Final Bonaire wrap-up and Continental first class

Well I think I will write this one as I can…especially since its 5am and I am sitting in the Bonaire airport waiting for the plane to load.

Toured around the island yesterday a bit and had a pretty good time. It was overcast (and rained in some areas) all day but I skirted the bad weather by pure luck. I would have to say Bonaire has some of the worst selection of souvenirs of anywhere I have gone yet. I always get a magnet from wherever I visit and the selection here sucked. Small thing to quibble about, but come on Bonaire, get some cool swag!

I took the advice of Kenny on where to eat 2 nights ago, yesterday lunch and last night. They were all good. That’s a good GTJTTOTD: ask the locals where they like to eat. 2 nights ago I went to Bobbajen’s BBQ joint and got the special. It consisted of ribs, chicken (both really grilled rather than BBQ’ed) and some chicken sate with fries and slaw. YUMMY. For lunch yesterday I went to Kontiki where I had the kibbling (fish chunks beer battered and fried) with fries and a salad (it came with the kibbling…its not like I ordered a salad for goodness sakes!) It had a sweet chili sauce for dipping and was GOOD. That’s right, I ordered fish and liked it! Finally, last night I went to…crap I forget the name…it was something like El Fagon Latino where Kenny recommended the shrimp in garlic sauce. Also on the menu was conch in garlic sauce and since I have been seeing conch on menus since he Caymans and had yet to try any, I took the plunge. Not having had conch before, I think the cook maybe over cooked it cause it was pretty rubbery. But the flavors were awesome. It came with fries and a salad too. If you haven’t seen the theme yet, pretty much everything here comes with fries. The Dutch dig fries (with mayonnaise…although they have ketchup if you ask). So Bonaire has some good eatin’.

Drove around the south end of the island and came across some remnants or recreations of the slave huts they used to have. Bonaire has salt flats where they let seawater in and then evaporate off to sell the salt. They used to use slaves for this and to carry out the salt. Check out how freaking small these huts are! I saw some dudes pulling one on wheels during Rincon Day and thought it was a scale model…I was wrong. They still do salt production too…had giant mounds of it waiting for ships to come and carry it off. Also around the island, about every 300 feet, there is a dive site where you can go in from the shore. They are marked with yellow painted stones with the names on them. I think when/if I come back here, I want it to be with someone who dives (gotta dive with a buddy) and do nothing but shore dives. They have 61 different locations around the island. Plenty!

The western side of Bonaire is pretty choppy and rocky. Timed this one pretty well I think.
All along the western coast, there were these creations made out of junk that had drifted onto shore.
Another creation.
I am squatting in the door of a slave hut. All hail the 10s timer on the camera. Can you believe how small that is?
Huge hills of salt.
I am now in one of the 2 or 3 presidents clubs (continental’s lounge) here in Newark sipping on some XX (Dos Equis, the other choices are bud light, heiniken, and some amber bock that I might be working on a little later…all free…oh and I guess well drinks are too…and they have premium drinks for some $$$ and REALLY nice wine for $$$ too…I might try some in a bit). Getting in turned out to be a bigger trick than I thought. Apparently domestic first class (I handed them my boarding pass for the Portland leg initially) doesn’t get access to the clubs, but international does (thank goodness I still had the boarding stub from Bonaire!!) Since I executed to my plan of rolling out of bed, throwing some clothes on and then planning on showering here, it was pretty vital that I get in…cause I was feeling funky and I am sure smelling that way. But get in I did. Shower I did. Clean I am. Why I am talking like Yoda, no idea have I.

The flight up wasn’t bad. Leather seats in first class so that was nice. They served breakfast too (semi rubbery cheese omelet, sausage patty, scalloped potato wedge) and I had a Kahlua and coffee as a little morning refresher. The movie they showed was Marley and Me…about the dog…with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston. I didn’t listen to it but glanced at it from time to time. Even without sound it looked stupid.

Here in the lounge, they also have a nice selection of crackers, Tillamook cheese (how about that….from Oregon to Newark to my belly…yummy) as well as apples and chips and stuff. I am sort of considering just hanging here and doing cheese and apples and chips as my “lunch”, but I am not sure I can hold out. With the crap I got trying to get in, I might not be able to return if I leave. I am telling you, if you don’t do international first class (the baseline to get in for “free”, you either need to buy an annual membership (F that) or have a platinum American Express card….wonder how hard those are to get? I have a Costco American Express…wonder if they would upgrade that.

So this could be the last update and then again, I might post some more stuff once I get back to Portland and start exploring (hiking, biking…all great plans that I hope I don’t blow off for relaxation purposes). If I do continue to post, I will send out mails to let people know…if you want off the list, let me know…and if you want on, same deal. 7 more weeks before I have to go back to work (assuming I don’t win the lottery before then) so there is plenty of time for me to get into other adventrures! Cause it’s our time, the People’s time!

Before I sign off, I thought you would want to know Fritos and XX go together well.

Last day of diving on Bonaire - picture blitz!

Hey all!

Well yesterday was my last day of diving here in Bonaire (and for the trip too). I dove 30 times in the past 3 weeks and one of the purposes of the trip was to see if I would get tired of it. The answer is: no. I wish I was going out today for more fun and excitement, but since I am flying out tomorrow, I need to make sure all the nitrogen is out of my body so I don't get the bends when the plane flies (you learn about all this when you get your open water certification from PADI...the whole class is basically what to do if things go wrong but you obviously need to know them).

