time taking multiple photos of the turtle since it was such a cooperative subject. After our dive we got all our stuff rinsed out and loaded back into the car and headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and head out for some dinner.

Ever since our last trip here I have been dreaming about the garlic bread that we had at Pasa Bon Pizza. So we decided that was where we would go for dinner. They open at 5 p.m. and we got there a little early and they were not open yet and Jody really wanted to eat, so we headed down to restaurant at Captain Don’s Habitat. Unfortunately, we got there only to find out they did not open until 5:30 so we headed back to Pasa Bon Pizza. By the time we got back there they were open and we sat down and decided on what we were going to have.

We had a wonderful dinner. We had a really good salad, the garlic cheese bread, pizza and then Jody and I both had Key Lime pie for dessert. Eric was so tired by dinner time that he was falling asleep at the table. His eyelids were half open and his eyes were rolling back in his head. Jody thought maybe he was having a seizure, she had never seen him so tired. After we got back to the hotel Eric laid down on the bed and was out like a light. We were all pretty tired so we all went to bed right after we got back.

We had to set our alarm clock for 5:15 in the morning on Sunday so that we could get up to go to the airport to pick up Tim. We sat on our balcony and waved to Tim as his plane came in for a landing. Then we drove down and met him at the airport and brought him back to the hotel. He was so wound up and ready to dive that he did not even want to lay down and rest. So we headed out to do our first dive of the day off the pier here at the hotel.

There was quite a bit of current on the dive--or at least more than we have ever experienced the other three times we have been here, but it was still a good dive. We didn’t see anything super spectacular, just the standard critters we usually see. After our dive we rinsed off our gear and headed back up to our room to have some left-over pizza for lunch and decide where we were going to dive next. We decided that Tori’s Reef sounded like a good spot. We had dove there last year and really liked it and the entry is fairly easy.

So we loaded all our gear in the car and headed down the road a bit to Tori’s Reef. There was no one else there, so it was perfect. We backed the car right up to the edge of the water and got all our gear ready and jumped in. It seemed like there were a lot more fish here than other sites and the current was moving pretty well here too. I found a very cooperative filefish and lizard fish and Jody also spotted a scorpion fish that I got some good video of also.

Jody and Tim went ahead and headed back to shore and Eric and I stayed behind to try and get some video and/or photos of some jawfish with eggs. However, the current, camera, and fish just were not very cooperative today.

After we got all our stuff loaded back into the car and head back for the hotel, Tim decided his jet lag was finally catching up with him and Eric was getting tired too, so they both laid down to have a nap before we went out to dinner.

We decided to go back to Captain Don’s Habitat to eat at the restaurant there as it is right on the water. We enjoyed watching the tarpon that were feeding on a large group of small fish as we waited for our dinner. Then we had a very nice dinner as we watched the sun set.

Malapascua 2012, Day 9 & 10

April 14-15, 2012

Today was our last day on the island of Malapascua. Eric got up early to go out and film the sunrise and take some photos. I decided to sleep in. I got up about 8 o’clock and wandered over to the Craic House to get some breakfast and say goodbye to JD and Beth, one of the couples we met, who were leaving around 9 o’clock.

After breakfast Eric got started on packing all of our stuff up (which mainly consists of photo gear and dive gear). After getting just about all of our packing done we went back over to the Craic House to get some lunch. They had orange infused chicken on a bed of fettucini with herb focaccia bread on the menu for lunch. It was really good.

It was another warm, sunny day on the island. We had every intention of wandering around the island a bit and taking some photos, but we decided it was just to warm and we were feeling a bit lazy. We arranged to have a late check-out for our room since we were not scheduled to leave until 6 p.m., so we went back to the room and laid down and had a nap.

After our nap we got our bill taken care of and sat at the Craic House a little while and chatted with some of the people we had met during our stay before ordering our last meal on the island. For dinner we had the wild mushroom and bacon risotto, followed by ice cream for dessert.

Shelagh made it back with her dive group a little after 5 p.m. and we said our goodbyes to everyone. We put our shoes on for the first time since getting to the island and boarded our private boat transfer at 6 p.m. as the sun was going down. There were some storms over the island of Cebu and the ride was a bit rough. We got to the dock in Maya and because the water was so rough they could not take the boat up to the dock. They signaled and yelled and then called using their cell phone for them to send out a little boat to pick us up. We sat there for a while and no one seemed to be coming out to get us. We wondered if we would make it back to land. After a few minutes they pulled up anchor and headed down shore a little further with flashlights in hand to try and bring us to shore in a different spot.

