I hope you don't mind so many pics, but I had a hard time paring even as many as I did!

We enjoyed many early evenings on the patio, watching the Supermale Parrotfish wallowing in the surf on the shallow reef, and many lovely sunsets, too.























And a nice rainbow





We also had a lot of fun watching the birds, lizards and iguanas on the patio.



Bananaquit




Caribbean Parakeet





Tropical Mockingbird




I have no idea the species of these lizards, but they're pretty cool.

Little Lizard





Medium Lizard





Big Lizard





Spotted Lizard





Iguanas









and all the Hermit Crabs that came up at night. They ranged from maybe an inch and a half down to less than half an inch.











One time, I thought I’d see where these Supermale Parrotfish went at bedtime, so I got in the water just before dusk and watched them “surfing.” There were four of them this time, all Green. They just love to chew at that shallow reef. Just after the sun set, they all took off to the south, right together, so I followed them. After about 20 yards or so, they all dove into a large hole in the reef. I thought, cool, they’ll sleep in there, but after a bit, three of them came out. I followed again, they kept on south. Looking back, it seemed the one left behind did stay in that first “house.” Then, about 30 yards later, all three went into another hole. Sure enough, a moment later, two of them came out! Same story. They kept going south for at least another fifty yards, near the power plant, and it was getting pretty dark, so I headed back since I didn’t have a light with me. But it sure looked to me like they were dropping each other off at their respective “houses”! Pretty neat.

Also, when I was in the water watching the Parrotfish at first I was staying really still and before long I noticed that there were a large number of fish around me including a Trunkfish, a Bluehead Wrasse and a whole bunch of brownish damsels. They were very interested in me, and the Trunkfish kept coming right up to my mask and hanging around very close. I put out my hand to him, and he came up to my finger and gave it a real gentle kiss with his cute, soft lips. I thought this was pretty neat, so I did it again, and he nipped me! Hard. I was very surprised at the strength of his bite, and thought he had broken the skin. Then he did it again, on my arm, so I made a gentle shooing motion and he moved off. I guess they were used to getting fed around there or something, though we never saw anyone doing it.

Driving around we got a few more pics you might like.



East Coast Southeast of Rincon





A Lesser Yellowlegs





A Grey Heron





A Troupial





A Grey Kingbird





A Yellow Warbler




I guess that about does it for the snorkeling and sightseeing, so here’s a short report on the dining:

If you like meat, go to Casablanca and get the mixed grill. This is an unbelievably huge pile of various kinds of delicious meat, along with two plates with rice, potato and veggies. We feasted til we were ready to burst, and then had enough left over for two full meals and three picnics too. Everything was fantastic and the price was like 40 bucks including drinks. A note of caution, though. The pork chops were underdone, so if yours are, either stick them at the bottom of the pile close to the coals on the brazier, or save them for later when you can finish cooking them at home.

It Rains Fishes was excellent and reasonable.

Pasa Bon Pizza was very good, if a bit pricey for pizza, but if you go there in the evening, be sure to wear plenty of repellent. I got chewed, after having avoided it for most of our trip.

At Lost Penguin, Denise’s fish and chips were excellent, but my open faced grilled chicken sandwich with cheese and grilled onions was pretty tough. So I “helped” her with hers. ;o) Also, we got there just after noon, but they were already out of chips for nachos. The food took a very long time to get, as well, and we were already used to Bonaire’s pace by that time.

The crepe place at City Café is scrumptious and very reasonable, but closed Saturdays, which we found to our dismay.

Kontiki by Lac Bay has a nice restaurant/bar we went to for lunch with Renee during our snorkel trip. Reasonable prices and good, generous portions.

A few more notes on the trip: as far as charging laptop and camera and PDA batteries went, we found a pretty good solution. A couple of our chargers, particularly the laptop, have chargers with a wide voltage and Hz range, so they were easy. The others, like the camera battery chargers wanted 110/60Hz. So what we did was take a power strip and one of those lamp timers with the 24 hour circle and 15 minute on or off period selectors. The laptop went straight into the regular outlet, the timer too, then the power strip into the timer. I set the timer to have ½ hour on and ½ hour off alternating all the way around, and plugged all the sensitive chargers into the power strip. It worked great, nothing got hot at all, everything charged fine.

We never experienced a hint of any sort of crime (except speeding and dangerous passing, boy those Bonaireans lose their laid-back ways on the road, don’t they?) whatsoever. When we parked in town we locked the car. When we parked on a beach likely to be visited by local kids we left the windows open and nothing inside. When we parked in out-of-the-way places where we only saw fellow “water people”, we locked cameras and other valuables out of sight in the vehicle. No troubles at all!

The only drawbacks to our cottage (besides the lack of screens) were the barking dogs nearby which made it a bit tough for Denise to sleep, and the close proximity of the power plant, which makes a constant deep and rather loud thrumming noise.

We thought we’d take our leftover pizza with us to eat on the flights home, but were disappointed when they confiscated it at customs in PR because it had meat on it. They said it would have been OK, but for the meat. They even let us keep our hardboiled eggs.

