I’ve got so far behind with updates I am just going to post pictures from the last few weeks here in Bonaire. The pictures are from whatever we did on certain days, in or out of the water. Click on them for full screen.

Some of this may be a rehash…

That place on the pier with the four peaked awnings, the red roofed bar, and the white building at the left edge of the picture is all Karel’s Beach Bar. Karel’s also serves as the dinghy dock in Kralendijk. The food is excellent and they have a good happy hour too:

Karel’s Beach Bar

That submarine looking boat does tours from Karel’s. The boat doesn’t actually submerge, it’s just a deep draft glass bottom boat. The tours seem to last at least half an hour and I think they start at $17.50. They have longer tours and tours out to Klien Bonaire as well:

Glass Bottom Boat Tours

Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas. The very same ship who’s space I had to violate so I could pick up Tanya during my traumatic finger amputation and reattachment, LOL.

The Bonaire Customs and Immigration building just south of the north pier:

…and I guess we’re in the water. French Angel fish. This is not Gaston, he/she is much prettier:

Dan and Jane who were nice enough to let me tag along for about 20 dives! Thanks guys!

Why do I love diving? I don’t know…

A little cloudy that day but still very nice:

A jack that swam right in front of me while I had my camera at the ready:

I thought this looked like coral hugging another piece of coral, or coral PacMan eating a coral dot:

Brewery on the back side of the town square, ehh, it’s ok, the blond beer was tasty:

We found the biker bar. Happy hour doesn’t start until 10pm…shah, we’re in bed way before that!

We went to the Taste of Bonaire, on the first Saturday of every month. They have a different theme each month, this one was re-purposed fashion. Music, lots of food vendors, tons of people, fun!

Taste of Bonaire

Really great crowd:

All these costumes were made from recycled materials:

Back in the water. I dove the Hilma Hooker wreck again. This is called a windlass on our boat, I don’t know what you call it on a ship. This machinery on the bow of the ship is used to raise and lower the anchor:

…bow of the ship:

I went under and around the bow, there were four or five big tarpon hanging out below me:

I know I posted pics from the first dive so skip to the end:

The $50 underwater camera we have does not pick up color as well as others but these tube sponges are a vivid blue:

Rainy day, we rented a car and drove around the island. We thought it was interesting that this wall seemed to have been carved out by the sea, but it’s about 30 feet above…

Rugged shore:

Flamingo, not the plastic breed of flamingo, a real flamingo. There are lots of flamingos here on Bonaire:

Lots of cactus too:

Indian inscriptions.

Indian Inscriptions

I was wondering what they used for ink that lasts this long, red dye #40, or was that the stuff that caused cancer? I don’t know, whatever it was it sure is indelible:

I did a community service dive with about a dozen other divers. You get a free tank of air to go and pick up discarded fishing line below the commercial pier. Light refreshments after. Jane in the middle and Bo, from Amsterdam, on the right:

…air temp, about 90, beer temp, about 36…mmmm:

It was a great dive and we removed “metric tons” of fishing line. Most of these people participated, others sort of crept in after for the food and beer. Vaguely reminds me of the movie wedding crashers, post-dive-refreshment-crashers?

…back in the water. I though this resembled a coral pineapple:

Coral and sponge, the colors are vivid in person:

Four foot long, green moray eel slithering across the bottom:

Not Gaston again:

Tube coral. I thought these might look better being played on the side of an alpine mountain to sell cough drops. RICOLA…anyone?

Coral forest:

Motionless Grouper hiding, 100% obscured, can’t be seen by anyone or anything:

More coral:

Sea Anemone:

Sea Anemone

Looking across the sea floor:

Trumpet fish sticking straight up:

More coral:

These sponges have a neon blue outline when you see them up close:

Barracuda chasing Dan:

Big bowl looking sponge:

Trumpet fish:

Queen Angel fish:

More tube sponge…maybe I could have grouped these together…sorry:

Ooooh this is a good one, the hydraulic manifold fish, or the control cable distribution fish, beautiful:

Trumpet fish:

Those white feathery fish under the coral are Lion fish, an invasive species:

Lion fish

…yes…trumpet fish…

Ooooh another good one, the discarded drum fish, majestic:

Sea Anemone with a neon blue glow:

I was surprised at the lack of fish during this dive:

I was trying to take a picture of the anemone in the background and this fish kept photo bombing the shot:

Finally got it:

Small wreck just outside of the marina in about 40 feet of water. Not much left but still attracts lots of fish:

Wreck

Wreck Our Confidence

Our second Taste of Bonaire, lots of music and dancing this time:

Bonaire Day, which atracted lots of motorcycles from all over the world. Lining the street:

This little place is right across the street from our mooring, cheep and cold beer:

DBD, dive buddy Dan:

View from the Diver’s Diner downtown:

We had dinner at Karel’s more than once, it’s sooo good:

Sun setting behind Klein Bonaire:

Whew..