Last Day in Bonaire

The diving in Bonaire is pretty spectacular. It is by far the richest and thickest with life that I've seen so far in my limited diving. Usually each dive has at least one standout creature -- so far I've seen a couple eagle rays, many eels, a frogfish, a squid, plus the normal triggers, angelfish (some giant), damsels, and tons of sponges and coral.

Most of the best diving seems to be between 25 and 35 feet. At around 25 feet begins the fringe zone where the bottom becomes more sandy and life a bit sparse, but this is where I've seen some creatures such as the squid as well as a hunting sharktail eel.

On the last day of diving (yesterday) I woke up a bit congested. I felt pretty good, and went out on the boat. The first dive was the wreck of Bonaire, the Hilma Hooker. Not the best condition to be in for a wreck dive, but I thought I'd give it a shot. At about eight feet, I felt the squeeze and couldn't equalize. I waved my buddies down and just decided to hang above the wreck and watch. It sits between about 55 and 100 feet of water from end to end. Eventually I slowly worked my way down to 35 feet by the end of the ship. On the way back I was able to descend slowly again, and was swimming along the top side of the hull towards the mooring line. I got to 65 feet which was right where the propeller assembly was, and where everyone was swimming at this point. I ascended slightly below the group, very slowly, letting the reverse squeeze slowly wear off before surfacing. I'm glad that I go to experience the Hilma, even though it's not a very good wreck in general (not much life).

On the second dive, it was more of the same, although it was a shallower dive to begin with. There was an eagle ray about 80 feet away at the bottom of the reef. I eventually worked my way down to 45 feet and then back toward the fringe zone. This is where I spotted the squid and swam behind it for several minutes. The squeeze was pretty bad on the way back up, but I had plenty of time to let it release slowly. But that marked the end of my diving for the day, and for the trip.

Today I woke up quite congested again. A bit after breakfast I found a scooter rental place in town and rented a scooter. After some initial shaky rounds in the parking lot I got the hang of it. I followed thee recommended route towards the north end of the island. I passed Radio Netherlands and its huge array of antennas (I used to listen to RN on my shortwave radio) and then onto Gotomeer (a lake) which is a designated flamingo preserve. Then I continued through the 'other' town on Bonaire, Rincon (the town we are near is Kralendijk). I stopped at the hotel for water and then lunch, and then headed south. Just past the airport is the Donkey Sanctuary, which was pretty cool. There is a drive through portion which I drove with the scooter, and the donkeys came right up. They were very docile but pretty aloof. They also had a lookout tower with a view over the sanctuary, and a nursery where the foals were eating.

After the sanctuary, I headed south past the salt pier and associated lagoons and salt works to the slave huts which is where the slaves (in the 1850s) used to live and store their things while working in the salt flats. The huts were tiny but picturesque against the turquoise water behind them. Rather than swing over to the east side of the island again, I turned around, filled up the tank, and dropped of the scooter. I was getting sunburned and the wind completely dried me out. But it was a blast!