Bonaire Vacations (Mostly)

Ireland – June 12 – Travel Day

2010-06-12T21:31:00.002-04:00

Normally both Trudy and I get very stressed about packing for a trip. For me it is all the electronic toys that I carry; I know I am getting no sympathy. This trip I didn’t get stress at all; at least not until the last hour with a little panic.

This trip is both a business trip for me, and a vacation for both of us. I have a conference in Dublin for two days, and we are doing some sight seeing the rest of the time. One of the tings that we have done differently is NOT actually plan out one of the weeks. We have an idea that we will travel around the country in our rented car, but we don’t have a reserved place to sleep the second week.

Trinity College is the location for the conference so we are both excited about discovering some of Dublin.

For this trip, Trudy is travelling “Business Class” on Aeroplan points. I was only going “Business Class” on the way home; but when I checked in online, I was offered an upgrade to Business Class for the flight over for $749. As this is the red-eye leg, I jumped at the chance. The flight has Pod seating that allows you to fully recline flat, so I might actually get some sleep on the flight.

Last Dive Day

2010-01-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

Another Klein Bonaire Dive

2010-01-20T23:00:00.001-05:00

Another Snorkel in front of our unit

2010-01-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

Snorkel in front of Bonaire Seaside Apartments

2010-01-17T19:25:00.001-05:00

Klein Bonaire Dive

2010-01-16T23:00:00.000-05:00

We did a two tank boat dive to Klein.

Washington Park - Bonaire

2010-01-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

We spent the day in the park located on the north end of the island.

Dive @ Something Special -- Again

2010-01-13T23:00:00.001-05:00

We drove to the south end of the island and looked at a few dive locations, and didn't like the entry; no easy way to get into and out of the water. We drove to the north end of the island, thinking that O'l Blue, a beach, would be an easy entry; no luck. We drove back into town and found one of my favourite locations; Something Special, and had a nice dive. Some photos from the dive below:

Windsurfing @ The Place - Bonaire

2010-01-08T20:00:00.001-05:00

Text to be updated later.

The Video version:

Work Day :)

2010-01-07T20:00:00.003-05:00

These are some photos from multiple days, but are all related to work projects. Last year after I came back from my Bonaire vacation, one of my Thursday men's doubles tennis players asked me if the condo felt like home; I paused for a moment and replied: "Yes, because every time I go on vacation there, I have work to do."

2010-01-05T17:20:00.001-05:00

We just didn't have the energy to go anywhere else to dive, so we walked over to Yellow Submarine and went for our second dive on the House Reef:

Snorkel @ Yellow Submarine

2010-01-03T21:42:00.001-05:00

2010-01-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

New Years -- 2009

2009-12-31T12:00:00.000-05:00

First drive North on Bonaire

2009-12-29T19:31:00.000-05:00

Checkout dive -- Yellow Submarine

2009-12-29T19:11:00.000-05:00

Slide Show

2009-11-27T18:00:00.003-05:00

New video from old vacation shots - 2008

2009-11-14T17:29:00.002-05:00

Non-Bonaire Vacation -- Spain

2009-05-31T20:13:00.003-04:00

While the name of the Blog is Bonaire Vacations, on May 31st, 2009 we enjoyed our first European vacation. We joined another couple who was already on vacation in Spain for their second week. It was a very last minute, spur of the moment thing. We enjoyed a wonderful week in the Costa Del Sol region on the southern coast of Spain. We rented a car and did a number of day trips. In addition to day trips within Spain, we took a tourist bus to Tangier's, Morocco for a day trip.

Pack Day to come home :(

2009-02-28T14:48:00.001-05:00

For most vacationers the last day of a vacation is not consumed with packing. For us, with all of the stuff we need to pack in the basement storage, it did take a big chunk of the day.

There will be NO MORE fish pictures until the next Bonaire vacation, which is scheduled for the last week of December 2009, and the first three weeks of January 2010.

Last Dive Day

2009-02-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day that we can dive. You are not allowed to dive for 24 hours before you fly. Because this is our last dive day we booked a Boat Dive for two dives. The Friday boat dives go to the north end of the Island to dive sites that you can’t shore dive from. The first dive site was known as “Bloodlet”. The dive started out slowly but near the halfway point Trudy found an octopus in the open. I was able to get a few shots of it.

We also saw a Midnight Parrotfish, a Barracuda, Scrawled Filefish, Drum fish, plus the other usual fish.

And least I forget, we also saw another Turtle.

The second dive site was called “Bonbininacas” which means “Welcome to my home”. The was nice, but no exciting creatures, with the exception of three “Midnight Parrotfish”. These fish are very large by Bonaire standards, as they can grow to 4 feet, and are quite wide.

In the afternoon we lazed around, cleaned some of the dive gear and had a nap.

In the late afternoon, a few of the Yellow Submarine staff came over for a happy hour drink. The owner of the shop Gerri, the manager Asko and one of the dive masters Carolyn came over to help clean out our supply of beer and wine.

We enjoyed another Bobbiejans meal and plan on the same thing tomorrow evening. I got the Steak dinner, and Trudy got the Chicken Sate.

Frog Fish – Part Deux

2009-02-26T07:18:00.000-05:00

We were going to do a morning dive to locate the Frog Fish again, and get some additional photos. Unfortunately Trudy was not feeling well in the morning, so I completed some more chores around the unit. I am almost complete with my work at the unit for this trip.

In the afternoon, Trudy was feeling better, and we got the dive in. We were eventually able to find the same location again, actually with a little help. A dive instructor came along with their group and I knew they were going to the Frog Fish, so I followed.

Tour Guide

2009-02-25T19:54:00.001-05:00

This morning started very early for us. I had my alarm set for 7:30am but as it turned out I didn’t need it. At 6:30am they started a large jack-hammer right beside our bedroom.

The not so funny thing was that they were done and gone by 2:30pm, so they didn’t need to start as early as they did. :(

At 9:00am we met Lori and her husband who were in port for the morning on their cruise vacation. Lori’s husband is not a water lover, so I was taking them to Lac Bay; Lori to enjoy a snorkel. The shot below shows Lori snorkeling:

While snorkeling we saw a couple of Reef Squid, which is only the second or third time I have seen them.

We also saw the usual fish that you see on a snorkel or dive, but in addition to the usual ones we also saw a Trunk Fish:

And a few Puffers, which was exciting for me as I have only seen one this trip so far. I should point out it that it was Lori’s eagle eyes that found this one.

Near the end of the snorkel we ran into a small Turtle, who let us get pretty close to him.

The hand you see in the next shot is Lori’s

After the snorkel I took them on the quick tour of the Island. We headed back to town around the south end, seeing the salt flats, salt mountain, some flamingos, the slave huts, and a few dive sites. We headed through town and up the coast north so they could see the differences in vegetation between the South and the North. I dropped them off at the Ship just a little past the deadline, but there was still a line up for them to get back on the ship.

The afternoon was spend napping; considering the lack of sleep we got last night.

And in ending, a picture of me working at the computer, correcting the photos of the day. And to appease some individual who has complained about too many fish shots. :)

South End Dive

2009-02-24T19:50:00.000-05:00

We did some shopping in the morning, and then a dive at the south end of the Island. The dive site is know as “Alice in Wonderland”. We enjoyed about an hour long dive, and saw a Slipper Lobster out in the open. At the end of the dive we saw our first Puffer the year.

The shot below is of a Slipper Lobster. This was the second time this trip we have seen this animal, and the first time we saw it in the open.

