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JULY 12, 2003 SATURDAY
Up at 4 am. Not too bad really. Got to the airport about 5:30 am for a 7:30 am flight. Good
thing, because the Air Jamaica line was long. Landed in Montego Bay, Jamaica about 10:45 am. Same time zone as Houston. Rustic airport, no a/c. Walls inside had recently been painted
purple. There were Wet Paint signs, but Sandra leaned against one that felt dry, and got purple paint on the back of her jeans. Haha! Left Jamaica at 11:40 am. Landed at Flamingo Airport in
Kralindijk, Bonaire at 2:30 pm. Another rustic airport. Started raining while renting our truck and putting luggage in. Didn't last long though and was beautiful. Water was very blue very
blue. It was all so beautiful! On the way to Bruce Bowkers Carib Inn, we saw donkeys wandering the streets. Checked into the inn, we had booked the 3-bedroom house. Bruce, the owner, is great!
He moved here 30 years ago from New Jersey and was the first dive instructor on the island. Loved the peppermint patties Lance gave him and quickly hid them so no one else would get them.
The
Carib Inn has 10 rooms and our house is perfect. It's in the parking lot of the inn, and has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a kitchen with all the hardware you need. After unloading, we went back to Bruce
to rent our gear and get our park pass so we could dive.
We then drove to Cultimara grocery store to stock up on food. We encountered a funeral procession with everyone walking down the street, so
turned around and found another way. The groceries are pricey, but still less expensive than eating out. Exchange rate is about 50%. We had to buy the bags at 25-cents each, so we're keeping
them for our next trip there. Downtown has mostly yellow buildings. Typical island architecture with bright colors. There is even a Harley shop, where we can rent bikes! But no
t-shirts. They should be in later in the week
The people here are really nice. While driving back to the Carib inn at least 4 people waved and smiled.
After unloading, we had chicken and
freedom fries for dinner, and then took drinks out to the gazebo by the water, where we visited with other guests. We watched the underwater flashlights of the night divers and sat through another
rainstorm. Finally went to bed about 10 pm.
JULY 13, 2003 SUNDAY
Up about 8:30 am. Alana brought her portable CD player, and Lance brought the speakers, so we're listening
to Pink Floyd.
Met Kitty, who works with Bruce. She's from Maryland and has been here for 17 years. We carried gear down to the dock and walked into the water, which proved a little difficult
with the heavy gear and waves. In the water around 10 am. Incredible number of fish of different sizes and shapes, and a huge variety of colors. The coral is beautiful, too. About 80 feet
visibility. Out of the water by climbing the dock ladder, which proved to be the only easy way to enter and exit. Back in the house around noon. By the time we had sandwiches for lunch and got
back down to the dock, our 2-hour surface interval was up. More beautiful fish and coral.
After our dive, we went into town to the grocery store, which was closed. We drove down the
island to see the sights and saw goats wandering the streets. No food store open, so we made do for dinner with what we had.
Sat out in the gazebo, visiting with folks from England, then
prepared for our first night dive. We were in the water before dark, but as it got dark, Sandra got very nervous and decided to go back to shore, while Lance and Alana stayed out for about an hour.
Alana loved it. While down Lance and Alana saw all kinds of different things. One thing that Alana was really amazed about was the bioluminescence. While Lance and Alana were enjoying all the sites, Sandra
visited with a man from Colorado. This was his 16th year of coming to Bonaire, and his 15th year of staying in the same room at the Carib Inn. He makes his reservation 2 years in advance. He said another guest has been coming to the Carib Inn for 28 years. Bruce has a guest return rate of 80-90%, which says a lot about his facility.
Lance and Alana returned and after cleaning up, we went back down to the gazebo to complete dive logs and relax.
JULY 14, 2003 MONDAY
Woke
up to the sound of rain, but it didn't last long and didn't rain the rest of the day. Floyd back on, too.
Saw a group of parakeets, which are like parrots to us. Someone told us that parrots
travel in pairs, but parakeets travel in bunches, and there were about 7 green ones in the tree outside, chattering away.
We should be leaving here by 9:30 am for our first dive.