We had a great time on Bonaire, and can’t wait to return! Thanks again to all you BTers for the tips. I hope our experiences provide insight to others as well, and help them enjoy their trips to Bonaire even more.

Bret and Denise Coil
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Here’s a list of birds we saw:

Grey Heron
Troupial
Caribbean Parakeet
Bananaquit
Grassquit
Yellow Warbler
Saffron Finch
Barn Swallow
Pearly-eyed Thrasher
Grey Kingbird
Brown Flycatcher
Snowy Egret
Tropical Mockingbird
Brown Pelican
Caribbean Flamingo
Great Blue Heron
Smooth Flycatcher
Yellow Oriole
Osprey
Caracara
Magnificent Frigatebird
Laughing Gull
Royal Tern
Lesser Yellowlegs
Ruddy Turnstone
Least Sandpiper
Ruby Topaz Hummingbird
Blue-Tailed Emerald Hummingbird
Bare-eyed Pigeon
White-tipped Dove
Common Ground Dove
Eared Dove


And notable fish and underwater critters:

Orange-spotted Filefish
Scrolled Filefish
Cowfish
Sharp-nosed Butterfly
Cornetfish
Green Sea Turtle
Hawkbill Turtle
Sponge Crab
Spiny Lobster
Tarpon
Barracuda
Banded Coral Shrimp
French Angel
Queen Angel
Yellowtail Damsel
Bi-color Damsel
Butter Hamlet
Red-lipped Blinny
Frogfish
Porcupine Puffer
Burrfish
Upside-down Jellyfish
Green Eel
Spotted Eel
Viper Eel
Sharptail Eel
Scorpion fish
Lizard fish
Carpet Anemone
Purple-tipped Anemone
Peacock Flounder
Yellowline Arrow Crab
Rock Beauty

And too many others to mention…

Thanks again, everyone, see you on Bonaire!

Great pictures!!! I loved the one of the hermit crab in a piece of coral! Where did you see those crabs?

Your photos are amazing, the sunsets are beautiful! Thank-you for sharing!

Maria, they came up on our patio in Hato every night. The largest "portrait" crab is probably 1 inch across. Pretty cute, huh?

Hi Brett and Denise!
It was so nice to meet you while in paradise. I am glad that you had such a nice time. Isn't it great going on Renee's guided snorkels? I call her eagle eyes because she finds so much neat stuff to see. Your pictures are incredible!!!! The firery sunsets, the cute little lizards, and the beautiful birds. The only thing missing is the under water life so you will have to get an under water camera before your next trip. Oh to be back in paradise!
Great trip report and awesome pictures!!!!

Your photo's and your trip report was a joy to see.
Masha danki for sharing!!

Bret and Denise,

GREAT trip report - I'm going to be a bit embarrassed to post mine now (but I will anyway as soon as I finish it).

Thanks SO MUCH for sharing!!!

Belinda

Bret and Denise - thanks for a great report and wonderful pics!!!!

What a great report and pics! Thanks. Carole

outstanding images!

Wow! Outstanding pictures. Masha Danki for sharing. Glad you had a good trip.

Next best thing to being there!!! Thanks so much for such a long, detailed report!

Hi Bret,
Your pictures are so wonderful that they have caused a resurgence of Post Bonaire Depression.
The six-year-old child in me says "WAAAAAAAAA! I wanna go baaaaaaack!"

(sniffle)
Mary W

Great report and pictures Bret.
Thanks 4 sharing.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed your report and pictures. We are going in May for the first time. Now I'll know how to charge the camera and to bring plenty of OFF

Cindy, you really want long pants and shirt for the evening, and socks for your sandals or shoes, the best bug repellent is CLOTHING I've finally realized, and they get you in the evening under the dinner table.

Brett, I think all the lizards are iguanas at different stages of growth.

Thanks, everyone, for all the nice comments! One thing I can say for sure-- there don't seem to be any except great, friendly people who love all things Bonaire!

I've been off for a few days, and was really tickled to see all the warm comments. Hi Darlene! I guess you had a fun trip too, huh? What a surprise.

Seb, as to the lizards, I have very strong doubts about that. I'm pretty sure, from extensive hours of observation, that the ones titled "Big Lizard" with the blue spots in the pics are the adult males of the species, the "Mediums" are the adult females, and the littles are the immatures, of that same species. The blue spotted ones are intolerant of each other when in the presence of food, but perfectly willing to allow the mediums and the littles to feed right along with them. They just act like adult male lizards.

On the other hand, where are the immature iguanas? Perhaps the iguanas are the the "Supermales", right? Where the heck is Jerry Ligon when you need him, anyway?

Thanks again, folks, see you on Bonaire soon!

Hmm, from looking at images of juvenile iguana head shapes, you may be correct Bret.

Bret...Thanks for the great trip report and the outstanding photos. I especially enjoyed the beautiful sunsets and the birds. Only 48 weeks before we return to Bonaire. Sigh!! Carol

I can't help it!
Feb/Mar 2005 BT'ers countdown:
45 weeks: Alan & Joan Zale
46 weeks: Chet & Jean Wood
48 weeks: Carol & John Collins