Drive North

2009-02-23T19:43:00.000-05:00

Today we wanted to have an early dive. By early dive I mean immediately after breakfast. We got started fairly early, and I decided that we would dive at a site know as “Ol’ Blue” as it has a bit of a beach meaning it has an easy entry, which is the most important thing for us. We drove north, and when we got to Ol’ Blue it was full of locals, and the beach was gone. Hurricane Omar must have destroyed the small beach area. So we continued to search for another site travelling north. We went as far North as you can drive before turning around. We headed back to town, and had some lunch. After lunch we headed out to “Bari Reef”, which you are no longer allowed to dive unless you are a guest of the Hotel, so we ended up in a public area just south of the hotel. We have always swam to the north when we dove Bari in the past, but this time we went south and enjoyed a really nice dive. We saw many Whitespotted Filefish, both large and small. In addition we saw another turtle, and some eels for the first time this year.

Dry Day

2009-02-22T19:44:00.000-05:00

I called a dry day, with no water activities. My ears get full of water after a dive, and it takes awhile for them to dry out. So after a two dive day yesterday, I decided to take a break from diving. I did manage to get the Batik’s hung, and as promised there are photos below. This job actually took most of the morning, once I got going.

We had “Bobbe Jan” take-away for lunch, followed by a nap for me.

For dinner we walked into town and ended up eating at “Bambu”

Boat Dive

2009-02-21T20:43:00.001-05:00

Today we did a two tank boat dive over to Klien Bonaire, which means “Little Bonaire”. It is a small uninhabited island just off of Bonaire, with healthy reefs for diving. The last hurricane that hit Bonaire did some damage to some of the shore diving locations on Bonaire, but on Klien many of the sites were protected, and thus less damage.

The afternoon was spend running around doing some shopping in town. We had a meal at “It Rains Fishes”, which is usually a good meal. Trudy had a lovely Wahoo with spicy a Creole sauce, and I had a T-Bone steak. The steak was undercooked, but I like red meat rare; but the real problem was the steak was mostly fat. They also forgot my French fries, which I had to ask for. This all ended well, as the waiter asked if my meal was good at the end and I told her about the problems. She talked to the manager who came over, and ended up removing the cost of my meal from the bill. I think this was over and above what was necessary, but I was happy; we will return.

Frog Fish

2009-02-20T19:58:00.001-05:00

On a second dive at Yellow Submarine today we saw our first “Frog Fish”. These guys are so ugly they are cute.

But again I get ahead of myself. The day started with me running around to the local hardware store to get the required hardware to hang the batiks that Trudy brought down on this trip. After three trips I think I have the required solution. I will post of photo once I get them hung.

After lunch we went down to the dive shop and talked to one of the employees who gave us specific directions on where to find the Frog Fish. We geared up and headed out to the location and started our search. After about 20 minutes I gave up and we did a dive on the house reef again. After the dive one of the managers “Asko” questioned me about finding the Frog Fish. I said I wanted my money back, as we couldn’t locate it. One of the other dive instructors, “Maarten” was taking a student out on a dive and Asko told him to take us to the fish. We both geared back up and headed out to the water again. This time the instructor was able able to locate one of the three fishes that are located in front of the dive shop. These fish do no move much and have been know to send years in a single area. Trudy and I spend a few minutes and I was able to get a few shots on the critter.

The day ended at my favourite restaurant, “Bobbe Jan”, for the usual steak dinner.

Life is good!

Tori’s Reef

2009-02-19T17:59:00.000-05:00

Today I took out the big camera housing complete with flash and macro lens. It took me a while to get it setup, but once I completed the setup we got the dive in before noon. The reef was very healthy, but no unusual animals on the dive.

In the afternoon we sat outside the internet provider, as this is the only way for us to get internet connections. At the unit we are still unable to connect. :(

Something Special

2009-02-18T17:11:00.000-05:00

Today we dove at one of my favorite dive locations; “Something Special”. It just a little farther north than Yellow Submarine’s house reef, and has the usual assortment of critters. You can also find a web camera that shows the reef.

We again saw another turtle; it was similar in size, so it actually might have been the same one we saw yesterday at Yellow Submarine house reef.

We also did some shopping for a few groceries, and few pieces of hardware so I can complete some additional projects.

Below are the rest of the photos from the dive.

First Dive – Buoyancy Check

2009-02-17T10:20:00.001-05:00

Today we finally made our first dive. On Bonaire all shore divers are required to perform a buoyancy check dive where you demonstrate that you can control your buoyancy on the surface. Once you have performed this basic skill you can go off and do a dive on the “house reef”; but I am getting ahead of myself.

The day started early for me; when I got up this morning it was raining, pretty heavily. I cleaned the front window, and puttered around waiting for Trudy to wake up. We went into town to check the Internet out at “Telbo” head office, which is the supplier of the wireless access at our unit. I was able to connect and so I reported the problem to the Help Desk. I have no idea when the problem will be fixed at our end. Trudy and I sat in the truck, windows up, in the rain, surfing the Internet and making a few calls on Skype.

After lunch we did the dive at the Yellow Submarine House Reef. For a dive that was directly in front of our unit it was a very enjoyable dive. We got to see a small Turtle, who let us swim with him for a long time. Considering that we didn’t see a Turtle last November it was god to see one again.

The first shot is of a Trumpet Fish

Then the shots of the Turtle.

And finally a shot of Trudy and the Turtle.

Island Time

2009-02-16T14:57:00.000-05:00

Today was a lazy day, we didn’t get our check-out dive done, but I did get a few things installed, and I got our buoyancy compensator vests setup with the required weights. We also got some more groceries, and a few things from the local hardware store.

We did manage to enjoy the Monday Night Rum Punch party at Yellow Submarine.

We still have no internet connection, and planed to have dinner at Cactus Blue, which offers free internet; but they were closed due to illness. After dinner we tried to visit Chat-n-Browse, they were also closed.

Getting settled

2009-02-15T21:26:00.000-05:00

Today was another boring day in the heat. It must have been about 30+ degrees. We unloaded all the stuff from our locker in the basement, got our scuba tanks filled at the dive shop, and got some money out of the bank to spend on the island. For lunch we went back to “Bobbe Jan”. Before dinner I enjoyed a “Brights” on the balcony.

The above tow shots are for someone who really enjoys a Bright’s :)

I then enjoyed the sunset.

Last Dive day :(

2008-01-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today is our last day that we can dive on this vacation; you can't dive within 24 hours of flying. We did two dives today, and I especially enjoyed the last one. I got a lot of photos on that one.

The full set of photos from our vacation can be found on my Smugmug page.

Another Shopping day, and afternoon dive

2008-01-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

The morning saw us doing more shopping. In the late afternoon we drove to the south end of the Island and dove at a site called Margate Bay. This dive turned out to be one of the top three dives on Bonaire.

We saw three different Turtles, and I got some shots of them below.

We also saw our first Scralled Filefish for this year, and I got a few shots of him.

In addition we saw the largest Green Moray Eel swimming in the open. He looked to be at least 6 feet long, if not longer. I was unable to get a good shot of him because as soon as he saw us he took off deeper, very quickly.

The full set of photos can be found on Smugmug.

Another afternoon dive

2008-01-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

In the morning we did some more shopping and later in the afternoon we did a dive at Oil Slick. We saw many Rock Beauties, a Cowfish, and a Spotted Drumfish. It was a nice dive.

A little shopping - a shore dive

2008-01-14T23:59:00.000-05:00

In the morning we did some shopping for furniture. The unit we are purchasing comes furnished, however it is still missing some pieces we think are necessary. We were just on a pricing and measuring trip this time. Unfortunately the "Super Store" was closed for inventory, so we will need to do some more shopping tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon we did a shore dive at "Something Special", its nice and close, and has an easy entry.