Went to Margate
Bay. Difficult entrance and exit because of wave surges. Had to go down to get past it. Small sea urchins on shore at entry. Fantastic group of colored fish feeding. Saw a barracuda
and sand dollar. There were tons of soft coral. Sandra and Alana were looking for sea horses but did not succeed. Well worth the trouble getting in and out. Alana has bad, painful, blisters from her
booties. Came back to the house, showered, ate lunch, then went out to find thigh highs for her to wear. Had a message from Gary and June, who are staying at the Black Durgon, so stopped in and made
plans to meet up with them tomorrow. Stopped at Cultimara on the way back to the house for more groceries. Rested, then went out to Alice in Wonderland about 3pm. Much easier entrance and
exit. Nice coral and fish, as always. We saw a huge school of blue and a few black fish feeding, while we were on our way back in. They would all descend into coral and then swim off to another
area to feed. Saw large sea urchins. Stockings did not help Alana, so she'll wear socks next time with her booties.
Saw Cargill, the salt mining company, on the way to Margate Bay and Alice in
Wonderland. Huge piles of white, sparkly salt. Also saw little slave huts, where slaves who worked at the mine would stay. It is very sad and amazing that people would actually sleep in those little
huts, Lots of little iguanas running across the road. And always the donkeys. Have to be careful, or we might hit them on the road.
We're now back at the house. Lance is cooking
spaghetti for dinner. Sandra will try night diving again. She wants to see the bioluminescence that Lance and Alana saw.
Got in the water about 8:10 pm. Stayed shallow for a good while
until Sandra was ready to go deeper. As soon as we did, the tarpon showed up. We have been told about him, and pointed out fish for him to eat. It was fun, but every time we wanted to just
look, he was there where our lights were. We turned out the lights and it was surprisingly light. We waved our hands and saw the green bioluminescence. It was soooo very cool. What a
great dive! AND now it's time for bed….
JULY 15, 2003 TUESDAY
Lance up at 6 am. He's NEVER up this early at home! He found 5 donkeys on our patio that he had
to chase out. Guess we learned why we should lock the gate and not just close it! All the plants are gone now.
Floyd is on every time we're in the house. Nice touch.
Lance
wants to do 3 day dives, but Alana and Sandra can't get up and moving early enough. We went down to the shop to get Alana new booties. Bruce's prices are extremely reasonable and I would recommend
anyone on Bonaire to check him out first if making any dive gear purchases, and he has a large variety. 9:30am now and we're getting together for our first dive.
On the way to Oil Slick Leap, we
stopped to photograph 2 parakeets eating on a cactus. Went down the ladder at Oil Slick Leap, which proved to be easy deep entry and exit. We ran into about 12 divers in the area. We saw a
large group of silver fish, swimming and feeding in a tight circle. Also saw a large group of blue angel and black angel.
Once out, traveled down the one-way road into Rincon, stopping to view
several dive sites along the way. We spent about 30 minutes in Rincon, searching for Prisca, the place that has homemade ice cream that everyone raves about. It's down a dirt road, right next to the
"pump station." We were there about 1:45 pm, but it was closed, even though it was supposed to be closed only noon – 1 pm, so now we have to make another trip back.
Tried to eat downtown, but
couldn't park the truck within seeing distance (The truck was full of our dive gear), so we came back to the house, unloaded all the gear and ate sandwiches. After resting, went to several shops, trying to
find Alana more pages for her SSI dive book. No luck. Padi is the common certification here. Did a little window-shopping. Lance found "plasters" for Alana's blisters. Her new
booties are better. The plasters help when dry, but it is still painful for her with fins on.
Came back to the house to get ready for the afternoon dive, which we did off the Carib Inn. Saw
spotted eel, arrow crab. Because it was getting a little dark, we also saw the sea cucumber/tiger's tail.
Cleaned up and went to City Café for dinner. BIG MISTAKE. The food is not
good. Even the chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate ice cream combo dessert that Alana ordered wasn't good. But it was fun to watch the flashlights of divers at town pier.
In bed by
9:30 pm.
JULY 16, 2003 WEDNESDAY
Lance is up at 5:45 am. Sandra up at 6:45 am. Sandra dreamed that her house was covered in coral. Alana got up at 7 am. We rented
her a shorty to wear over her dive skin because she's getting cold. The boat left at 8:30 am for Bonaventure at Klein Bonaire. Linda took us out with 5 other people. It was only a 7 minute boat
ride. Because she was afraid of getting seasick, Sandra quickly got under. It was Alana and Sandra's first back rollover off the boat. Saw two huge angelfish and a very large grouper. The
coral was great down the side of the wall. Back in the boat, Sandra is a bit queasy, but made it back to shore without getting sick. No more boat dives for Sandra. She rested awhile to recover
and Alana rested because her blister is scabbing over now and very painful. The shorty helped Alana stay warm. Linda said she places a piece of cotton over a blister and then uses duct tape.
