Thanks for all of your good advice!

We decided to order the lycra skins from Performance, but they're all out of stock except for the $45.00 ones! So now I'm back to wondering about other stretchy, synthetic clothing. I can probably find such stuff made for cycling or hiking--wouldn't that work just as well?

Thanks!

anything that protects you from the sun or inadverant scrapes and the remote possilbility of pika pika (small, I mean small, organisms that may make you sting a bit) is a good idea! You will not get to much insulation,however.

The main difference between the material for swimming and biking is that the swimming material has a higher elastic content. This keeps it from getting baggy and restricting movement in the water. You may want to try out some stuff in a pool before hand.

In my humble opinion, if you are close to your departure date, just go to Bonaire and try the snorkelling in swim suit and t-shirt. It seems you have worked hard enough on trying to make your vacation enjoyable. This is not worth getting obsessed about. If temp. is a problem, then rent on Bonaire. At least you wont have something in your closet that you can only wear at Halloween!