The next two photos show the same fish, changing colours.

Just another boat dive

2008-01-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

The morning started early, as Pat and Natalie were leaving on a 7 am flight. Natalie was sick all night, looked like food poisoning. This was the second person in our party to get food poisoning this year, and Natalie got it on a previous trip.

Later in the morning we went on another two tank boat dive. We were not alone on the boat, but almost; there was only four of us in total; Trudy, myself, the Capitan, and a new diver working at Yellow Submarine to become a Dive Master. Both dives were nice, but not as spectacular as yesterdays.

In the afternoon we had a nap. :)

For the full set of photos visit my Smugmug Account.

This is a photo of a Sharpnose Puffer.

This is a photo of a Queen Angelfish, which have all been pretty shy this trip.
This is a shot of a Moray Eel.
This is a close-up shot of the Sharpnose Puffer, these guys are about 2 inches long.

Best two dives on Bonaire - ever!!

2008-01-12T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today started early as we went on a two dive boat trip. These two dives turned out to be the best two dives we have ever done. On the first dive we saw a ray swim by. You can see the video below.

We also saw a very large Grouper at a cleaning station and lots a Black Durgon's.

The second dive we saw our second Sea Hourse, our first octupus out swimming, and a school of Jacks. In addition we saw a Puffer, a Drum Fish, and lot of Moray Eels, of all sizes. Some photos and video can been seen below. We enjoyed the dives so much we signed up another boat dive tomorrow, and at the time we booked we were the only ones going, so it might be a private dive.

This is a shot of the largest Baracuda we have ever seen. The photo does not do it justice; I will usually go in prety close for a shot, but this was a little scarry.

Below is a photo, and some video of our first octopus, swimming in the open in the daytime.

This is a video of a Drumfish.

This is a video of a Trumpetfish.

2008-01-11T23:59:00.000-05:00

The day started early again, as Trudy and I lay awake in bed thinking about the new unit, and all the things we needed to do and get for it. We went to the “Home Depot” equivalent on the island to purchase a tape measure so we could measure a few things in the unit. They gave us two new ball caps with the purchase of the measuring tape :) We then headed over to the unit and spent about an hour taking more pictures, inspecting, and measuring anything that was nailed down. We had an 11 am appointment with Martijn, the real-estate agent to actually sign the documents, but a power failure on the island knocked out their server with all the information, so we simply have to wait.

In the afternoon we did a dive at Bari Reef, which we have done on other trips and enjoyed. On this one I took some video, which is viewable below. Sorry no photos, just moving pictures.

In this video you will see me bugging a small school of Grunts.

In this video you see a White Spotted Filefish, one of my favorites.

In this video you see a couple of Trumpetfish

In this video you see a Spotted Moray swimming in the open. They are not normally seen in the open in the daytime. This guy was almost 5ft long.

In this one you see the Smooth Trunkfish, with a Rock Beauty swimming by.

In this one of a Peacock Flounder I followed.

Seaside Apartments viewing

2008-01-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

The day started fairly early with Trudy and I playing about an hour of tennis at 8 am. We then got some gas for the truck and started looking for some breakfast food. We were unable to locate any place that was open so we headed back to the unit for some breakfast. Before we could have any breakfast Pat and Natalie decided they were heading over to Seaside apartments to take a look at the units. We decided to tag along, as we wanted another look at the unit we are interested in. We spent a couple of hours viewing all four apartment configurations; one bedroom duplex (Unit we are interested in), one bedroom main floor; and the Studio, which Pat and Natalie are interested in. The studio units were actually small one bedroom, however, they were finished inside before the rest of the building was completed and the furnishing's are not as nice. Another problem with these units is that the access is from a long narrow stair case that you enter from outside the main building. Natalie has some reservations and concerns about these units and I don't think they will purchase. We are still very interested in the one bedroom duplex unit.

We headed back to the unit for some lunch and discussion about the apartments we saw. A little later in the afternoon, Trudy and I headed over to the real-estate office to purchase the one bedroom duplex unit. Our sales person, Martijn, actually talked to us for a while about the process and answered a few questions. We didn't have our passports with us so we were unable to actually provide an offer, so we have an appointment tomorrow at 11 am to prepare the offer, but we intend on making the purchase.

That pretty much killed the day for us, and I suspect that most of tomorrow will be consumed with the purchase process.

2008-01-09T23:59:00.000-05:00

The morning started relatively early with some web surfing, and blog updates. We also saw this big cruise ship come into port. Pat was sick last night with food poisoning from a new restaurant.

In the afternoon we managed to enjoy another dive at one of our favorite sites, "Karpata". It was a short dive as I was having difficulties with my mask leaking.

The viewing of the Seaside Apartments

2008-01-08T23:59:00.001-05:00

These are some shots of the Seaside Apartments. We are interested in a two story, one bedroom unit located at the far end of the building in the shot below.

Additional Photos of the building and other units can be found at: my Smugmug Account.
The official web side of the Apartments.

Below is a shot of the pool, and common area. The pool is very small.

This is a shot of the front entrance of the unit we are looking at, as you can see they are still completing work on the building.

If you walk down the hall you will get to the small bedroom.

Before you get to the bedroom there is the bathroom.

When you go upstairs the main living area is a long room.

These are a couple of shots of the kitchen area. The units come fully equipped and almost ready to rent out.

The following is the view from our main living area on the second floor.

And lastly the units has a basement garage with stalls for each unit, this is a shot of a typical stall.

First real dive... Yahoooo!

2008-01-08T23:59:00.000-05:00

In the morning we went to look at the Seaside Apartments and are considering a purchase of a two level one bedroom unit. In the afternoon we did a dive at a location called Something Special, and really enjoyed the spot. The full set of photos can be found at Smugmug.

Another non-diving day

2008-01-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

We did not get our dive in today, but we did play about an hour of tennis this morning, first time on this vacation. We did some real estate surfing in the morning, and plan to look at a unit tomorrow, Bonaire Seaside Apartments. In the afternoon we took another snorkel. This time we did a "no-no" and did some feeding of the fish. I had a few leftover pieces of a bun from lunch, so I had Trudy feed them.

Another Lazy day on the beach :)

2008-01-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

Trudy is still suffering with a cold, but is improving. We did a snorkel in the morning, and I took a walk in town to take some shots of some of the buildings. Maybe tomorrow we will try a dive.

For the full set of photos visit my GordAlder.smugmug.com account.

Did nothing...I love vacations :)

2008-01-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

Trudy was still not feeling well so we had a good day of rest. I managed to assemble a short video with some of the pictures from our first week on the Island.

Sick day :(

2008-01-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

The day started out dead calm, which is not good for the windsurfers, but would be excellent for us if we were diving, but I am still not. We essentially hung around the unit for the day, and I managed to do some snorkeling in front of our unit. Natalie also stayed at the unit, and she progressively got sicker and sicker as the day went on. In the end she has lost her voice. My cold seems to be getting better, but now it looks like Trudy is coming down with the same cold; so it might be a while until we can dive :(

The full set of photos from the vacation can be found at: gordalder.smugmug.com

Butterfly Farm Visit and Snorkel

2008-01-02T23:59:00.000-05:00

The morning started with the third largest privately owned yacht in world cruising in the bay. See http://www.yachtcrew-cv.com/paulallen.htm for additional details, but the yacht has two helicopters, 7 boats, and a 10 man submarine that can sleep 8 and say under for two weeks. It cost Paul Allen $200 million to purchase, and about $20 million to operate each year.