Can't feel the blister with the duct tape!
Listening to Bob Seger and Dire Straits now!
While Alana slept, Lance made reservations to ride horses on Friday. We also made reservations for next
year. Lance will return on June 26 to get his Dive Master's certification with Bruce. What a birthday present! It's an intense 8-day class, so Alana and Sandra will join him on July 3 for a
week. Lance will be staying in one of the one-bedroom rooms with a kitchen and then will move to the house when Sandra and Alana arrive.
Once Alana was up from her nap, we went into town and did a little
shopping, while Lance checked email at one of the cyber cafes. Ran into Gary and June and made plans with them for Thursday.
Drove to the south side of the island to Lac Bay. This is the #1
spot in the world to learn windsurfing. It's extremely windy and the water is very shallow for a long distance out. There is a school and lots of people out. Alana wants to learn next
year. Next to the school is a "naturist" resort with tall walls, and no way to peek between the boards. We saw two men (separately, they were not together) that walked way out into the ocean.
Alana commented that it was funny to see "naturists" with white butts. One guy put on fins and snorkeled. We "worried" that a barracuda might swim below him. Ha ha!!
Took the long way
back along the ocean's windward side, which had huge crashing waves. We saw little memorials along the rocks and stopped to look. There was a lot of debris that had washed up among the rocks (dead
coral) and realized that people were using the debris to make works of art, propping sticks up in the rocks, and placing bottles and shoes on them as decorations.
Gary and June told us about Garden Café,
and that's where we had dinner. The shrimp skewers were great. We also had the hibachi placed at our table that had grilled chicken, ribs, and sirloin steak. The dinner included a nice salad
and fries. Very good dinner.
JULY 17, 2003 THURSDAY
The next few days will probably go fast now. Alana is sleeping in and letting her blisters heal. It's too painful to
put fins on. Lance and Sandra are headed out for a morning dive. Lance will go diving with Gary this afternoon and Sandra will go shopping with June. Alana will see how she feels and then
decide what she'll do.
Lance and Sandra left about 8:30 am and headed to Vista Blue. Once out a little ways, we dropped and swam out, rather than trying to walk out farther. Nice dive.
Nothing different, but we did see a tiny juvenile spotted drum with huge "wings" and a tiny body. Cute. Easy exit, too. Just let the waves roll you in, and then have Lance help you to your
feet. A small turquoise iguana kept Sandra company while she changed. It was hoping to be given food, but there was none to give. We watched a pelican dive into the ocean to feed and then fly a
little farther down the beach to dive in again.
Alana was still asleep when we got back about 11:00 am. June and Gary arrived about 1:30 pm. Lance and Gary went diving. Sandra and June
went shopping. Alana decided to stay in and give her foot a rest. Sandra and June went to buy duct tape, cotton and medication for Alana's foot. The medicated plasters help, but they don't
protect enough to let her dive. We're trying Linda's suggestion tonight on our night dive. Saw a beautiful tanzanite, diamond, and coral ring at Jewels of Bonaire, but Sandra decided not to spend the
money. Bought a bright blue Capri set for $12 instead.
Sandra and June found Alana in the gazebo reading Harry Potter #5. She said she enjoyed her day reading, while overlooking the
ocean.
Lance and Gary dove Fish Hut South. Fairly easy entry, good dive, lost of arrow crabs and a couple of large midnight parrotfish.
Had a nice visit with Gary and June when we all
returned to the house.
Off to have dinner at Donna and Giorgio's. Gary and June met us for some good pizza. Also had shrimp skewers, which were good, but not as good as Garden Café, and had to
peel the shrimp.
Got into the water about 8:30 pm. The pads and duct tape did not stop the pain for Alana. Lance has another set of fins that she'll try tomorrow. Maybe the foot shape is
different and won't rub the area. We've tried everything else. The only thing left is to just let it heal. Saw one green and one spotted eel, sea cucumbers, and a few fish. The tarpon did
not show up, which was nice. We didn't have to be bothered with him always in our light. Turned out the flashlights and saw the bioluminescence again. Short dive because Alana is in a lot of
pain.
JULY 18, 2003 FRIDAY
Our last day to dive, so we're up early and we headed north to Ol' Blue for one great dive. Have to be out of the water 24 hours before flying and our
flight is about 3 pm tomorrow.
