My wife Trudy and I enjoyed our first Bonaire vacation this year. We were on the island for the first three weeks of January, and we are already booking the same period next year. Friends, Pat and Nat, both windsurfers, recommended Bonaire to us. We all stayed in the same park, Bonaire Bungalows.

Trudy and I both snorkel, which was the primary reason for our trip. We were not disappointed with the snorkeling. However, I would like to have seen, and felt, fewer misquotes. We snorkeled almost every day, and sometimes multiple sites.

If you want to see numerous pictures of the vacation, please visit my web site:
http://www.gordalder.com/vacation/bonaire/_bonaire.htm

You can follow the links at the bottom of each page to see more pictures.

I loved your photo's. May I ask what kind of camera you were using??

I liked enjoyed your pictures, especially of the market in Rincon. I have never gone and always have meant to when I am on Bonaire. I have stayed where you were. Have they put screens on the sliding doors going out to the driveway yet? The bugs were always a nuisance and we could never keep the sliders open due to no screens on that one or the side door. They did have a screen on the patio one, but they were very hard to lock at night. It has been a few years since we were at that location, we have since bought our own place. Did you guys meet the "house" iguana who lives in the big tree in yard. He loves to eat lettuce!

Thanks for sharing such a lovely trip report and great pictures. I loved seeing all the nature shots, especially the flamingos and birds.

Thanks for sharing. Your photos are terrific. What camera & housing were you using? I am looking at getting a new digital camera & housing prior to our trip in December. I am checking out all the photos folks are posting and trying to narrow my choices down. What type of software are you using on you computer?

Now if I can just figure out how to make the mosquitos disappear while we are there.LOL

Suzanne

Gord..great visions of Bonaire, thanks for sharing your pictures

Camera:

I am using an Olympus C-40 Zoom. It’s a 4 meg pixel camera, and I have the Olympus PT-12 housing. I am looking to upgrade to a new Olympus camera before next years vacation.

Current research has the Olympus C-8080 winning the race. It has 8 meg pixels and the fasted shutter lag time for a point-and-shot camera. I like the small size of my current outfit, but need to have a shorter shutter lag time. As a snorkeler I have limited bottom time, and the fish don’t always cooperate, so I am looking for a camera that is point-and-shoot so I have a small housing, and has a fast shutter lag time, so I can take the shots when I want, not wait seconds before the shutter fires.

Screens:
None of the doors in our unit had screens, so we had to shut the unit up at around 4:30 every afternoon. We still had mosquitoes in the unit. We keep the bedroom door closed the entire three weeks, and killed every mosquito that entered the room. Windows had screens, but they were coming off and the tape job was not really working.

Photo Editing Software:
I am currently using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, but plan to upgrade to the new 3.0 version. The majority of the photos on the web site have been Auto-fixed. I update the web site while on vacation for friends and family to enjoy, so I don't want to spend a lot of time on the computer, hence I just use the auto fix feature.

As I am usually in shallower water, I don't use a flash, and the photos really are improved when fixed.

Glad you enjoyed your first trip to Bonaire and thanks for the great photos. I have scheduled my second trip to Bonaire in May and am looking forward to trying my new Canon A85 and underwater housing.

Thanks again for sharing your trip with the rest of us.

Loved the pics! Thanks for posting the link!

Concerning the Olympus 8080 Wide Zoom. I have been using the Olympus Cameras for quite a while and really like them. I recently bought the 8080 Wide Zoom and like it, but not sure if I like it as well underwater.
I was concerned about the shutter lag time as well, and the 8080 was advertised as being far advanced in this area.
From my experience, so far, I don't see much improvement in this area. The time between button depression and shutter opening is still pretty lengthy.
Also, another drawback, in my opinion, is that the lense is so long that when you take close-ups and macro shots, the lense casts a hugh shadow in the picture. This would be taken care of with an external flash, but that means spending the extra money for the housing, because the previous models will not fit this camera, and $$ for the external flash. This may not be a big deal for those ready to splurge for the extras, but I have to buy a piece at a time, and the camera and housing alone are not that useful, unless you opt for the external flash.
Has other users seen this problem, and what are your thoughts?

Please reply to Bob and continue camera chat here:

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/116771/209302.html?1107205981

This make it easier for folks to find information on the boards when they search, and keeps trip reports on topic. By the way, anyone can start a topic and post a link to it as I have just done.
Thanks!