After breakfast we headed out to the Butterfly Farm and enjoyed a few hours with the butterflies. The photos are both mine and Trudy’s; she grabbed the camera from me and took a bunch of shots. After the farm we headed out to Lac Cai, which is the far side of the bay from the windsurf location. We then headed back to the unit for some lunch. A nap occurred, and we got up after lunch around 3pm.

We headed out for a snorkel at Andrea I. This was followed with a swim in the pool and later dinner on the balcony; we had French Bistro take out.

Below are a few shots from the day:

Below is one of the videos I took on the snorkel:

For complete set of photos visit: http://gordalder.smugmug.com/gallery/4089746#238363943

Snorkel and Rest

2008-01-01T23:59:00.000-05:00

After breakfast Trudy and I went for a snorkel in front of the unit, and enjoyed a few good sights. I was able to test out my macro lens setup and got a few good shots--see gordalder.smugmug.com for the complete vacation photos set. In the afternoon we did some lying around the unit and the pool. I still have my cold, so still no diving for me. I am improving, and hopeful to dive in a few days at worst.

New Year’s Eve

2007-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

I officially have a cold and am unable to dive. We did a bunch of grocery shopping this morning, as the stores will be closed on New Year’s Day. We relaxed around the pool, and I had a nap later in the afternoon. I needed my energy for this evening. We went out for dinner with Pat and Natalie at Blue Cactus, and spent three and a half hours in the restaurant, mostly waiting for service and food. The excuse the owner gave us was that they had a group of 20 that slowed things down. When the meals finally arrived, the others were good, but mine was just OK. It was the toughest piece of Filet Mignon I have ever had. We got back to the unit about 10:30 and we were all in bed by 11:20. My excuse was I had a cold!

Our location on Bonaire

First dive

2007-12-30T23:59:00.000-05:00

Trudy and I did our buoyancy check dive with Yellow Submarine in the late morning, and then we continued with a dive on the house reef. I got a couple of decent pictures.

Run around, rest, and do nothing but be busy

2007-12-29T23:59:00.000-05:00

The day started early for us, 6:15am, as Pat and Natalie, who are joining us for two of the weeks we are here, were arriving on the red-eye flight from Houston. The same car rental firm forgot to pick them up at the airport, so they took a cab and arrived at about 7:20am. We had arranged for our rental truck to be dropped off at the unit at 8am; they showed at 8:50am. They informed me that they had given away our rental truck, which was a nice one, and they only had a wreck for us. I asked if they had Pat and Natalie’s truck, and the woman looked at me funny. She didn’t and said that she had them arriving later in the day. I had told them on the phone the night before that Pat and Natalie were arriving on the red-eye in the morning and not to forget to pick them up. She said she would be back in about 30 minutes with Pat and Natalie’s truck, so we went out to get some breakfast. Our truck had no seat belts and Trudy didn’t want to keep it. When Pat and Natalie’s truck arrived we talked to them about getting a new truck. We arranged to exchange the truck at 5pm for a brand new truck. At 5pm when we arrived at the garage to pick up the new tuck and they had the hood up and were working on it. Apparently the air conditioning didn’t work; we took the truck anyway and they are going to e-mail us when they get a new truck and we can again exchange.

We also did some grocery shopping and got registered with Yellow Submarine for the diving for the next three weeks. And I managed to have a nap.

The evening ended with a wonderful meal from “Bobbie Jans”. I want everyone to understand how much I like this restaurant. On a web site dedicated to Bonaire; www.bonairetalk.com, there was a post asking for your 7 favourite restaurants; I posts “Bobbie Jans” seven times. They are only open on the weekends, so I will be having them again tomorrow evening.

Travel Day...continued

2007-12-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

We were exhausted from the day before and slept in until about 10am, and just managed to get some breakfast at 10:50 before the restaurant closed. After breakfast I connected to the Internet and searched flights on American’s web site and discovered that they were selling seats on the Bonaire flight we wanted; our hopes were raised. We checked out at noon and proceeded immediately to the airport. The first stop we made was the American ticket office to get two tickets for the Friday flight. After explaining our situation the agent informed us that the ticket fee would be $252 more, plus the $100 change fee. To say the least we were not happy about the mixed messages. We tried to reason with the agent but she would not budge; she did say that we should go to line 5, American Eagle check-in line, and talk to a supervisor; they might be able to waive the change fee. Fortunately the line was short and I explained the entire situation to the supervisor; she asked for our passports, which she scanned into the system. She then informed us that the system was not asking her for anything and we were now confirmed on the flight to Bonaire that evening at 6:55pm. YA HOOOO! Now we just needed our luggage!

I went down to the United baggage claim office and to my surprise they had our entire luggage (4 bags). We went back to the American counter and checked our luggage and proceeded to wait until the flight. The flight was relatively uneventful, except myself and another individual were ticketed with the same seat; he really wanted mine, but I sat in it first. He made a big stink, and almost got himself tossed off the flight. He took his seat, but the flight was delayed while we waited for a supervisor from the ticketing desk to come out to talk to him. They told us that he was actually re-assigned to the seat he was in and I was in the correct seat. So we departed about 20 minutes late. On the surface this may not seem like a big deal, but that 20 minutes cost me a meal at my favourite restaurant, “Bobbie Jans”. I got to the restaurant 10 minutes before they closed, but they were out of food for the day. As a side note, the car rental agency didn’t show up with our truck, so we had to wait until the next day to get one, but that’s another entire story, almost as sad as our flight story.

We did finally enjoy a meal at one of the few restaurants that was still open; most of the kitchens close at 10pm, so we were lucky.

Travel Day - Start of new Vacation

2007-12-27T23:59:00.000-05:00

Normally traveling to Bonaire takes about a day. It starts with an early morning flight from Ottawa ending at about 9:30pm in Bonaire. This trip was not going to be that easy for us.

The adventure started at 3:15am on Thursday morning when our alarm went off, which meant that we had about 3 hours of sleep. We got to the airport before 4:00am which was fine, but no one from the airlines was present. We got checked in and at the counter with Air Canada and proceeded through security and US Customs. While waiting for the plane Trudy checked the departure screen for the Ottawa – Washington leg, and noticed that our flight was scheduled for 45 minutes later than we thought. We checked our connecting boarding pass and it showed our boarding for the Washington – San Juan leg before we arrived in Washington, it had been re-scheduled to leave 40 minutes earlier, leaving us less than 30 to connect. We left Ottawa and arrived in Washington after our flight had left for San Juan. I checked the departure board and saw another flight to San Juan was departing in about 30 minutes, so we managed to get on that one. The wrinkle is that this flight had a stop in St. Thomas first, then on to San Juan. Up to now, even with this longer flight we still had lots of time to make the connecting flight from San Juan to Bonaire. Instead of a five hour layover, we still would have about three hours. We flew no problems to St. Thomas, where they would not let the San Juan passengers off. They boarded the plane in St. Thomas and taxied out to take off, but we didn’t. The pilot came on and informed us that there were mechanical problems and they would need to look into it.

By the time we landed in San Juan, we had missed our connecting flight and we had been on the plane for a total of nine and a half hours without being allowed to get off. The biggest problem for us was that we were changing carriers, so United was not responsible for getting us to Bonaire, just to San Juan. We were on our own for accommodation and as far as American was concerned we were just a customer who didn’t show up for a flight.

As our luggage didn’t make it to San Juan we went to the Baggage Claim office to track it down. They checked their records and it showed our luggage was scheduled to arrive on the 10:30pm flight later in the evening, so we decided to leave it until the next day to pick it up. The agent made a few calls for us to locate a hotel room, which typically runs $200 - $400 US per night. The hotel at the airport was fully booked, and he gave us a number for another hotel located in Old San Juan. We then proceeded to the American ticketing office to see what they could do about our missed flight. They indicated that the flight on Friday was fully booked but they had room on Saturday. It would be an $84 ticket cost change charge, plus the $100 change fee per person. They also indicated we should get to the airport three hours before the flight on Friday if we wanted to try standby. We decided to call the hotel to see if they had a room and wait until tomorrow and try the standby route. We were able to get the hotel and enjoyed a good sleep in San Juan.

