This was our 13th trip to Bonaire beginning in 1996 and the 12th staying at Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn. We obviously like it.
Danny, Becky, Jenn and Drew joined us. It was Drew and Jenn's 10th stay at the Carib Inn; Danny's 5th and Becky's 2nd.
Juggling diving, grandparenting, photography work, watercolor, fish and creature identification, gear maintenance, etc., made for a busy time.
The ocean on the west side of Bonaire and all of Klein Bonaire is the Bonaire National Marine Park (the original one in the Caribbean) so the reef and inhabitants are in as good condition as just about anywhere in the Caribbean. That said, we've definitely seen degradation in our many years of diving Bonaire — due almost entirely to human impact (insufficiently treated sewage, silt run off from construction, global warming, invasive lionfish). That's why we've moved from shore diving to boat diving with a focus on those areas far from people (way up north or down south or off Klein). Well, plus that putting all your gear into the back of a pickup, driving to the shore site, gearing up, diving, taking everything off, schlepping tanks, etc., got old. Boat diving at the Carib Inn is easier, although you still lug your own gear (valet diving is when they handle all of your gear for you). One close in site that we love to visit is Something Special - a great site for finding more unusual creatures such as Sailfin Blennies.
The Xs mark our dive sites on this trip.
Danny is a snorkeling aficionado.
Here with his Grandfather and Father:
and here going all-Zen:
Becky preferred her froggy waterwings although notice she has fins, too.
She also loved the beach and being babysat by Emmy (which let the four of us dive together):
And she was fond of decorating:
They spent the night with us - their first ever parentless sleep overs! During which we played games and worked on a jigsaw puzzle:
And woke up the next morning:
One evening Becky worked on her art with Valerie (but you knew that) and decided that the sunset needed livening up with a big storm.
Sure enough, the next morning we awoke to lightening and thunder!
Of course the focus is diving; here with Larry as divemaster and Edward waiting to snag us:
Underwater highlights:
- Spotted the first nudibranch we've seen in the Caribbean!
- Spotted a Frogfish. We regularly visited a mated pair off the Carib Inn, but we had been told they were there. Spotting one on your own is special. Of course I didn't have my camera on that dive, but trust me ...
- Valerie spotted a female Yellowface Pikeblenny. We'd seen males before.
- We spotted Redspotted Hawkfishes, which are not rare but we'd never noticed them before. They're the only Hawkfishes in the Atlantic; we've seen loads in the Pacific.
- Spotted a Dark Mantis Shrimp. Jean-Carlos spotted one on a later dive which was more photogenic.
Bottom line: Andy spent almost 27 hours and Val spent almost 23 hours underwater.
On to the photos!