Just thought some of you might want an update on some of what I did on my recent trip to Bonaire as a snorkeler (tagging along with 2 divers). I'll tell you now that my north/south/east/west are kinda skewed in this but Bonaire doesn't sit square - so for reference Kralendijk is west to me, the park north, and facing the water on the Kralendijk side - the shore goes north (right) and south (left).
First off I want to say that I'm intimidated by rough water and have to take Dramamine to keep from getting sick while snorkeling!!! I have never had issues with rough water at Bonaire, but I mainly snorkel at locations south of town down to Pink Beach and north to Karpata and that's basically it - which those of you who have been there know - that's about 50+ locations.
Monday - ordered our Key Lime Pie from Last Bite Bakery to be delivered on Tuesday. Made other phone calls to arrange activities the rest of the week - massage, snorkeling with Renee, Coral ID class, tour of Rincon, etc. Monday afternoon Annetika (sp?) who does massages for Buddy Dive arrived for a one-hour massage in our condo - it was heaven!!! I needed deep tissue therapy as I normally have it weekly at home and hadn't been able to go for 2 weeks. She was very professional and had extremely strong hands that worked my back and shoulders into putty....
Snorkeled earlier at Buddy Dive's back door - I love checking up on the spiny black urchins as I've learned that they indicate the health of a reef/area. There were many there along Buddy's dock area, but I don't think as many as last time (Jan 2003). The entry into Buddy's reef is great as there's a staircase leading to the water that you can sit on and get prepared easily and just slip into the water face first. There's lots of fish around their dock and to the south (down past Sand Dollar) there's plenty to see. Saw a small school (10 or so) of small 4-6" squid swimming along the top of the water. North of the dock I discovered a school (12+) of trumpet fish 8-14" long. Now the last time I was there, (Jan 2003) I saw a green moray in front of Lion's Den about 10' from the water's edge. Once I snorkled south along the edge, I then headed out behind where the boats are moored - I'm thinking of getting a Goddess dive suit as I was nervous about boats not seeing me in my black skin w/yellow stripe - but I could hear the boats and would raise up and they usually had spotted me. Not a lot of boat traffic (2) using Buddy's Dock but enough to be aware. The reef is pretty nice - some soft coral, most hard coral had some type of damage (suspect from novice divers taking lessons). But this is a good place to get your start as the entry is very easy, the water very calm, and there's plenty to see. You can see a lot very close to shore as there were tangs, barracuda, trunk fish, I even saw a small jewfish, and a flounder along with the urchins.
Tuesday - I bicycled from Buddy North to Hilltop hotel (?) where I attended the Coral ID class presented by the Bonaire Marine Park as part of their Volunteer Reef Monitoring program they are starting to implement (I found info. on the class on the weekly flyer of things to do). It was a great FREE program that had lots of slides on the different types of hard coral and how to ID it, and the diseases that affect it. In the afternoon, they were scheduled to go down to Eden Beach (I think) to do the water part of laying out the 10 meter square observation areas that they would report on as well as get hands on experience at ID'ing coral and disease and how to report it. I didn't join them as a snorkler, but about 20+ people were in attendance. I returned to Buddy, had lunch, then bicycled to town to visit the market - that was suppose to be going as there was a cruise ship in port - but wasn't. Remember the stores close from 12-2:00 normally for siesta, but there are a few shops and more restaurants open during then. Had to make a stop at the pharmacy for Bendryl cream to rub on the 50+ mosquito bites on my legs.... Did some window shopping to plan what I'd buy before I left - which I went back on Saturday and got.
