Bonaire 2024 (page 2 of 9)

Start Slide Show
Page: Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next

Day 2: Feb 11, 2024

We started the day at Ingridients Restaurant, which serves the daily breakfast included in our dive package. There was an assortment of cold meats and a couple of cheeses, breads, plus a made-to-order egg/omelet bar. There was also tea, many juices, and coffee for drinks. At 9 AM we had our orientation meeting to explain how the diving works. We also took care of getting our vehicle for the week, with is an "OROCHS" type small pickup.

After that, we headed back to our room to prep for our first dive. We chose to dive the "House Reef" at Buddy's just to get a feel for diving again and make sure everything works. We could climb down the steps directly into the water so it was a good intro for shore diving. Right at the beginning, Greta saw a small coral head that had a trumpet fish, a parrot fish and a small moray eel! After that, we saw some various fish, including some sort of grey and white sea snake. We went past the wreck that was the end of Buddy's Reef and went further down. When we surfaced we were still a bit further north of Buddy's but it was a quick swim back. This was our first Nitrox dive.

We then showered and headed into town for groceries, not realizing that it was the day of the big Mardi Gras parade, and the main street was completely closed off for a pending parade. When we finally got to the grocery store we wanted to go to (van den Twiel's), it turns out it was already closed for the parade. We tried another store close by, which was open, but it was very local and didn't really have food we were looking for. Mike had set up to have internet service on his phone for the day, so we found a close-by-area that had three grocery stores in a row. The one we parked at ALSO was closed for the parade but the one next door, Lucky Grocery, was open and ready for business. We got our water & snacks, plus some Heineken, but had a long line to stand in because EVERYONE was going to that store. We got some non-typical snacks (coconut wafer cookies, plantain chips, cheese filled Wasa cracker sandwiches, etc). It was also a challenge to get back to our room, with the closed road, but with Google Maps, we were able to find a path back that wasn't too bad.

After getting back, we decided we'd go for one more dive. We got the book out and chose Cliffs, which was just up the road. We loaded our gear into the truck, went through the drive-through station to get our air tanks, and off we went. We got set up and went to the beach. The waves were crashing in (we later found out this isn't typical of this time of year but they've had storms and wind recently) so we both fell down before going under. Once under, all worries went away again. Things were calm below the water, and we followed the pipe marker out to the reef, where first went south, then north past the pipe and then back again. There was a bit of a current so getting back to the pipe took more effort than going past it the first time. We did see some great fish - Greta was excited about a porcupine fish, and we saw a pair of trumpet first that were BIG, and Mike got some good pictures. Getting out we got tossed around by the waves again a bit but were able to get out. After loading everything back into the truck, we headed back to the resort, and unloaded everything at the drive-thru. We need to do a double-rinse here - once with chlorine water, and once with fresh water. This is due to SCTLD (Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease) - it's affecting a lot of the coral around the island and they want to try stop the spread as much as possible. Therefore, all dives are marked with a color indicating how prevalent the disease is, and you are asked that if you are diving a "red" zone (where's it is prevalent) to not dive anything other than "red" for the rest of the day, and then be sure to clean our gear.

We had decided at one point during the day to take the oscropod night tour. It's a bioluminescence algea that lights up in the dark, so it's a night dive. We relaxed at our room for a while, and Greta got some pictures of noisy birds that turned out to be brown-throated parakeets. They are beautiful! There are also some orioles around that look just like the ones at home. We also had some of our snacks and just took it easy.

Once it was time for the dive, we got our gear loaded up. Our room is perfect - it's just outside of the dive shop and both restaurants. This was also the meeting spot for the dive. We met up with the dive master and two other people then headed to Oil Slick for the dive. She gave use an intro to all about what we were going to do, but then we had to wait an hour for sunset (she's not sure why we have to meet as early as we do). Once it was getting dark, there was another group that showed up to do a night dive. That wasn't ideal because their flashlights would completely disrupt the bioluminescense we were hoping to see. We all got in, and tried to go south, but their lights were too much, so she got us turned around we head headed north. The further we got from them, the better we could see the "sparkles" in the water. It was interesting being in the dark and but yet seeing all these sparkly things. Eventually, we turned on our lights, and swam back, looking for other night-active creatures. A few big tarpon swam with us, looking for snacks brought out by our lights. We climbed back up the ladder and headed back to Buddy's.

