Bonaire 2001

     On January 20, 2001, Laurel and I went to the Island of Bonaire. In case you never heard of it, Bonaire is near Aruba, located above the northern border of South America (about 50 miles north of Venezuela).

     This was a diving vacation for me, and a snorkeling vacation for Laurel (although she's now close to putting on a tank and trying it next year).

     We stayed at the newly renovated Divi Flamingo Hotel. On their grounds is Dive Bonaire, the dive shop we used for the trip.

     A nice thing about the resort was that it had a pier by the dive shop with a shack at the end. You could store your equipment in the shack so you didn't have to shlep it back and forth to your room. Also on the pier were tanks that were available 24 hours a day. Any time you want to dive (when you didn't go out on a boat) you can just grab a tank and go. They even let us take them off site, which we did to do the beach dive at Angel City (pictured) (sort of).

     Speaking of which, the diving was- needless to say- awesome. Despite destruction of a lot of the reef by Hurricane Lenny, Bonaire continues to be one of the best dive sites in the world. There is such an abundance and variety of fish that even the snorklers on the trip saw a lot from their vantage point.

     Some highlights for me: Barracuda, HUGE lobsters, Angelfish (always my faves), Squid, Pufferfish, Hawksbill Turtles (rare), Green and Spotted Moray Eels, and- extra special- Sea Horses.

     The best dive was my last night dive. A tarpon followed us the whole time and we watched it feed. In case you don't know, a tarpon is a huge sea-monster of a fish. This one must have been over 4 feet long and probably about 300 pounds. At one point it got so close to me it practically left scales on my mask. They're harmless to humans, though.

     Other activities included a trip to Washington-Slagbaii Park, bird watching, kayaking, and just driving around the island (the island is 24 miles long by 7 miles wide, so we drove all of it in about a day).

     We also visited the Donkey Sanctuary. Donkeys roam wild on the island and are often hit by vehicles. The sanctuary is a place which rescues them and- when possible- nurses them back to health.



     Goats and many lizards also roam wild. When we visited the park, we brought lunch and ate at the picninc area. As we sat down, we were practically stampeded by all the lizards in the area. They've obviously been fed by other picnickers, and we were no exception. Some even ate out of our hands.

     All in all, an awesome adventure, so much so that I titled this section "Bonaire 2001" because I will be going back again next year.

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