Anyway, yesterday's dives were all good for one reason or another. On some of the dives I thought I wasn't going to get to see anything interesting and bam, out of the blue there would be something super cool. All of the dives here we would go down to 60 feet and cruise along the reef wall and then when your tank was half empty, go up to 20-30 feet and cruise back along the reef. The deeper you are the quicker you go through your air so going up to 20-30 feet will ensure that half a tank is plenty to get you back to the boat. While I saw some neat things at 60 feet (turtles, a seahorse, some eels) there was usually much more life on the upper side of the reef. I originally started out this whole trip with an attitude of wanting to see tons of awesome things on every dive but now I am enjoying just being able to be in the water checking things out and the occasional awesome things are just bonus. I think I might be getting zen! Help!

Sophia asked which place was the best and I would have to say the Caymans slightly edged out Bonaire, but to be fair, there is a LOT of shore diving that I wasn't able to do on Bonaire that might have made up for it. Plus Bonaire is technically out of the hurricane zone (although there was one that came through like 4 years ago) which makes it desirable. Finally while the Caymans are cheaper to get to as far as flights go (Bonaire is crazy expenive for airfare, imo), staying on the island (lodging, food, car rental, etc) is cheaper on Bonaire. Either way, I want to come back to both and dive some more!!! Oh, Curacao was a not too distant 3rd while DR was 4th....there might be better places to dive in the DR so lets just go with: don't go to Punta Cana if your purpose is diving...the beaches are awesome, though.

And now, here are the last of the dive pictures for you. I think they are pretty cool and like I said, yesterdays dives capped off the diving nicely! Once again, click on the picture to embiggen and see the details.

This is a little cleaner shrimp sitting in the rock. Supposedly, if you stick your finger out it will come out and clean it. I sat there for a bit with my finger in its feelers and it felt around a bit, but didn't come out. I either didn't wait long enough or I was clean enough.

Some anemones. I like these things. Drifting in the water. Always fun to look at
No this is not some giant fish turd...although it looks like one....brown with oranage spots. Yummy! Actually it's a sea cucumber.
Giant puffer fish giving me the stare down. I had been trying to get good pictures of one of these for a while and most scurry off all scared. This one just turned to me...stared and then wandered off all nonchalant.

Side view of that puffer. Those two fins at the back are what he uses for propulsion. They swish back and forth and he moves...looks funny.

Spotted eagle ray! Before a lot of the dives here and in Curacao they said to keep an eye out cause we might see one. This was actually on the last dive yesterday. How perfect is that timing? Really cool looking. I took a lot of pictures and you are about to see some of them.

Look at how long the tail is. Its like 6-8 feet long.

Crusing along with his box fish posse.

The rays feed on stuff in the sand and their motions stir up some goodies the box fish then scavenge on.

Red banded rock shrimp just for Tam since he complained about the number of pictures I had of them. I could do more...don't tempt me!

Some iguanas sunning on the deck of the pool at the place I am staying. The little one eventually fell in and swam around for a little while.

Got to see another seahorse!! And, if I do say so myself, I think this picture came out fairly well. The seahorse looks all fuzzy dirty on purpose since it helps it hide better during the day time.

A sponge of some kind. I just thought it looked cool.

A flounder cruising along. One of the other divers scared it from where it had been laying so I followed it a bit and snapped some photos.

I know this looks like its just sand, but this is where the flounder went to ground. I watched it settle down, wiggle around for a bit to dig in and get some sand on top and then it just sat there. If you click on it to make it bigger, you can see some of the spots showing through.

The obligatory eel shot. A golden moray I think. He was actually pretty small and I was using macro and zoom and flash and it all came together nicely to get a good clean shot.

Some more anemone...with purple tips!
A puffer of some sort. I like the spots on it and the fact that is is showing a little spikey action. By no means was this at full puff.
Pretty funky looking, huh? Like out of dinosaur times or something. This strange looking thing is called a slipper lobster. You are looking at the front of it too. I had never heard of one before much less seen one. Like I said, had some good dives yesterday.
And last but not least, a young turtle. I assume this because it wasn't very big and seemed to be uncoordinated. Swimming around munching on the coral. Pretty good shot, huh?

Well there you go. I am going to be cruising around the island checking things out today. Kenny (he and his wife Margaret are awesome. If you come to Bonaire, stay at Coral Paradise Resort..its affordable and nice and they are a wealth of info about the island) has told me of a cool beach to visit where I could even learn how to windsurf...for $50 an hour. The place has a large sandy bottom that is only 2-3 feet deep and goes out 25 feet so if you fall off, you can just step right back up on the board. I don't know if I want to spend that kind of money this late in the trip but we will see.

I will do at least one more entry when I hit Newark tomorrow to at least give updates on Continental's first class and their lounge there. My plane leaves at 6 am and everyone here says I should get to the (super small) airport 2 hours before it leaves so we are talking before the butt crack of dawn here. My plan is to roll out of bed, throw some clothes on and hit the road. The Jersey first class lounge has showers so I can clean up there. What a plan! :-)

Man this trip has been a great time...but it should have been....cause it's our time, the People's time!

Cya!