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.
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!
Posts
cool pictures! figured the iguana pictures were for me....they do swim well but will scratch you up and climb on you in the water. that would have been fun. i really like the turtle pics they are awesome. what next on your tour? are you going home now or going to kansas and stuff? glad you had fun and looking forward to your flying posts. The foster contingent.
ReplyDelete