Day 7 - A THREE dive day -- WOW

2007-09-08T09:50:00.001-04:00

The day started with a two tank boat dive to Klein Bonaire; they were originally planning on dives to a couple of sites on the north end of the Island that you normally can't shore dive, but I guess plans changed. We were diving with Yellow Submarine for this boat dive, and were told that we had a full boat of 10 people. Imagine our surprise when they filled one of their smaller boats with 12 people. The dives were good, we did Captian Don's and Carl's Hill. After lunch and some rest, I convinced Trudy, with some help from Mike and Jeannette to do a third dive of the day, just to look for the Sea Horses at the Yellow Submarine house reef. We had spent a couple of dives last year looking for the Sea Horse, but were not successful. Well, thanks to Mike he was able to locate the Sea Horse and I got a few photos of him.

Day 6 – Hospital Visit

2007-09-06T17:44:00.000-04:00

The day started slowly, as Trudy’s tooth ache was bothering he again. She got this tooth ache on the Friday before we left for vacation. We cancelled the two dives we had planned this morning, and went to look for a dentist on the Island. Today is a State Holiday, and everything is closed until Monday, so we came back to our unit to make a call to our dentist in Canada. They indicated that it was most likely an abscessed tooth and it was infected. They recommended that she get some antibiotics and take some pain killers. So off to the Hospital we went. The Hospital was not busy and we were seen relatively quickly; the doctor prescribed the required antibiotics and told us where we would find the only open pharmacy on the island. It was open for one hour, from 11 to 12, and we arrived at 11:30. After we got the drugs we had some lunch and then headed back to our unit to watch some of the US Open tennis. The afternoon also involved a nap for both of us; Trudy has not been sleeping well so she needed it, and I don’t have a excuse, but hey, I am on vacation.

Day 5 – Double dive day

2007-09-06T17:38:00.000-04:00

The diving has started for real now. We dove the Barri dive site, which we remembered from last year as a good location. This time we dove with Mike and Jeannette and the dive took us deeper than we normally go, but it was no real problem. We ended our dive earlier than they did, and afterwards we headed back to our unit for some lunch and a rest. In the early afternoon we drove to the south end of the island to dive another site, but the surf, and entry looked to challenging, so we headed back to a site, still on the south end, but closer to town called The Lake. This was my first dive that I felt comfortable on the dive, not fighting the new equipment. It was a nice dive for me.

Day 4 – second day of rain

2007-09-04T21:54:00.001-04:00

The day started out nice, and I was working on the blog in the early morning by the pool. Trudy joined me and mentioned that the sky looked black; I decided to pack things up and head back the room. For the rest of the morning, and in the early afternoon if poured rain, which is very unusual for Bonaire. The shot below shows the view out our unit.

In the afternoon things cleared up and we were able to get in our second dive at a site called Karpata. We have done this site before, and enjoyed it. One thing that we noticed was that there was a fairly strong current running north. We were not used to this on Bonaire. I only managed to get one good shot underwater.

September 3 - First Dive

2007-09-04T09:06:00.000-04:00

We loaded up all of our new gear into the truck and headed down to Wannadive for our buoyancy check-out dive. Trudy forgot our voucher for the pre-paid air package we had, so she was explaining to the guy behind the counter about this. He then indicated that they were not honouring the Golden Reef Inn vouchers. At this point I got into the discussion, and asked him if he could check with his boss as this problem was resolved the day before. The “boss” was on the boat with the morning dive group was the excuse I was given. I said, doesn’t he have a cell phone on the boat; eventually he called the boat, but the “boss” was on the dive. He suggested that we do our check-out dive first and we would straighten out the payment after. At this point he asked if we had an appointment, which we were told we didn’t need, and he said we would need to wait 30 minutes until he was taking another class down. We then proceeded to get our weights for the dive and begin our 30 minute wait. Eventually in the heat and waiting I decided that we would simply go over to Yellow Submarine and do our diving for the week with them. We took our equipment and loaded it back into the truck, at which point Trudy remembered that we had forgot to return the weights. I took the weights back to the dive shop, and as I was leaving I noticed that the dive boat was just coming back. I went over to talk to the “boss”, Bob. I explained the situation to him and that I would be posting my experience on my web site. He again said that Golden Reef Inn was behind in payments. I said that my problem had been resolved the day before, and that I was not happy to again have to go through the grief of arguing with his staff, and that he and Golden Reef Inn should get their act together. After some discussion, he said that we should do our check-out dive, and that yes I was correct, we didn’t need to wait for the instructor, we could go immediately.

One thing I have left out of this experience is that yesterday we were at the shop getting the briefing on tank pick-up and drop-off, and I noticed that they didn’t have any of the smaller 63lb tanks, which are easier to handle. Yesterday was a no-dive day, so I was concerned that they didn’t have many of this size tank. Bob assured me that there would be plenty of the smaller tanks for the rest of the week.

Once we started to get geared up for our first dive, the staff we very helpful, getting the analyser, getting the tanks, and helping with the suit-up process. Bob eventually reported back that yes, in fact I was correct, the Golden Reef Inn had paid for the air, and all was good.

I believe that both parties in this dispute are partially at fault, and me the customer is getting caught in the middle. I hope the rest of the week is trouble free for us.

We walked to the far end of the beach for our entry (translation: we were hot, and the sweat was pouring off us by the time we got in). We both headed out and tested our buoyancy, which was successful. We both then started to descend in the shallows, 10ft of water, and both had problems staying down. I got out and walked back to the dive shop to get us some more weights. We then added weights and we were both able to get the correct buoyancy when at depth.

The visibility was terrible; Felix had kicked up a lot of silt. Things only improved as we got out over the reef, but this reef was in bad shape. I got a few photos which I have posted below.

The photo below is of a boat that got pushed up on to the beach by Hurricane Felix; Wannadive was talking about making it another wreck off their shore, but I don’t think the authorities will let them.

After the dive we headed into town for some lunch, followed by a nap for a couple hours in the afternoon.

In the evening we hooked up with another couple at the resort, Mike and Jeannette, who were from Ottawa. Mike noticed that Trudy was drinking coffee from a Tim Horton’s travel mug and asked if she was from Canada. They live in Orleans and have both been diving for the about the same period of time as Trudy and I. In fact Mike also was a certified diver 30 years ago, and he stopped diving, similar to me. They are a little more serious about their diving and have over 200 dives, whereas Trudy and I have about 50. We enjoyed a meal at a French restaurant called Bistro de Paris.

September 2 - No Diving :(

2007-09-04T07:10:00.000-04:00

Thankfully, hurricane Felix turned a little north and was just a big rain storm for us, so we were not evacuated, and the power didn’t go off. The only impact to us was that diving had been cancelled for our first day due to the surf. We went down to the office to get an update, and connect to the Internet to find out what was happening with the storm. We went down to Eden Beach and the waves were between 3 and 4 feet, so we were not unhappy that there was no diving. We have some new equipment to check out and wanted calm waters to do this. The dive Wannadive shop gave us a hard time about payment, saying that the Golden Reef Inn was $30,000 in unpaid dive vouchers. We talked to Liz at Golden Reef Inn and she immediately straightened out the problem. Turns out that Wannadive had been charging things to the Golden Reef Inn that they shouldn’t have been. All things turned out OK. We did a short drive around town to see how things fared from the previous evening’s storm; the biggest impact was that the streets leading to the water we closed and the street that ran along the water front was also closed.

