Terry and I spent a week in Bonaire. Where you ask is Bonaire? It's located 30 miles East of Curacao which is about 30-50 miles East of Aruba. Also about 20-40 miles north of Venezuela.
There were 6 of us altogether. 4 arrived on Thursday and Terry and I arrived Sunday. Josie, Harry (aka Slug) and Steve all did their advanced open water certification. Congratulations!
We also had a 'newbie' on the trip...Albert. Albert did his training in NY, then did his check-out dives on Bonaire. Congratulations Albert!! Looking at Albert dive, you would never know he was a newbie. His bouyancy was excellent and the only thing we had trouble with was understanding his 'conducting' the fish under water. It took a while to realize he was just having fun and not in trouble. Way to go Albert!
Most of the diving was from shore entries rather than boats. The boats that Sand Dollar resort had were old and seemed rundown. The captains and divemaster did not seem very professional at times either. The only exceptions were the phtographer/divemaster Sipke. He was excellent. We ended up doing 4 boat dives with them, and the rest were shore dives.
Here are the photos. Hope you enjoy them!
The first two shots here are from our exciting night dive under the Bonaire pier. Mostly known as "The Pier". It was a great dive. Max depth 30 feet. Mostly at 10-14 feet. The orange coral was phenomenol (sp???). I have never seen anything so bright underwater. The pictures do not do it justice.
During the dive, you can hear the boats going in and out from the pier. When the large tugs came in around 8:30, our divemaster was banging frantically. We first thought there was something exciting to see. Nah. He wanted us to 'hunker down' so we didn't getrun over or pulled up from the engines on the big tugs. That was more excitement than must of us had in mind. Overall the dive was great and I would do it again at night anytime!
Terry and Joel in Slagbaai (did I trash tat name or what??) national park. This was our last day on Bonaire and the one day we went sightseeing mostly.
The next shot is of some coral that I have never seen before and have not looked up. Anyone want to venture a guess???
This is Steves favorite...the French Angel fish.
Three Dos Equis please!
Here is one shot of the Damselfish that were playing with me and my camera. It turns out if you have a 'staring contest' with them, they will get curious and keep coming closer. A few times I had different ones et so curious they ended up nipping at the camera, the flash and then my fingers(ouch). The Slug was right on this advice.
Here's a slug who looks like chocolate chip cookie dough. It's actually about 1-1.5 feet long and about 4-5 inches across.
Here is one of my favorites...Anenome with 'something' inside it. This time it turns out its a small shrimp. Is it Thor??
Finally Faiths favorite, the trumpetfish. This one let me get close enough to its tail to get this shot.
Get your own Free
Home Page