After getting all our gear cleaned up, we headed across the parking lot to Ingridients for supper but it turns out they were closing early due to lack of staffing (Mardi Gras "illness" related - only two staff members showed up). So we tried "Rum Runners" which was just north of Buddy's. They were able to seat us about 5 minutes after we arrived. We ended up getting a wonderful 2-seat table right on the water away from everything - best seat in the house. There were open tables but we found out later that they also were short-staffed due to Mardi Gras. No matters - dinner was fantastic. Mike had a Heineken and Chicken Satay - a great Dutch meal. Greta had the catch of the day (dorado, aka mahi mahi) with beans and rice, plus veggies and a frothy drink called "Summer Bug". Everything was wonderful! We could even watch a few giant tarpon hang out in the light off of the patio.

Once we got back to Buddy's, we were done. That was a GREAT first day of vacation!

img_5318.jpg 02/11/24 07:56:58 (large image)	img_5319.jpg 02/11/24 08:11:24 (large image)	img_5320.jpg 02/11/24 08:11:42 (large image)	img_5321.jpg 02/11/24 08:28:10 (large image)	img_5843.jpg 02/11/24 08:44:08 (large image)	img_5844.jpg 02/11/24 11:45:32 (large image)
img_5845.jpg 02/11/24 11:45:34 (large image)	img_0849.jpg 02/11/24 14:41:30 (large image)	img_0850.jpg 02/11/24 14:42:54 (large image)	img_0851.jpg 02/11/24 14:43:04 (large image)	img_0852.jpg 02/11/24 14:43:48 (large image)	img_0853.jpg 02/11/24 14:43:54 (large image)
img_0854.jpg 02/11/24 14:44:28 (large image)	img_0856.jpg 02/11/24 14:46:16 (large image)	img_0857.jpg 02/11/24 14:46:24 (large image)	img_0858.jpg 02/11/24 14:46:40 (large image)	img_0859.jpg 02/11/24 14:48:54 (large image)	img_0860.jpg 02/11/24 14:50:48 (large image)
img_0861.jpg 02/11/24 14:54:24 (large image)	img_0862.jpg 02/11/24 14:54:34 (large image)	img_0863.jpg 02/11/24 14:55:26 (large image)	img_0864.jpg 02/11/24 14:55:40 (large image)	img_0865.jpg 02/11/24 15:03:10 (large image)	img_0866.jpg 02/11/24 15:04:00 (large image)
img_0867.jpg 02/11/24 15:04:16 (large image)	img_0868.jpg 02/11/24 15:07:10 (large image)	img_0869.jpg 02/11/24 15:07:36 (large image)	img_0870.jpg 02/11/24 15:19:36 (large image)	img_0871.jpg 02/11/24 15:19:44 (large image)	img_0872.jpg 02/11/24 15:24:44 (large image)
img_0873.jpg 02/11/24 15:25:08 (large image)	img_0874.jpg 02/11/24 15:25:28 (large image)	img_5187.jpg 02/11/24 16:32:17 (large image)	img_5190.jpg 02/11/24 16:33:06 (large image)	img_5191.jpg 02/11/24 16:33:06 (large image)	img_5192.jpg 02/11/24 16:33:12 (large image)
img_5193.jpg 02/11/24 16:33:16 (large image)	img_5196.jpg 02/11/24 16:39:04 (large image)	img_5200.jpg 02/11/24 16:40:52 (large image)	img_5846.jpg 02/11/24 21:33:02 (large image)	img_5848.jpg 02/11/24 21:38:42 (large image)	img_5849.jpg 02/11/24 21:38:58 (large image)
img_5322.jpg 02/11/24 21:41:06 (large image)	img_5850.jpg 02/11/24 21:41:18 (large image)

Page: Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next

Start Slide Show