In afternoon we spent some time in the pool to cool off, it feels much warmer at this time of the year because of the humidity. I was looking at the current weather reads from Eden Beach and it said it was 100% humidity, which normally means it’s raining, but it wasn’t. I went for a late afternoon nap and woke up about two hours later, and there was no sign of Trudy in the unit. I correctly assumed that she was talking to someone. I returned to the pool to find her talking with Liz the owner of the Inn, and Renota, the former owner of the “Lost Penguin” restaurant; our favourite breakfast restaurant no longer on the island; they sold, and the new place is not as good. For dinner we did my favourite “take-away” again, but this time we ate it by the pool, and I enjoy a couple of Polars (beer) with my meal. After dinner I got my computer and Trudy spent some time on Skype with her daughter, OK, she talked for about 45 minutes.

Again...Sorry no photos

September 1 - Travel day

2007-09-04T07:06:00.000-04:00

The travel day started very early, 4am cab; and we both only got about 2 hours of sleep. I know I was thinking about work, so I will be charging overtimeJ. The flight to Newark was on time and smooth and we were able to connect easily to the Newark-Curacao flight. On the Curacao flight I watched the first movie, Oceans 13. Good thing that I didn’t pay to rent that one, two thumbs down. I had already seen the second movie, so took out my laptop and turned it on. The Acer boot screen came up, followed by a blank black screen. The next thing displayed was “Disk error, CTLR-ALT-DEL to restart”. I tried a few times and finally gave up. I assumed that my hard disk had failed and I was not a happy camper. (more on this later!)

We arrived in Curacao about an hour and a half before our next flight and went off looking for the check-in counter for our next flight. We only had our tickets from Ottawa to Curacao, and we needed to pick up the tickets for our final leg from a carrier called Divi-Divi. We looked at all of the check-in counters and were unable to locate our carrier. We went and had some lunch and about an hour before the flight we went back and found that our check-in counter was now open. I have decided that I don’t like the electronic signs; if they had an old technology sign we would have seen that they had a counter, instead of looking around the airport to see if they had a separate ticket office. The individual behind the counter was a young gentleman who was wearing a harness that gives you back support, and looked more like a baggage handler than a ticket agent. The check-in process was slow but no problems; there were about 7 passengers on the flight. At the gate they made the boarding announcement in another language, so we didn’t jump up to board. Eventually we figured it out, but we were at the back of the line.

I have flown Bearskin airlines many times, and small planes are not a problem for me. We approached the plane and it was pretty small, the boarding was done from both sides of the plane; the plane was so small they had no room for carry-on luggage, other than a woman’s hand bag. Trudy and I both hand-checked our luggage; by the time this was done all of the seats were taken except for one. One of the guys on the tarmac motioned to Trudy to get into the plane at the front where the pilot seat was; looking at this she discovered that she would be sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. I immediately volunteered to take the front seat. The pilot got in and started the engines; wow it was loud! It was an amazing view of Bonaire as we approached and landed.

We arrived on Bonaire and discovered that the same guy we have rented our trucks from in the past was also there to give us our truck. We drove to the Cultimara supermarket for some supplies and then headed over to the Golden Reef Inn. On the door was a notice about Hurricane Felix and that we might need to be evacuated because we were located within 500 meters of the ocean. We were told the power on the island would be turned off between 11:30 and 12:00 for the rest of the night.

We unpacked, sort of; I left most of my stuff in the suitcases, so I could move them to higher ground easily if required. I took out the laptop, and removed the PCMCIA card reader that I had put into the slot, and powered up the computer. This time it booted up fine. Phew!

We had some dinner at my favourite “take-away’ restaurant, Bobby Jans, WOW. We then decided to go to bed early so if we got evacuated later we would have had some rest.

Sorry...no pictures.

Underwater photos from our last vacation

2007-08-25T17:52:00.001-04:00

Jan 19 - Last day of the vacation

2007-01-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day of the vacation. We had our account to settle with Yellow Submarine, and again they gave us a very good deal. We did a little island touring to some of the dive sites that we were at. We also went out to Lac Bay for a late lunch.

Jan 18 – Last Dive day on Vacation

2007-01-18T13:13:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day that we can dive on this vacation; we need to allow 24 hours after our last dive before we can fly. Today is very calm and we have wanted to dive Atlantis which has been the Kite Boarders’ location for a while. The reason we haven’t done it is because of the dangers of diving at the same spot as the kiters. They are supposed to stay in the deeper blue water, but frequently they sail in the shallows. We have heard of one near miss between a diver surfacing and a kiter, so we have been reluctant to dive here. As today is calm there is a good chance that no one will be kiting at the location, so we dove there. We ended up seeing a Spotted Eagle Ray and I managed to get some video of him swimming by. On this dive I was taking mostly video, so I only have a few shots.

For a complete set of photos and a link to the Ray video, follow this link.

Jan 17 – Tennis and Dive

2007-01-17T16:44:00.000-05:00

With the vacation winding down, we only have one dive day left after today. We started early with some tennis, first singles and then some doubles, which was nice. We played in the heat for about two hours. Later in the morning we went for a dive at Yellow Submarine again; still looking for the Sea Horse. I did manage to get some nice shots of the Porcupine fish.

For a complete set of photos follow this link.

Jan16 – Donkey Sanctuary

2007-01-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

Today we sent out the last email blast back to friends in Ottawa. After the internet café visit we did a little exploring and found ourselves at the Donkey Sanctuary, so we took the drive through the park. This is the first year that they have the drive through; in the past you could walk with them. There were a few picnic areas where you could get out and walk with them.

For a complete set of photos visit the vacation web site.

Jan 15 – Just another dive day

2007-01-15T09:46:00.000-05:00

Today we dove at a site called Andrea II. This was a nice dive; we saw the usual collection of fishes. Before the dive we did some shopping and a short internet run. The afternoon was spent napping. In the evening we had dinner at our unit with Pat and Nathalie followed by a game of cards.
For the complete set of photos follow this link.

Jan 14 – Tennis and Dive day

2007-01-14T08:42:00.000-05:00

The day started out at about 7:00am with some planned tennis. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side; it was raining and the courts were wet. We headed back to the unit to continue our sleep. A little later in the morning we decided to do a dive. We had two locations picked out--Bachelor’s Beach and Bari’s Reef, so I had Trudy choose the location. We were then off to Bachelor’s Beach, which was my preferred location. We started the dive, and the water was very murky; it didn’t improve much by the time we got to depth which was about 40ft. I was struggling with my mask and the visibility was bad, so I called the dive off. We then headed over to Bari’s Reef still in our wetsuits. It turned out to be a very easy entry/exit and a nice dive.

For a full set of photos, follow this link.

Jan 13 – Tennis and vacation home shopping

2007-01-13T08:38:00.000-05:00

Today I finally got caught up with my web site, and sent out a quick email. We did a quick drive up to the Santa Barbra area to look at a few homes that were for sale. After seeing the local homes our hopes were dashed a little; I think we will be waiting for a reasonably priced vacation income property before we take the leap into Bonaire real estate. For a full set of photos, follow this link.

Jan 12 – Another veg-out-day

2007-01-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

Today we did an almost total veg-out. We managed to get to the Internet Café for a quick check of our mail, and a little research into purchasing vacation property in Bonaire. The reason that we vegged out today was because we were terrorized last night by a few mosquitoes that kept waking us up.

