Bon Bini from Bonaire!

I am sitting on the back porch of my “unit” (aka apartment) in Bonaire drinking a Polar Beer (a pilsner beer made in Venezuela…that’s right!...me and Chavez are tight like that….and for those who want to know, its not bad and its cheap to boot…only 8oz per bottle tho) and eating an apple. Weird combo that is actually going together fairly well. Weather.com says its 87 right now, but it doesn’t really feel like it. I guess the breeze helps out a bit…and the shade.

I dove 3 times today so there will be pictures coming round the bend. I actually got a little cold on that last dive which is weird considering the water is like 81 degrees, but I guess too much exposure to that temp cools a body down. The awesome crazy thing is I have been the last person on the boat each dive. This is from Mr. “blows through air”…so I guess my work is paying off. For those of you who wish to know, the following things have helped: lighten the amount of weight I put on until its just enough to keep me down, breath in and out slowly (Crowley had a good suggestion: breath in for 5 seconds and then out for 5 seconds…and rather than gasp in, suck the air in slowly…it all helps), and just cruise along nice and slowly.

Part of the “Cruise along nice and slowly” involves not paddling a lot. I was doing that in DR (2 weeks ago…you all remember…the start of the trip) and one of my dive buddies said something. I hadn’t realized I was doing it until he mentioned it. Since then I have been working on doing just about one kick per breath. In the mean time I have been looking at fellow divers and you can almost tell who is new and who has done a lot of diving by the fin action. The new people are flip, flip, flip while the experienced are more flip…………flip……..flip….you get the idea…and if not, oh well.

Oh I was asked what the difference between Amstel and Amstel Bright is….come on…that one was easy: its brighter! Hey oh! Ba dum dum (my rim shot). Nah, I would say it’s like Bud vs. Bud Ice or something like that.

Let’s back up a bit cause leaving Curacao was a bit of an adventure. The cab right to and from the airport was supposed to be $40 (is that reasonable? I don't do cabs and the ride was around 30 minutes....seemed like a lot anyway...). I had to be picked up at 5:30 to make it to the airport by 6 for the 7am flight. On the way to the airport, the cab driver said “since I had to get up so early, the price is $50, they told you that, right?” and I said “no”, but I was already in the cab on the way and didn’t really fight it. Then, when I finally checked in, Dutch Antilles Express (DAE) has a 20 kilogram limit for the trip from Curacao to Bonaire and I doubled that with my baggage. Its 3 gilders per kilo for overage so I had to pay 60 gilders (about $36) extra to get my boarding pass and my luggage on the plane. In the mean time, there was this gaggle of older ladies who all had gigantic pieces of luggage. They all ganged on one helper and I KNOW she didn’t check their shizzle. Finally, to leave Curacao I had to fork over another $8 airport fees (which is funny cause if I was going to the US instead it would have been like $30…same airport…higher fees….though don’t waive the flag of victory yet, I have to pay an exit fee when I leave Bonaire and I think its $40).

Death plane from Curacao. Not sure if I was supposed to be able to take the picture since we were on the tarmac, but I snuck shot it. It held 48 people and had NO leg room:

So I made it to Bonaire and the place I am staying, Coral Paradise Resort, is pretty nice. It was the only place I saw on trip advisor that had nothing but 5 star ratings...I mean everywhere else had at least 1 douche that gave it 1 star because the clerk sneezed at the wrong time or something, but this place was nothing but good reviews (and I can see why). The room has 2 queen sized beds and a kitchenette and runs $140 a night up to 4 people so it’s not a bad deal at all. Of course, you need to look at the airfare (HIGH) and see if it is really worth it. Hopefully airfare will drop coming here sometime, cause already I think I would like to come back. Anyway, CP is owned/operated by Kenny Treadway and his wife and Kenny is a good ole boy from New Orleans, LA that retired from T-shirt making bidness (said he supplied about 75% of all T-shirts sold in the French Quarter) after 25 years, cashed out his 401K (pre collapse) and built this place to retire to. He is quite the character. His place is right next to Captain Don’s Habitat and I dive through them. It’s all good.

From what I can tell (and have been told) the ABCs (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) go pretty much like this: Aruba is the most Americanized and other than the hotels, there isn’t much to do, but apparently they have Taco Bell. Curacao is more Dutch and the natives aren’t as friendly as Aruba (I don’t know…they seemed relatively nice to me) and while there are McDonalds and KFC’s there, that’s about it for the chains. Bonaire is less Americanized than either. I don’t think I have seen anything food chain here and that’s all good. Its much more laid back…not as populated...and pretty serene. I will know more (I hope) after I drive around the island on Saturday. They do have a warehouse food store like a poor man’s Costco here. I got groceries for he week (breakfast and lunch) and hit 3 different supermarkets checking stuff out. The selection isn’t too bad….

Again, did 3 different dives today. The first was at a place called Rappel cause they used to have to rappel down to get to the site from land (we did a boat instead…much easier). The second and third sites were out at Bonaire Klein (a small island just off shore) and had some cool things to offer. The reefs here are incredible for the topography. So far the sea life isn’t completely overpowering me with its abundance, but for sure some if the fish you do see are HUGE. I had to do a checkout dive yesterday (just to make sure my gear was all working properly) and dove the shallows in front of the resort. In about 10 feet of water I see what I thought was a shark it was so big. Had to easily be 4-5 feet long. It was actually a tarpon that was ginormous and it had friends about as big. It was interesting to just float there and watch them swim around.

And without further ado, here are your pictures (click on to embiggen):

Like a tay in tha winnnnnn (Nell reference)
A flounder of some sort buried in the sand. You can see the spots...I think this might be a peacock flounder, but what do I know. Still prety cool lookin'!
Where is riki tiki tavi when I need him?

For all my Jewish friends, a spong menorah!

Huge puffer fish (unpuffed, of course). Easily was a foot long if not longer.

No idea what this is, but I like the neon blue colorings on it. Cool looking dude

I think they called this a tiger grouper. Not real sure, but it was about 3 feet long nose to tail. I wish there were people in the photos to give perspective.

Turtle!

So I was swimming along looking for cool things to look at when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was a see through something like jellyfish (and maybe it is one) with a long tail (tenticle). I don't know my camera that well yet so what I did was put my hand out about where the thing was to set the focus and then snapped the picture. If you blow it up you can see it fairly well...not as well as I would like, but it is one of the cooler things I saw today and it was small compared to all the big stuff.

I dunno...some kind of sea fern of some sort. Thought it looked pretty cool

I believe this is a blue grouper of some sort. Again, perspective is everything cause this thing was BIG. The trumpet fish on top of it was easily 2 and a half feet long.

A lizard fish (I think)...looks like a lizard, anyway....if it was a fish:

It's the queen's birthday tomorrow (the Netherland's queen...Beatrix I think is her name) and is a national holiday. Supposed to be some celebrating going on or something. I need to check with Kenny to get the scoop. For sure more diving is coming cause I have 5 more boat dives to do in the next 2 days. Woo hoo!

Hope everone is doing well and taking the time to enjoy life because its our time, the People's time!