What a FABULOUS last dive! Saw a turtle as soon as we entered the water! He swam to the surface, dove back down, and then swam up again! This was the first
time for Alana and Sandra to see a turtle while diving. We saw eel and groups of juvenile fish of all kinds. There was a huge French Angel and a large green parrotfish. It was an easy entry and
exit, too. Lance's black and white fins proved to be much easier on Alana's blisters. GREAT!
Afterwards, we took the long scenic route into Rincon, passing by the flamingo sanctuary. We
saw a lot in the water, but they were too far away to get decent photos. We also saw some very large iguanas crossing the road, but they were too fast to get photos of them. Once in Rincon, we easily found the
house for the famous Prisca ice cream, which is named after the owner's mother, who invented the ice cream. It's a little old house that has been converted into an ice cream stand. Of course, we all
had chocolate, which was served in little cups with bits of chocolate sprinkled on top. Yummy!
Once back at the house, we had sandwiches, cleaned up and went into town for a little
shopping. At 3 pm, it was time to head to Kunuku Warahama, the horse-riding academy. Marian's 16-year old daughter, Bebe, lead us on our ride. Sandra didn't realize just how dangerous it could
be to ride a horse. As we were heading out, she got too close to one of the horses staying behind, and it reached over and bit her on the knee. The ride through the cactus and by the water with
flamingos was nice. We stopped at a small cave that had bats flying around inside and little hermit crabs scudding at our feet. Lance and Sandra learned to wear jeans next time. The inside of
Sandra's legs are VERY bruised as is her knee, and Lance's legs are a bit chapped.
We hurriedly showered and changed so we could watch the sun set at Rum Runners. We had dinner right over the water
and the sunset was magnificent. Three large tarpon swam below. We ate the grilled platter that had beef, pork, and chicken. We also had the shrimp tempura, with wasabi mayonnaise sauce.
We drank "foo foo" drinks with stirrers topped with parrot, star, flamingo, seahorse, and turtle. Rum Runners is a great place to end a prefect week, good food, service,
atmosphere…………Perfect day to end our trip.
JULY 19, 2003 SATURDAY
Lance and Sandra were up at 6 am, drinking coffee down at the gazebo by the water. It
is so beautiful and the crabs are everywhere. We hate to leave. We were told that Air Jamaica would let you check inn and dump your luggage and get your boarding passes early, 10am. This was very
nice and it let us take it easy for the rest of the day. Then we headed back to downtown. Sandra commented several times about how good her skin feels. Alana read that there's a woman who uses the
Bonaire sea salt to make cleansing products and lotions, so we'll stop by there to check it out. Sandra has loved not wearing make up all week. Flight leaves about 3 pm, and we'll have to say goodbye
to our hearts that we're leaving behind in Bonaire. Already cannot wait until next year!!
It was a great trip thanks to the folks at Carib Inn, Bruce, Kitty, Frank, Linda…….and the rest
of the gang………Thanks and see you again soon!!!
Dive Sites
(I
recommend buying the yellow shore dive book for some great tips and suggestion, it can be purchased at most of the dive shops on the island)
Carib Inn – (Shore/Dock) We did many day dives here and 3 night dives. The reef is very nice, a little better to the north (Right). Night dive was cool to sport fish with the 4' tarpon and a flashlight. Shine light on a small fish and the tarpon swoops in and eats it.
Margate Bay – (Shore) Great site lots of good healthy coral and lots of fish. Little rough entry and exit due to strong southerly winds making surface waves.
Alice In Wonderland – (Shore) Easy entry and exit, nice dive with the usual suspects. Saw big schools of Blue Tang that would swarm in on coral to feed.
Oil Slick Leap – (Shore) Great site with new ladder to exit and entry from, if you do not want to do a giant stride off the ledge. The water below is around 10'-15' deep.
Bonaventure – (Boat) This is a site on Klein Bonaire, nice site with lots of fish and coral.
Vista Blue – (Shore) Great site way down south, lots and lots of fish, easy entry and exit even though the surf was up.
Fish Hut South – (Shore) Good dive and easy entry and exit, usual suspects, lots of buttery fly fish, arrow crabs and a huge midnight parrotfish.
Ol' Blue – (Shore) Great dive, I have always loved this site, always lots and lots of healthy fish and coral. There were schools and schools of fish of all sizes and colors. This is where Sandra and Alana saw their first turtle diving!!!
Restaurants
These are the ones we recommend:
Rum Runners
Garden Café
Donna and
Giorgio's
Cooking at home is always great
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