Jan 11 – Double dive day

2007-01-11T10:48:00.000-05:00

We started the day at 8:00 am by meeting with Phil and Brian to go on a dive at Karpata. This was a nice dive and lasted almost an hour. I think our dives are starting to last closer to the hour, rather than the 45 minute mark. After lunch we went for another dive at Yellow Submarine. I wanted to try a dive with 2 pounds less weight to see if my buoyancy control would be better underwater. It was perfect. I think this was the first dive I truly enjoyed; I had tightened my mask, so I had no leaks, and I had excellent buoyancy control. At the end of the dive Trudy found the largest Porcupine fish (or puffer) that we have ever seen. According to one of the fish identification books we have, they typically grow to a maximum of 3ft, and I think this guy was that or more. For the complete set of vacation photos follow this link.

Jan 10 – Another day of rest

2007-01-10T10:46:00.000-05:00

Today we got up early and enjoyed about an hour of tennis--any longer and it gets way too hot to play. The rest of the day was spent lazing around the unit. I did spend many hours working on the web site catching up with today.

Jan 9 – Another Boat Dive to Kein

2007-01-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

For this boat dive we were on the public boat, and our group was 4 divers and 3 snorkelers; the other group was 7 divers. We did two dives sites on this trip, and we managed to see another turtle. I got a couple of shots, and then switched to video and got a nice close-up video of the turtle. When we got into the water at the first site we were greeted by a school of silver fish, and one French Angel. These fish were obviously used to being fed by divers, even though you are not supposed to feed the wildlife. One of the fish actually bit Phil when we got into the water and one bit me when we were exiting. We enjoyed a wonderful meal at a restaurant called “Swiss Chalet”.
For a full set of photos, follow this link.

Jan 8 – Dive at Oil Slick

2007-01-08T10:57:00.000-05:00

While the dive site name sounds bad, it is a nickname given the site, as it was going to be the planned oil container port; fortunately the port was built at the far north end of the island. On this dive we saw our first Flamingo Tongue. In the afternoon we did a little shopping. We met up with Pat and Nat at Karel’s Pier for happy hour and then had some dinner.
For a full set of pictures, follow this link.

Jan 7 – True day of rest

2007-01-07T10:56:00.000-05:00

Today we did absolutely nothing. We did however get up very early (5:15 am) to take Erin and Scott to the airport for their flight back to reality. We then lazed around the unit for most of the day, with one short trip into town for money and the Internet. In the evening the gang came over and we enjoyed pizza and salad on our patio.

Jan 6 – Boat Charter

2007-01-06T10:52:00.000-05:00

Today was Erin and Scott’s last full day on the island, so we chartered a boat to take us over to Klein Bonaire for some diving and snorkeling. Trudy and I did two dives and the kids did snorkeling at two different sites while we dove. The reef system is very healthy on Klein and we saw a few new corals and a cleaning station manned by multiple Banded Coral shrimp. In the evening the entire gang came over to enjoy Bobbiejan’s takeaway on our patio.

For a full set of phots follow this link

Jan 5 – day of rest, sort of

2007-01-05T21:36:00.000-05:00

While we did one dive, we did manage to get some shopping done, but mostly spent the day relaxing. We got to the dive location called “The Cliff” at about 3:30 pm and had no problem getting into the water; however, getting out was another story. We swam into the shallows too far and had difficulty getting up, which means the surf had time to pound us a little. Trudy got bashed up a little and had a small stumble as she was getting out--nothing serious, other than a couple of minor scrapes and bruises. At the beginning of the dive we saw two Cowfish mating; it was the first time for us to witness this behavior. I tried to get some shots but they were a little too far away.

For a full set of photos follw this link.

Jan 4 – Washington National Park

2007-01-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

We got to the Washington National Park at about 10:00 am and started the day's trip. The roads were in very good condition because the rainy season has been fairly dry. This is good for a couple of reasons: fewer mosquitoes and the roads in the park are not washed out. Because the roads were good, we were able to take the long route and enjoyed seeing some things that we had not seen before. We ended up having lunch and doing some snorkeling at Boka Slagbaai, which is a very nice bay, with some historic buildings, and one of the few beaches on the island. To see the full set of photos for this day follow this link.

Jan 3 – Second Discover Scuba

2007-01-03T17:28:00.000-05:00

Today Erin and Scott had their second Discover Scuba dive. This time we were able to follow along for part of it and got a few photos. We had lunch/breakfast back at our unit, and then headed out for a second dive/snorkel at Witches Hut. Erin and Scott were on the hunt for a Seahorse. The guide from the Woodwinds trip told them what type of coral to look for in order to find them. We all went off looking but had no luck. For all of the vacation photos follow this link.

Jan 2 – Woodwinds snorkel trip

2007-01-02T17:23:00.000-05:00

Today started early as we had to get to the Divi Divi resort by 9:00 am to catch the Woodwinds sailboat. The boat took us over to Klein Bonaire for a drift snorkel. Now I hear the words “drift snorkel” and I assume we simply let the current take us from the start to the end; not so. The entire group got into the water and took off like a shot. I eventually caught up, but it took a while. The snorkel was good; I saw three turtles, and managed to get a video of one. The boat then took us to a snorkel location on the main island. It was a much slower snorkel, and I enjoyed it much more. After this snorkel they served us lunch as we sailed back to the Divi Divi resort. The remaining afternoon was spent laying about the unit, as some of us (me) didn’t use sun screen and got a little burnt.
Follow the this link to all the Vacation photos.

Jan 1, 2007 – Happy New Year

2007-01-01T17:16:00.000-05:00

Today was another slow day that started early. I went for a snorkel in front of our unit to test the camera, and the operator. I still don’t know why yesterday’s shots were out of focus, as today everything was fine. You can find the full set of photos on my web site. We enjoyed a dinner in of chicken stir fry.

For all of the photos from vacation please follow this link.

December 31 – locals go nuts with fireworks.

2006-12-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

Today started out slow, and we didn’t get going until later in the morning. We started with some shopping for food, and then had lunch back at our unit. I then managed to fall asleep in the chair on our balcony. In the later afternoon we did a dive at Angel City. This is a dive on the south end of the island; it has easy entry and is part of the double reef. We entered and descended to the edge of the first reef; we were surrounded by a school of squid; this was Trudy’s first experience with squid. I followed them around trying to get some close photos, which would have been nice except none of my photos from the dive were in focus. DAMN!

We then went out for supper with Erin, Scott, Natalie, Pat, Phil, and Philemina at a new Mexican restaurant that we had heard good things about on the Bonaire Talks web site. The food was OK, but most of us would not get the same dish again; however the two-for-one happy hour was a huge hit. After dinner we all returned to our unit to watch the fireworks. This not the same as any fireworks display you would see in Ottawa. People started letting firework off at about dusk, and it continues unit the wee hours of the morning. We went to bed at 1:00 pm and they were still going strong. So imagine hundreds of locals with fireworks letting them off all over the island. At 11:00 pm we were looking out over the horizon from our third floor balcony and it looked like a war zone; everywhere you looked there were fireworks being shot off, and the downtown core was covered in smoke from these fireworks. I have never seen anything like it.

December 30 – Two dive day

2006-12-30T17:07:00.000-05:00

Today Erin and Scott have their Discover Scuba dive at Yellow Submarine, and we want to dive with them on that dive, so I decided that we would do two dives today. The first dive was the reef right in front of our unit, and considering that it is in town, it turned out to be a nice dive. At the very end of the dive as were returning we saw a large Spotted Eagle Ray. I got a picture, but by the time I snapped it he was moving quickly away.