Our private driver was waiting for us on shore and when we asked him about what had happened he said there was a little boat to go out and pick us up, but no captain. Fortunately we made it safely to shore. Then began our four hour car ride to the airport.

We made it to the airport and made it through security, etc. and waited in the Asiana Lounge until our flight to Inchon, South Korea boarded. Our flight boarded on time and we were on our way for our four hour flight. I managed to get a little sleep on the plane after they served us dinner. I took some decongestant for the flight and did okay going up but could not get my one ear to clear as we were coming down. Fortunately it cleared within about an hour after landing but was rather annoying until it did.

It was a rather interesting landing at Inchon. As we were on approach to the airport we looked out the window and all we could see were the tops of some very tall buildings with lights flashing, the tops of a bridge, and the tops of some mountains. The fog was thicker than thick. Eric wondered if we were going to be able to land, but it must be a common thing here. The next thing we knew we hit the runway. The fog was extremely low and you could see absolutely nothing through it.

We had reservations at the Transit Hotel in the airport for our 10+ hour layover. It is really nice that they have this hotel within the secure area of the airport so you don’t have to go through the hassle of leaving the airport and then coming back through security. We had about an hour before our reservation at the hotel so we went to the Asiana business class lounge to hang out for a while.

I went to use the restroom in the lounge and got to experience a Korean toilet. They have sanitizer that you dispense to wipe down the seat with first. I sat down and discovered the seats were heated, not to mention having about 20 other controls for things the toilet seat would do for you, none of which I attempted to use. The heated seat part was nice, though.

We then checked into our hotel room, which was actually very spacious and very nice. We laid down and got about four hours sleep and then got up and took our first real hot shower since leaving Phoenix. Boy was it nice.

Then we ventured out into the airport to see if we could find the ice skating rink. Unfortunately, I asked about it at the information desk and they said it was after immigration (on the basement level). That meant we would have to go through immigration and security and then come back and there was no way we were going to do that, so no ice skating for us.

This has got to be one of the fanciest airports in the world. From what I have read it definitely is in the top three along with Hong Kong and Singapore. We walked a good part of the airport and there is every store you will find in the Bellagio shops plus more. Fendi, Gucci, Tiffany, Omega, and on and on... There are also plenty of areas to relax and sleep. They have a relaxation area with large chaise lounges and lots of comfy chairs to sit in. They also have free showers and a spa area where you can get a massage or facial. They also have big leather massage chairs. All the plants in the airport are real. In several areas they have hundreds of live orchids in bloom.

We are just about ready to check out of the Transit Hotel now and head to our gate for our approximately 12 hour flight to San Francisco.

Malapascua 2012, Day 8

April 13, 2012

Today was our last day of diving so we got up early again to do the shark dive at Monad Shoal. I decided not to even try diving today as my head was still plugged up, but I rode out on the boat with them. Our group actually went out about 30 minutes later than usual.

Eric decided to do some video on his camera since I had not gotten any good video of the thresher sharks yet. He figured it might be even better going out later today. He thought there might be fewer boats and fewer people and the lighting would be better. They got really lucky. They had at least three sharks circling around at the cleaning station and they came in really close. Eric got some excellent video. One video actually has two sharks swimming together.

The second dive we went out to Bogtang bato, which was one of the first dive sites that we went to the day after we got here. This time there was no current like there was the first time. Eric got lots of good nudibranch pictures and some good pictures of another extremely shy pigmy seahorse.

The third dive we went out to Chocolate island again. Eric really enjoyed that dive yesterday and wanted to try it again with his fisheye lens. He had fun playing around with strobe placement, etc., and got a few photos.

We had a relaxing evening at the Craic House, even though it was a bit on the hot and steamy side with very little wind. We had fun talking with one of the owners and his fiancee and a bunch of other people we have met during our trip.

Malapascua 2012, Day 7

April 12, 2012

We got up early to go do the shark dive again this morning. Unfortunately, I got down to about 20 feet and my left ear would not clear, so I came back up and sat out the dive. Fortunately, they told me I did not miss much. They saw about three thresher sharks but they did not come in very close, so Eric did not get any good photos.

