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.
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