Wednesday - went on 3 site snorkel trip with Renee. She was really great in telling you in advance what she'd be looking for and pointing the fish out along with many others. At Andrea I we went in search of parrot fish - males, super males, and females - and we found them - right near the main entry to the right so close to the top of the water their fins were flashing out of the water. We saw a lot of fish of all types - traveling south closest to the beach, following it south to Andrea II, then going deeper to return to the entry point. Barracuda, a water lizard, damsel fish, blue chromis were just a few of what we saw. Then we headed uptown to hit 2 areas just off the roadside that follows the water. At the first we viewed the engines that were once used for boat moorings and saw a trumpet fish behaving like a piece of rope - changed color and was parallel to the rope (interesting). It was interesting to see how slow coral grows - in 6 years since a concrete moor was installed it had brain coral only about 6x8" and 1-2" thick. Makes you appreciate the time it takes to grow something that can be damaged in a second. We also saw juvenile French angel fish which have bright yellow bars on their black bodies - I'd seen them the day before but didn't know what they were and anemones, christmas tree worms, feather worms. We also ran into a spotted moray (about 6') wound through the coral under a dock gaping it's mouth - that was exciting!!! At the other spot we saw a gray angelfish which are scarce along with lots of other unique fish - a scorpion fish up close to the water's edge (boy did I watch for them the rest of the trip!!!). That afternoon, I tagged along with the guy's as they were going to Oil Slick leap - one of my favorite places. Once again a ladder is a preferred entry method for me.... I was more aware of the fire coral after the class and saw where it has grown up in the beds that were once stag-horn coral to the south of the ladder. The reef is easy to get to, although it may be a little scary for the inexperienced as it is deep. After viewing south down to where they were doing construction, I traveled back to the north along the reef's edge in 30-40' water - just breathtaking!!! I snorkeled down to where a rather large piece of rock juts into the water on the shore and turned around (there's alot of elk horn coral damage here. As I was coming back I was following a peacock flounder when from the soft coral and kelp (?) out popped a small (12-14") hawkbill turtle. I hovered over him for a long time watching as he made his rounds (this is where there are 3 large bright white rocks up on the rock ledge above the water. Later in the week, I saw 5 8-12" squids bobbing in that same area probably just 20-30 feet from the water's edge. We then went down to Pink Beach (at my insistance) but it was disappointing - saw barracuda, but visabilty was bad out at the reef - there was several holes in the rocks almost at water's edge that proved to house some spiny urchins and other fish but nothing significant.
Thurs - the guys humored me and took me to the park as I'd only been to the entrance on a tour a previous visit. They'd been their 7-10 years ago and weren't impressed with the diving or roads and had never gone back. Let's just say it'll be a long time before I go back. Yellow road was closed, and visability and entrance was limited at all but the last one with the houses???? And visability was bad there with little to nothing to see - entry was easy. Took about 5 jarring hours to do the loop with stops at the dive sites that we just "looked" at because they didn't want to cart their gear down the inclines and back up (worse than 1000 steps!!!). I guess they have a secret weapon for preserving the environment - have the roads be so bad no one wants to drive down them. Anyway the day was pretty much a waste - stopped by Ole Blue on the way back to the hotel to save a miserable day!!!
Fri. - I tagged with the guys again - we started the morning with 1000 steps - worth the 71 stairs!!! Nice coral beach area with easy entry at the ends. Saw lots of fish and hard and soft coral in pretty good condition. There were boat divers there - and I wanted to strangle a couple of them - touching the coral, kicking stuff (purple tube sponges) over, and general unawareness of their "space" requirements. We then went to Ole Blue. At Ole Blue (guy's favorite this trip) we passed on the main area where there is solid rock parking, and went south to where there is a hut with some concrete seats and a table. Worked out well as there were sandy entrances at the far south end (near the big rock) and another at the north end. I entered the south end and it was fine - spent a lot of time combing around the reef as it was just beautiful with soft and hard coral and "floaty" stuff (kelp)? Most spectacular was seeing a large? (18-20") lobster as I was exiting from my entry area - about 15' from the water's edge down in a coral that's center was missing. First I saw the tentacle and was curious what it was - thought it was a stick??? until it would get longer and shorter. Moved around to the other side of the coral and he was sitting inside the hole in about 6-8' of water. I also saw another school of small squid in realtively shallow water. That afternoon, we went to Witches Hut and Karpata. Witches Hut had a nice seat at the edge of the water, although the building there had a lot of garbage around it. I did pick up trash along the roadside after my short snorkel. Saw most of the normal fish and it was quiet lovely. At Karpata, I had the easiest entry there that I've had in years!!! The water was calm enough not to have larger waves coming down on the slab as you're trying to get geared up. Also, it helped that there weren't a lot of inexperienced divers there that hog the entire slab and then beat the area trying to get their bearing. The water was calm enough that I swam up to about 3' from the beach end of the slab and got out very easily.