Seb, link doesn't work....

Sorry for the off topic posting.

Robert, I think Seb wanted to point out our photography section (to be found here).

Martin

(Message edited by martin_w on January 31, 2005)

My apologies... Try this one
http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/116771/209302.html?1107205981

Well Seb, I was close wasn't I??

Great trip report! Loved the photos....

great photography, i enjoyed looking at each and every picture.....i had forgotten how big the cactus were.

thanks

Gord, your shots are absolutely awesome! The flamingo shots have blown me away and it takes a lot to do that to me! LOL.

Thanks ever so much for sharing your trip with you. It seems as tho the Bonaire Bug has bitten you badly, too, eh?! It's so easy to become addicted to Bonaire and all she has to offer.

We return year after year after year now. Our friends all think we are nuts..."are you going back to the same place AGAIN?" Yup!!

PBD has probably set in already....Post Bonaire Depression. You are working on the only known cure now...planning the return trip to Bonaire. That's the only way to shake the dreaded PBD!

Welcome to our board and we hope to hear from you again, soon.

Sorry you lost your first chip with the photos on it...that really hurts. YOu ended up with quick an array of wonderful photographs of your trip, however. Welcome aboard! Ayo. Carole

PS Love the new screensaver and the real fish, too! cb

Great pictures and report!!! I like Olympus a lot as well. Like Carole, I loved your flamingo shots....

Thanks for all the positive feedback. The flamingos were the hardest birds to photo that we saw. Found them to be very shy. Next year I will work on getting some shots of them in flight.

Gord, I can imagine. When we where on the island in september last year, we could not approach them close enough for a good picture (or maybe that was because we also were a little impatient....)

Gord, I salute you and your photographs! Very nice selection. Auto-fix sure goes for saturated colors!

loved the photos, especially the flamingo's I havn't been able to get that close to them...I guess I need a better zoom...

Gord, if you can capture the flamingoes in flight you will be my hero! It is so hard to catch them in flight with the naked eye let alone with camera in hand....I do hope you can do it! I'll never forget the first time I witnessed them flying back to ARgentina one late afternoon....just breathtaking. Good luck! Carole

Ooops...meant to type Venezuela! cb

Carole,

If you check my web site again, and follow the links to vacations, Newfoundland vacation you will see some shots of Puffins in flight.

I set my camera to the "Sports" mode so that I get a fast shutter speed. I then pan the shot following the flight of the bird. The fast shutter reduces the camera shake that you normally see with a handheld shot and a telephoto.

The only challenge now will be to to get to a location that is close to flamingoes in flight.

Thanks for the tip, Gord. We last saw them in flight down on the road past the salt piles...the tiny two lane road with water on both sides by the Lighthouse...the road to Sorobon via the "long way". They were headed southbound, I do believe, but they were making their turn at just about the lighthouse area. Some sight to see....and, of course, it was one of the very, very few times I did not have a camera in my hand! Murphy's Law. The cameras are permanently attached to my hand...lol. Thanks again.

I will go and check out your other links tonite, too....flying puffins sounds outrageous! Carole

Hey, Gord. I checked out the vacation shots. Couldn't open up the Mexico links but I am in awe of some (most!) of the shots you captured in Newfoundland. Just gorgeous. Wonderful composition, framing, action and all the rest. Whatever course you took either instructed you well or you are a "born" lens shooter...I have a feeling you have the natural talent and the course just gave you a few tips...one usually cannot "learn" how to take/find/capture shots the way you have. I can't wait to see your next trip! Keep us posted, OK? Carole

PS The Oly must be one heck of a camera...lots of BT'ers use Oly's. My two digitals are Fuji Finepix 6800 Zoom and the Canon S40 with housing. I should check out some of the Oly's too. cb

Hi Gord,
Thanks for the great pic's - looks like you had a great time. Your efforts show! We will be off to Bonaire in 7 days. I'm a snorkeler & my husband dives. Plan to take lots of pic's & hopefully will turn out half as good as yours.
Judy

Gord, Thanks for your report. The photos on your website were incredible. Sorry to read of your losing the photos of your travel to Bonaire. The exits can be tricky at times.

Hope your January trip is the first of many enjoyable Bonaire vacations for you.