Good morning - Great April Fools prank Jake just pulled on us!! I wanted to share a bit of my month on Bonaire. Week one was with my good friend Carol who was in constant pain from a rotator cuff tear (shoulder). She was game enough to come anyway. (Thank you Carol!) We had a great time adventuring around and now she is recovering from the surgery she had to have upon her return. Ironically, even though we were close by the webcam we had no idea where it was! It wasn't until Carol left and I was taking a morning walk that I discovered the webcam was close by where I was staying!!!
As for Bonaire....It was my first trip there. I live for my snorkeling adventures in the Caribbean. The number and variety of fish on Bonaire was astounding. Even though the storm surge from Lenny (two years ago) damaged so much of the close-in shallow reef areas, the underwater visibility is excellent and you can observe and free dive down to gorgeous, healthy reef at about 20-30 feet, depending on where you are. Also, because the deeper healthy reef is so close by the shallow damaged areas, the areas of coral rubble are loaded with feeding fish and they are all very visible. After 25 years of snorkeling I saw a host of things I never saw before - Blue Spotted Coronet fish, Flame Fish, Purplemouth Morays, Mushroom Scorpionshih., Midnight Blue Parrot fish super males, Tobacco Fish, Rainbow Parrot fish super males, Web Burrfish, Chain Morays, Upsidedown Jellyfish, etc., etc.--the list goes on. Bonaire is a GREAT spot for diving and snorkeling. There are so many spots to explore that in a month you can't go to all the sites!! After Carol left, I had a week to myself before my husband joined me for the last two weeks. During this time, I often went out with Renee on the "Woodwind" from the Divi Flamingo dock. She is a great snorkeling guide and is into the small stuff, like I am. Any of her trips are well worth going on but I focused on the longer, two-stop snorkeling trips. On Renee's trips, my favorite on Klein Bonaire was Ebo's reef (a great dramatic drop off where, we saw 8 turtles- Green, Hawksbill and Loggerhead) and Andrea II (a great place to see eels and Midnight, Rainbow and Blue Parrot fish along the shoreline snorkeling toward Andrea I and down to Small Wall). Some other favorite places to snorkel from the shore were - Karpata (we typically saw 3 young turtles - both Green and Hawksbill) (Still healthy shallow reef with good hard and soft coral and sea fans...lots to look for here); Salt Pier (enter from a nice sandy entry on the left of the docks) (Here there are alot of smaller Barracuda around 3-4' around the pier legs...and lots of little things to look for amongst the encrusted coral ...for example, small Sharpnose Puffers, baby pea-size Smooth Trunkfish...lovely underwater light effects too); 100 Steps was lovely and a very pretty scenic spot as well; the Sabadeco Pier area was nice further out from the pier; Red Beryl and Margate Bay were good shallow snorkeling sites with alot of fish and stands of Elkhorn coral; snorkeling (away from town) from Green Submarine was very interesting- amongst the old boat engines, tires, etc., in town waters, there were wonderful things to see - in one big, lonely -but very crowded- clump of coral I spotted a bunch of Flamefish, 3 different eels (Chain, Spotted, Chestnut), a host of baby Dusky Squirrelfish and various other reef fish and blennies and gobies. There is some great small and unusual stuff out there if you look carefully! Baby Reef Squid would also hang out by some of the more undisturbed moorings and quite a few Soapfish and Spotted Drums would hang out here and there. As you can tell, my energy was focused underwater on Bonaire.
On land we really enjoyed watching the flamingos both at the Salt Ponds and on Lake Gotomeer. After Lake Gotomeer there is a watering stop you pass on the way toward Rincon - it was fun to put water into the bird fountain there and watch birds come to drink - birdwatching is also great on Bonaire! At The Petroglyps were alot of hungry Bluetail Lizards and we had fun getting on our hands and knees, with dampened breaksticks in our mouths, and feeding the lizards. We were mobbed with lizards! It was so much fun that one group (of people!) even filmed us!!! We were too tired at the end of the day for much nightlife - although I must say that I enjoyed eating at City Cafe every now and then...they had an excellent Vegetarian Lasagna. There wasn't too much negative - Cellular One was a pain and turned out to be very expensive. They charged for ALL phone time - including non-connect time at over $1.30 per minute for local calls. They are currently "investigating" all my wasted minutes of busy signals, etc. I think the local phone company (Telbo) would be the best way to go the next time I visit. Also, my car rental place never showed up the morning of my flight to receive my car return (A royal pain)...but these were just minor annoyances compared to the fantastic time we enjoyed on Bonaire. It is a friendly island that is not "third world" - rather a charming mix of European and Spanish flavor....Let me know if anyone has any questions. Oh yes, appearing at pre-arranged times on the webcam was a great way to say hello to my husband while he was not there. Some of my friends also really got into it! Best, Clare |
By clare mowbray on Monday, April 1, 2002 - 12:48 pm: 