The second dive was at the Yellow Submarine house reef. By the time we got to Yellow Submarine, Erin and Scott were just getting ready to go for their dive. By the time we got to the water, they were doing there skills testing in the shallow water. I took a few shots and then Trudy and I headed out to deeper water to wait. We waited quite a while and apparently one of the other people doing the Discover Scuba was having some difficulty, so it was taking a long time to start the dive. I decided that we should start our dive, so we headed out on to the reef for a nice short dive.

To view all of the photos from the day visit the web site and follow the links

December 29 – Tennis

2006-12-29T17:06:00.000-05:00

The morning started early for both of us, so we decided to get a little tennis in. Trudy had no problems playing after her recovery period from her operation. This day was a veg-out day.

December 28 – Second Dive @ Tori’s Reef

2006-12-28T13:15:00.000-05:00

Spent the majority of the morning getting Erin and Scott’s car rental. Bencho car rental was suppose to deliver the car at 9:oo am, but they didn’t show. After a phone call, we agreed that we would pick up the car at their location at 10:00 am, island time. We are quickly remembering that island time is anywhere from one to two hours after the agreed time. Once we got the car we had lunch at Wanaburger, which will not be a repeat location.

In the afternoon we all headed out to Tori’s reef for our second dive. It was a long swim out to the reef, which Trudy complained about. I think the swim was worth it, as the reef was very nice and it was an excellent dive. I was however struggling with my mask the entire time.

To view the all of the pictures follow this link to the pictures

December 27 – South end of Island tour

2006-12-27T13:10:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning with a bad case of “swimmers ear”; I couldn’t hear out of the right ear, and every so often I had a sharp pain. As a result I had no burning desire to get in the water today. In the morning we did some shopping; first for a replacement wireless card for my computer, and then for groceries at the Warehouse. After lunch back at our unit we headed out to the south end of the island for some snorkeling and sight seeing.

Our first stop was at a site called Angel City, where Trudy, Erin, and Scott went for a snorkel. Trudy returned after about 30 minutes, and Erin and Scott returned about an hour later. We moved a little further south to a location called The Invisibles. This time I said I wanted to go for a short snorkel, mostly to get cooled off, but also to see how my ear would react. By this time it was almost cleared, but still not perfect. I went in and did a shallow dive; I was able to equalize my ears, so I was very happy. After this snorkel we continued to travel south, doing a big loop around the bottom of the island, and ending up at Lac Bay. Along the way we passed both sets of slave huts, and saw a very large flock of flamingos. After getting cleaned up Trudy and I went out for dinner at “It Rains Fishes” and of course I had a steak, which was excellent, while Trudy enjoyed the catch of the day being “Wahoo”. Erin and Scott enjoyed leftovers. After dinner Trudy and I went to the Internet Café and got my new wireless card working. A few emails were sent, but no web updates were done.

To view the all of the pictures follow this link to the pictures

December 26 – Orientation dive

2006-12-26T13:07:00.000-05:00

Today Trudy and I did our orientation dive at the Yellow Submarine House Reef. We first went and got our Nitrox dive tanks, and we enjoyed a 40+ minute dive. I went down to 50ft, and Trudy hit 43ft. The highlight was to see two large Tarpon cruising along just below us looking for a meal. Erin and Scott managed to get in two snorkels, one in front of our unit, and one at Yellow Submarine, while we did our dive. We had spaghetti dinner at the unit and went for a walk after to hunt for some ice cream.

To view the all of the pictures follow this link to the pictures

December 25 – Christmas in Paradise

2006-12-25T13:03:00.000-05:00

The day started with Erin making pancakes for breakfast which were very good. We then drove to Lac Bay for some snorkeling. This location is usually an excellent spot, and one of my favorites. What I didn’t realize is that we have been enjoying especially high winds lately, and this causes a fairly strong current to flow into the bay. This made it impossible to actually swim to the better parts of the reef. This a little disappointing for me, as the first two snorkel locations for Erin and Scott turned out to be not the best the island has to offer. The evening ended with a huge meal at Casablanca restaurant.

To view the all of the pictures follow this link to the pictures

December 24 – First day on Island

2006-12-24T12:53:00.000-05:00

The car rental agent showed up with our truck, which was a good thing, as we didn’t have any way to contact them. We also wanted to get an extra set of keys for the rental unit, including the safe key which was missing. Our unit had a cell phone, so we called the rental agent to get the required keys. On the way to breakfast we stopped at the office and she had everything we needed. We had breakfast at the new Lost Penguin, and will not be returning. We acquired some food supplies at the local Cultamara grocery store. We then did our first snorkel at Ol’ Blue, which was OK, but not a great introduction for Erin and Scott. The highlight of the day for me was dinner at Bobbiejans, the best “Take-away” food ever. As it was Christmas Eve and the place was not busy we actually ate in the back court yard.

To view the all ofthe pictures follow this link to the pictures

December 23 – Travel Day

2006-12-23T12:49:00.000-05:00

It was Scott’s first time on a plane! Everyone did some sleeping on the first leg of the journey, which took us from Montreal to Miami. The Miami flight departure was delayed by about 20 minutes due to mechanical problems; the generator died just before they started the engines. The flight from San Juan was delayed a number of times, but we did get off eventually. We arrived in Bonaire at about 11 pm--2 hours late. One piece of luggage did not arrive. Our truck rental was missing in action, but the rental agent was there. We took a cab to our residence, and got settled in.

December 22 – Pack and drive to Montreal

2006-12-22T12:47:00.000-05:00

Today I was off; I needed the time to pack all of my toys. I actually managed to get all of the camera equipment into my carry-on bag; which is now very heavy. As it was my birthday, Trudy had made reservations at Baton Rouge for 5:30pm; we arrived at around 5:10 pm, and I enjoyed my ribs dinner. We then headed out to Montreal where we were staying for the evening. The trip started at around 6:30 pm. We got about 40 minutes out of Ottawa, and then came to a dead stop. We were experiencing freezing rain on the drive, and a number of cars and trucks were in the ditch. We were stopped for about one and a half hours. The entire trip took over 4.5 hours. We got to sleep at about 12:30 am and had a wakeup call for 3:30 am.

One word: Exhausted!

More Camera Equipment...

2006-12-20T23:07:00.000-05:00

The camera has arrived, and I have also purchased an underwater housing it, which also just arrived. This one will serve as my backup camera and housing, and when I want to travel light.

I also managed to get the blue cover for the camera on ebay. This will give it a little more protection. The camera is shock-proof from a 5ft drop and water-proof to 10ft for one hour. The housing will make it water proof to about 100ft.

Trudy has almost finished packing, and I have yet to start.

Pictures from Last Year!

2006-12-02T19:26:00.000-05:00

The image below is a quick and dirty collage from the final set of images taken last year.
To see the full set of images from last year follow this link.

More purchases

2006-11-29T23:08:00.000-05:00

I have received both of the new binoculars from Olympus, and I am happy with them. They are a higher power than the other ones I purchased. I guess I will need to sell the old ones on ebay to recover some of the costs. I am currently watching another Olympus auction for a new Point and Shoot camera. This one is the 720 SW which is water proof to 10ft, and it would replace the current camera that Trudy is using.

Third Bonaire Vacation

2006-11-27T01:11:00.000-05:00

This December we leave for a four week vacation to Bonaire. I am already getting excited about this vacation, as it will be the longest one ever taken down south.

I have purchased a couple of items for the trip and I am still looking for a good carry on bag to hold all my goodies.

I have purchased a new dome port for my underwater housing; this one is smaller than the original one I purchased and will travel better in the carry on bag. I also purchased a couple of new Binoculars from Olympus Auctions on ebay. In addition, I purchased some stick-on bifocal lens that I will stick on the inside of my dive mask; I should now be able to read my dive computer, and my camera.