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Trip Reports: Bret & Denise's Trip Report 3/1 to 3/14, Part 2
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2004-02-06 to 2004-07-31: Bret & Denise's Trip Report 3/1 to 3/14, Part 2
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bret Coil (BonaireTalker - Post #11) on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 11:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hey again, all,

Well it's taken me much longer to get this done than I imagined. If you thought I went overboard last time....!!

The last post was my first attempt at posting pics, and the captions didn't work. I should get it right this time.

We went lots of places with Renee:

--Andrea II on a rainy day. Renee has the better tan!

Renee and Denise at Andrea II

I talked about Andrea II in part one. Just don't miss it!

--Town Pier, daytime. The day snorkel was very interesting, the pilings under the pier are covered with coral and sponges you can view close-up, and there are millions of tiny fishes as well as eels. We saw so many I can’t remember them all, but a couple of the more memorable ones were the Sharp-nosed Butterfly Fish and the Butter Hamlet.

--Town Pier, night. This was totally awesome! It is super easy to get in and out, even in the dark, the water is quite calm, and there are streetlights. As soon as we got in, right off the promenade north of It Rains Fishes next to a boat ramp, there were hundreds of shrimp, different varieties, including Banded Coral Shrimp, several Spiny Lobsters, and many Spotted Eels as well. It is really cool to see all the Parrotfish sleeping in the most unlikely seeming nooks and crannies. And the little orange corals (don’t remember the name, tube coral, maybe?) that look like little suction cups during the day are “blooming”, of course. And there are all sorts of fish you don’t see being active during the day, such as Spotted Drum, Soldiers, and Squirrels. But the things I remember the most were the big Sponge Crab (really amazing and weird) and those huge Tarpon! Oh and of course that famous giant Green Eel. Looks at least 8 or 9 feet long and about 10 inches thick. Do not miss this site if you get a chance, and be sure to thoroughly inspect the rocks lining the harbor on the way out to the pier and back to the promenade walk if you go. But go with Renee if you can. She always sees the cool stuff we would have missed without her, and knows what it is, too!

--Divi Pier. When we got in, the water was pretty murky, and Renee was unsure how good it would be. But we saw a school of 12 squid (beautiful) and on the way back, a Frogfish. I don’t know how she ever finds those Frogfish, I could barely tell it was a fish when I was looking straight at it!

--Lac Bay. We parked by the beach shack between the shrimp farm and Sorobon, walked out across the shallows till we were near the point at the south end of the reef that protects the bay. Then we snorkeled out along the inside of the reef, keeping our distance from the big breakers. We saw many small fish, got a great close-up look at a big peacock flounder, enjoyed the activity around all the clumps of coral. There were some beautiful elkhorn corals here, too. All the anemones were lovely. Renee found an octopus in a crevice on the way back. Wow. This is a beautiful snorkel, don’t miss it! We went back on our own to do it again, but the water was a bit rougher and the current stronger. Seems to be best earlier in the day, Renee says if there are whitecaps inside the reef, don’t even bother.

--Lac Bay harbor. Renee took us over to the little pier where they tie up small craft at the end of the road past the windsurfing places. We snorkeled all along and under this pier, back toward the mangroves. There were lots of neat fish there as well as eels and shrimp, and we saw a Yellowline Arrow Crab, too. On the way back, out away from the pier a bit, there were dozens of Upsidedown Jellyfish. They mostly lie on the sandy bottom, but Renee picked one up to show us how they swim. As soon as she disturbed it, we sensed a slight burning sensation from the stuff they put out, but nothing particularly uncomfortable. It was a different and really neat snorkel, just yards from the bay proper.

--Tori’s Reef. This is a really neat place just a bit south of the salt pier (where we had planned to go), but as luck would have it there was a ship there. I’m glad, because Tori’s Reef was wonderful. There weren’t a lot of different things, as I remember, but the coral was great, and so were the fish. I also admired the prettiest sea fan I saw on the whole trip, very colorful, just outside the north side of the inlet where it’s so easy to enter. We didn’t see an Eagle Ray, but Renee said it’s a great place to find them hiding on the sandy bottom between the inner and outer reefs.

Denise and Renee Tori's

--Ol’ Blue. Beautiful Coral, inner and outer. Lovely fish. We also saw a Hawksbill turtle for a good long while.Easy entry in the AM. Usually rougher in the afternoon. Go early along this stretch of coast all the way up to the oil transfer station, at least in March.

--Windjammer. This unmarked site is where divers go down to an old Windjammer cruise shipwreck at 200 ft. depth, just after the “marine reserve, no entry” rocks end and just before the oil transfer station. It is immediately north of the inlet where Gotomeer connects with the sea. There is a boat ramp, which if you avoid the slick spots, provides a very easy entry and exit. The coral here is amazing, and there are schools of Black Durgon triggerfish, not to mention hordes of the usual. I would go here a lot if I had the chance, especially in the shallows toward Bopec.