Sat - The guys dropped me off in Rincon, so I could take Maria (the teacher) tour of Rincon. It was interesting and she had 4 students give part of the tour, although Christopher was the most vocal. There were 2 magazine reporters from Holland on the tour so we had a "by van and foot" tour that lasted almost 2 1/2 hours. They are really trying to promote what Rincon/Bonaire offers outside of diving. I know that this trip there was a lot more for me to do as a non-diver than in the past years (this was my 3rd trip, hubbys 12th, his buddy's 8th). The guys waited patiently for me to end the tour then we headed to Oil Slick Leap where there was a small (10") spotted moray eel hanging out in the rocks by the ladder. Saw another peacock flounder but no turtle this time. Ended our trip with Ole Blue - I did a little snorkeling but laid on the beach mostly. The guys had to be done scubaing by 2:00 to meet dive saftey guidelines.
So we were done for the day in the water by 1:00, headed back to Buddy Dive, where Bob took a nap, and Jim and I headed out to take pictures. I was introduced to a wonderful spot for pictures on the earlier tour by Maria - when you pass Karpata and turn right to go to Rincon, there is a sign on the left about 1/2 way that wasy Ulga.... or something like that...take that dirt road to the top - the view is breathtaking of Rincon and the topography. Since we were there at the end of the rainy season, it was very green and lush. We then traveled into Rincon and took the road to the town on the winward side of the island to Kralendjik - there's a place where you can travel up the hill/mountain to a large shrine in golden paint. The sign (in dutch) is right past a baseball diamond and soccer area. The view from there is awesome. We could see the salt pillars far to the south, and a 360 degree of the ocean on all but about 1/8 of where we were standing (couldn't see up towards the park due to the trees). It was just a stunning view on a clear, unovercast day!!!. We then drove down the winward side past Lac Bay and on down to the lighthouse taking pictures of flamingos and places where the guys had dove (they got to do Red Slave this time as the water was calm). Back to town for a little shopping, then back to Buddy by dinner time.
Overall a great time!!! I normally go when our charter travel group goes as it is a non-stop out of Indy., but I'd consider the Houston flight if it becomes available. I feel very safe on the island - we had no problems with theft although we were aware of the problems. The mosquitos were a problem, but with DET, they leave you alone although I used Skin So Soft for environmental reasons.
I wish I'd had at least 2 more days as I would like to eventually go to Klein Bonaire, and I'd planned to work at the Donkey Farm as a volunteer but couldn't get the guys up before 8:00 to take me down there - hahaha. Plus the other dive spots that I still have to snorkel.
The guys did comment that they saw a lot of coral bleaching and did notice more black band and the "candle wax" on the corals. They were both down in March of this year. Bleaching has been going on for a month or so with higher than average water temps, and I even saw signs of it while snorkeling. The candle wax is another parasite that the Coral ID guy had mixed comments on - said it lived on dead coral but there were trying to figure out if it was killing coral. I saw it (if that's what it was) on dead areas of coral with living on the sides of it. Overall, the coral is some of the best I've viewed and there's lots of it - and I've snorkeled Maui, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Martin, Saba, Tobago, Belize, and many of the Bahamans. No desire to go to Aruba or Curacao as long as Bonaire is there.
I realize this is long, so hope it's not imposing on others space...but it's recent update.
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By Damita Lewis (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #9) on Friday, December 9, 2005 - 5:02 pm: 
