Bonaire

Bonaire: Antillean for "Low Land," it is an island about 50 miles east of Curaçao and part of the Netherlands Antilles. I had heard that it was small and that there aren't a lot of sandy beaches. I had heard the diving and snorkeling was fantastic. I'd also heard there was a great place to buy bathing suits and lots of good places to take photographs. Sounds like my kind of place.

The school year is coming to an end fast and I realized that I hadn't taken any personal days. If you don't use them, they pay you but I'd much rather take a day off. So I decided to take off this past Monday and thought I'd do things around the house and plan out my summer. Instead, I found out that Victor and Jessica were going to Bonaire and they invited me along. Change-a-roo of plans!

The last time I tried to go to Bonaire, I was denied by airport security because my paperwork was not done. They even told me that I had to leave the island and not come back. Luckily, I have my paperwork now and I can come and go as I please. Still, as I went through security, I was wary that something might go wrong. It didn't and I was very thankful to arrive 30 minutes later.

Originally, Victor's brother and family were going to meet him in Bonaire, but that all changed because of a volcanic eruption... in Iceland. All flights from France and a lot of Europe were grounded until further notice. So Victor and Jess had a huge villa all to themselves. It was very last minute, but they told Lorenz and Steph, and they decided to come as well on Saturday.

We had an awesome time. After some lunch, we went out and found a dive shop and got gear for 2 dives. We had a small car and played some Tetris to get it all in, but it packed nicely and we were proud of ourselves.

Victor had gotten a replacement underwater camera and took some amazing photos and video... hopefully I'll be able to post that here later. On the first dive I saw an octopus! Those things are crazy! They can change color so quick. I want one. Anyway, we saw a lot of things on the first dive but I can't remember because the dive we did the next day was insane. Oh wait, wait. We saw a huge barracuda. It must have been 5 feet long and 8 inches thick. That mug had some TEETH! We saw it 4 different times during that dive. It was fascinating. Oh and I saw a lobster for the first time.

The following day, we went on a dive around 11 at "The Lake." Steph told us to all watch out for seahorses. "Oh, are they common here?" Jessica prompted. "No, I just really want to see one." 5 minutes into the dive, Steph is flailing her arms to get our attention and screaming at us to come closer; since it is difficult to judge sound underwater and also where it comes from, the flailing arms definitely helped. She mimed out a horse and a rider and pointed. I scoffed in my mind, "There's no way she found a seahorse. They are so rare." And, there it was! It was maybe 8 inches tall and just sitting there. So f'ing cool.

The coral there was streaming with life. School of fish zooming past us, shrimp and crab working on the floor. I saw a moray eel slither through some crevices. As we followed the reef further and further from the shore, I could see 100 feet down where there was sand. I looked up and watched the bubbles of my regulator lazily climb up. I heard only my breath and the bubbles glopping. I wanted to go deeper but I was already at 60 feet and that is the limit for Open Water Divers. I have to do the Advanced course in order to go deeper.

Lorenz, Steph and I all signaled to Victor and Jess that we were going to head to shallower water so we could see things up close. We got back to around 45 feet and I see Steph and crazing her arms and screaming again. She made the turtle hand signal and pointed. I didn't see it, but I saw something that looked like an octopus. Confused, I made the octopus sign and she looked at me funny so I went to investigate and point it out to her. Later they told me that I almost landed on the turtle hahah. I didn't realize that the turtle was even there until 2 minutes later. He was so interesting. He would go to different coral and peck at them and fish would peck at him. At one point he swam away to the surface and we saw him later as we continued our dive.

I have seen Sting Rays before but I have only seen them while they are searching in the sand for food. I have never seen them swimming in the open... until this dive. We were at 30 feet and I was maybe 10 feet away from the coral bottom. I was glancing to my right looking for any signs of life and I hear Steph again and she is pointing. As I look to my left, I see a Ray coming from my left and it cruises right under me and stares at me while he does so. It was almost like he was saying hello and peace outttt at the same time. I mean, he was 5 feet away from me! I looked at everyone in disbelief, trying my best to convey my excitement without being able to speak a word. Fricken incredible.

Okay, enough about the diving. The villa we stayed in was beautiful. There was a garden that went all the way around the house. It included a pool, a bread oven, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a fridge with the front drawer in the door, a dishwasher that looked like a cabinet, balconies out of our bedrooms and iguanas of course.

We were all about cooking our own food too. We barbecued out 2 times; the first night was an assortment of meat, the second night were burgers cooked by yours truly (with tips from the travel channel haha).

Steph and Lorenz left Sunday afternoon and so Victor, Jess and I went shopping the next day, to the Donkey Sanctuary and to the salt piles.

I bought a speedo. There. I said it. And I like it. I never thought I would say that in my life.

The Donkey Sanctuary was nothing like what I expected. We did a drive-thru safari with our windows down and apples in our hands. There were something like 300 donkeys there total and they would come up to our windows; sometimes 3 donkey heads were in the window at a time, lips searching for food. It was intense at times. Totally worth it though.

The salt piles were cool too. The looked like snow mountains.

What a great weekend trip. Will I be going back to Bonaire? Yes. I have a lot of diving to do and I have to see the national park and the pile of conch shells. :-) Back to school now. :-)