--Something Special. This is right where all the seagoing sailboats moor at the north end of Kralendijk harbor and the promenade. Renee calls it “Engine Blocks” due to the profusion of small ones that litter the sandy bottom here. I never would have thought of exploring here, but it is just lovely, and there is a profusion of sea life that inhabits all the engine blocks and concrete mooring blocks here. Definitely worth exploring.

All these places were great, and would be fun to do by yourself, but, once again, I heartily recommend you engage Renee to show them and others to you, as she finds just about all there is to see, and is happy to tell you all about it as well. We wouldn’t have appreciated the underwater life of Bonaire half as much without her!

We also were invited to a party that Renee just happened to be giving, where we got to meet many colorful and friendly Bonaireans, eat lots of delicious munchies, and have a drink or two as well. Darlene Ellis had just arrived on the island with her husband Tom and we had a great time chatting with them. What a nice, fun and interesting bunch of people! Thanks so much to Renee for making our stay on Bonaire so interesting and entertaining, both in and out of the water.

We drove through the Park one day, took the short route to try to get to Wayaka for snorking as early as possible and stopped along the way to look for birds. It was a nice drive, though quite muddy from all the recent rain. We actually enjoyed the bumpy ride, and the challenge of getting through all the flooded spots.

Park Entrance
Park Entrance

Park Road
Park Road

Hill

Park Hill


There were some roads that were closed due to all the recent rain, but we had as much mud and water as our little Toyota Hilux 2WD wanted anyway. We didn’t see as many birds as we would have liked; there were other places on northern Bonaire where we had a lot better luck with songbirds. When we got to Wayaka, it was already a bit too rough (yeah, we had dawdled too much along the way) for us to snork, so we enjoyed the little “beach” for a short while and headed on down the road.

Wakaka II
WayakaII

At Boka Slagbaai, we enjoyed watching a Pelican in the shallows of the lake behind the building. It would fly a couple of yards, grab a fish, sit and swallow for a second, then repeat the same procedure over and over. It was one happy bird. Some kids were jumping off the cliff, too. Looked like fun!

Boka Slagbaai
Boka Slagbaai

Pelican
Pelican1

Pelican Again
Pelican 2

Geronimo!
Jumping Kid

And Denise made friends with some lizards at the park entrance on our way out.

Denise Friends

We took the drift snork from the water taxi to Klein Bonaire one day. DO THIS, like everyone says. The shallows and the deeps are as one on the east end of the islet where the boat dumps you in the water. All the things that are generally more than 10 feet deep in all the sites I saw on Bonaire, come right up to where the shallow elkhorn forests begin. Huge sponges and hard corals of all kinds are right before your eyes, rather than well below you. Turtles are almost common. We kind of hurried to get back to the point where we had dropped our bag on the shore so as to make sure we were on time. If I had this to do over, I would spend about an hour (or three, if I was going to skip a return trip) near the drop off place and for a couple hundred yards to the northwest, and gradually increase my pace as I got closer to the drop-off/pickup beach. When you’re on this drift for the first time, it seems like it’s a really long swim back to the beach, but it turns out to be closer than you think when you get there. And don’t miss the shallows in amongst the elkhorns at the east end, either. One drawback to be aware of: We ran across lots of tiny jellyfish on this snork, most of which we didn’t see, but felt. I found them to be only a tiny bit irritating like a faint burning sensation on occasion, not nearly enough to push me away from the amazing fairyland before my eyes, but Denise felt them as pretty strong stings, enough to push her out of the water a couple hundred yards short of the beach. She got back in pretty quick, though, and didn’t have any more trouble. I think the suggestion I saw someone else make on BT to use one of those dive skins they sell at Carib Inn Dive Shop for $50 would be a pretty good one to take, if you are worried about it, but I’d do this snork a lot if it burned 3 times as bad, myself.

Another note on the drift snork: We weren’t aware of exactly how and where you get in the water, and thus were unprepared when it came time to jump in. I jumped into what turned out to be very deep water about 50 yards from the shore with my mask and fins in my hands, which was rather stupid, though I managed. The best way to do this, IMHO, would be to put your fins on as the boat approaches the eastern point of Klein Bonaire, spit and rub your mask, then jump in, rinse your mask and put it on.

We snorkeled lots of places by ourselves, and especially enjoyed Weber’s Joy for the coral and saw a Hawksbill turtle as well. Easy in and out, too. I snorkeled at night several times off our beach (bought great lights at Carib Inn, that’s the best place we found for snorkel stuff) and had a blast, but didn’t see as many shrimp and little critters as at the pier. I did see lots of lobsters, though, and the night corals were neat. One time a big 5 foot Tarpon stayed right with me for a long time. He would disappear and then show up right beside me (a bit heart-stoppingly, the first few times) over and over. Renee told me later I could have spot-lighted fish for him and he might catch them.

Part 3 to be posted immediately.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3300) on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 7:24 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

WOW!!! Carole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John and Carol Collins (BonaireTalker - Post #70) on Friday, April 9, 2004 - 12:11 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Another serial in the great saga. I'm really enjoying your report Bret. Nice pics also. Now on to no. three. Carol

 


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