We came back after the dive and had some breakfast and got ready for the second dive on the house reef. I decided to go out and give it another try. Unfortunately, I got down to about 10 feet and again could not clear my ear, so came back up and waited on the boat. Eric and the group had a good dive and saw the seahorses, nudibranchs, frog fish, sea moths, squat lobster, catfish, etc.

We came back and had some lunch. Eric had the Asian chicken patties with a peanut and bean sprout salad that he said was really good. I decided to have a grilled cheese and french fries. We had another dive planned at 1:30 to Chocolate Island.

I decided to give it another try. I figured third time is the charm, right? This was a very shallow dive and we basically paired up as buddies. Eric and I went in first and again I got down to about 10 feet and could not clear my left ear. Eric went ahead with Gino (the dive guide) and I went back to the boat. I got my gear off and then got back in and snorkeled while they dove. The group had a very nice dive. They saw a sea snake, many different types of nudibranchs, some mating and some in the act of laying eggs, and a crinoid shrimp (which Eric had been looking for).

We came back and got cleaned up. My solar shower was EXTRA hot today. Today was a very sunny day (no rain showers), so the water was beyond hot. I added cold water to it twice and it was still hot. I only used about half the bag of water so I left the other half for Shelagh to use.

Tomorrow is our last dive day here, so we will give the shark dive a try again.

Malapascua 2012, Day 6

April 11, 2012

Today we slept in and then got up and had breakfast and were scheduled to do the 9 a.m. dive to Lapus Lapus. Since my head was pretty congested I rode the boat out with them but did not dive. I took the opportunity to do some filming of us picking them up, the island and us coming back to shore from the dive.

Eric said they had a very cooperative mantis shrimp that was standing and practically posing for photos, lots of nudibranchs, etc.

Then we came back and had lunch and headed out for another dive at 1 p.m. We were going to dive the house reef again but the current was too strong so we went to another spot called Deep Slope. It was a nice dive. We saw four pigmy seahorses, two yellow and two purple, clownfish, a wire coral shrimp, and an eel.

We headed back and had an afternoon snack and relaxed a bit before we went out again to dive at 5:15 at the lighthouse. This is the spot to dive to see mandarin fish. Eric went the night before but after he got in the water he realized he had not set the flash properly on his camera and so could not take any photos. They saw a mating pair rise up and do their business, etc. He decided he had to go back to get some photos. We were the only two divers along with our two guides that went tonight, so we had the whole show to ourselves. We actually saw three pairs mate.

Malapascua 2012, Day 5

April,

Today we got up at 4:30 a.m. again to do the thresher shark dive. It is by far the most popular dive site here, but then that is why a lot of people come to Malapascua is because it is one of the few places in the world where you can consistently see thresher sharks. At 5 a.m. it looks like rush hour traffic on the 101 with all the boats headed to Monad Shoal to drop off divers to see the sharks.

As soon as we got in the water Shelagh spotted some mantas swimming off but the visibility was pretty bad and I did not get to see them. We had a thresher swim by us right after we got in but none of us with cameras were prepared, so we did not get any shots. The sharks we saw later in the dive never really came in very close and the visibility was pretty poor.

After the shark dive we came back and had breakfast. I have to say the food here is really good. I had a ham and cheese omelet this morning with toast and butter and of course a fresh mango and a glass of mango juice. They bake all their own bread here. Not only is the food good but the presentation is awesome. This stuff looks like it is coming out of the kitchen of a five-star restaurant.

Last night for dinner they had breaded mozzarella stuffed chicken breast with balsamic glazed eggplant and roasted potatoes with dill. Every day they change the menu so the items for lunch and dinner are different. We liked the chicken we had last night so well we asked them if we could have it for lunch today too. The desserts are beyond awesome. I have had the banana fritters with ice cream and Toron surprise with ice cream. I have never had anything that good at home...

Good food and good diving, what more could we ask for.

Eric went out diving again at 5 p.m. They were headed to the lighthouse where supposedly there are some resident mandarin fish. I decided to sit this one out as the cold I came down with decided to move to my head this afternoon. There was such a nice ocean breeze blowing I decided to go out and swing in the hammock in front of our room and wait for Eric to return.

He got back about 7:45 and said he was definitely going back to that spot. They said there was a coral head with a pair of mandarin fish in it that were darting around and then as sundown came they rose up above the coral in their mating dance.

After Eric got back and cleaned up we went over to get some dinner. Eric ordered the blackened chicken with a caribbean salad salt and vinegar and I ordered the bacon and wild mushroom risotto.