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Trip Reports: It's miserable....to be home!
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: It's miserable....to be home!
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sheila K (BonaireTalker - Post #53) on Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 12:07 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well, not really miserable... but snowy & cold!
Our 4th trip, two weeks this time, came and went much too fast. And we realized that two weeks just isn't enough! Thanks to all the BT'ers that helped answer some of my questions before we went.
A quick report:

Weather was overall great, some rain but it must have cleared up quite a bit compared to the weeks/months before. Didn't have much trouble at first with mosquitoes, but they did eventually find me! We took some Ben’s Wipes with 30% Deet and it worked fine (only used in the evenings after diving)

Diving was good, we just enjoy being in the water. We mostly dove the northern sites; Andrea’s, Webers Joy, Jeff Davis, LaDania's Leap, Oil Slick, etc. Viz was not as good as past trips, water temp. between 79 & 81. The best part-I found a seahorse at Oil Slick! We did notice lots of fish life going on, coral bleaching seemed to be bouncing back and loved watching the sargent majors fiercely guarding their little patch of purple eggs!

We stayed at Divers Paradise, good & clean accommodations for us, very helpful. Had a great stay overall. One of the owners was there and it was great to meet her. Very kind and thoughtful and we had some enjoyable & memorable times visiting. We also love meeting the folks in the evenings staying at Black Durgon.

We only dined out a few times:
Bonaire Grill Truck & Orange Express are our favorites-delicious and reasonably priced!
El Fogon Latino-we really like the seasoning on their meats & the cassava, price may be a bit higher than last time, but still within our budget.
Buenos Aires-good food with good sized portions, their daily special is priced good. Enjoy the view.
China Nobo-great fried rice with generous portion, pineapple chicken was good but very little chicken in it (mostly sauce) We got two meals out of this.
I thought I had read that the Lion's Den had big hamburgers that were really good. We ate lunch there, although they sent us to the pool bar to be served and I must confess, a little disappointed. The hamburger was maybe 2"x3" (more bun than burger) and maybe 12 fries. Seemed rather inadequate for the price, and not particularly good. (hate to complain, but this was the only one we wouldn't go back to)
We love the bread at Cultimara and the mini-bananas we bought from the Venezuelan farmers(?) downtown, which were so sweet and delicious.

We were hoping to do several things topside, but because of all the recent rain, the park was closed most of the time, and the roads to the butterfly farm, donkey sanctuary & mangroves were a big waterhole. So, this gives us another excuse to plan another trip! We did hang out a Lac Bay twice and enjoyed watching the windsurfers and beautiful water. We drove thru Rincon, stopped at the school, but it was closed. Next time! Visited Seru Largu, and that was a beautiful view.

Mostly, we just enjoyed our time on this beautiful island we have come to love and look forward to the next adventure! (sorry, guess it wasn't such a quick report after all)
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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lloyd H (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #635) on Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 12:51 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Nice trip report and great photos , thanks

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brian ******** (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4869) on Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 3:23 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Sheila nice pictures.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Julia Graves (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1595) on Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 4:18 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

The pool bar is not connected with Lions Den, perhaps that was the problem with the burger.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By "Barbie"Ruth******Ken's forever love (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5357) on Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 8:32 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for a nice report of our favorite island! Love the pictures too :)

PBD is bad right now with all the snow and cold weather...this helps!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By elaine sculley (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1895) on Friday, January 21, 2011 - 2:17 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

thank u for report and veryyyyyyyy nice pics

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gail T.*********** (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #5007) on Friday, January 21, 2011 - 11:15 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

How's the black Durgon reef and Small Wall? Any lion fish sightings there?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By marge karalis (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #979) on Friday, January 21, 2011 - 11:34 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thank you for your report. Your pics are great. Would love to see more, please.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eric author of "Why is the Grass Green?" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1548) on Friday, January 21, 2011 - 1:23 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Really nice pics.

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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By R J (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #194) on Friday, January 21, 2011 - 9:26 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thank you for your report and lovely pictures.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sheila K (BonaireTalker - Post #54) on Friday, January 21, 2011 - 11:45 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for everyone's kind remarks and replies! I did forget we also got takeout pizza from a small place behind the yellow church.(I believe one street behind) I think it is called Centro Pizza Adonais(?) It was really good!
Gail T- We did see several lionfish at Black Durgon Reef, none at Small Wall. I think we marked one or two there. We saw about 10 or 11 total the whole trip. It is sad to see so many of these beautiful creatures doing damage to the reefs...if only they would behave themselves! The diving was very nice at both sites.
BarbieRuth-sounds like you have the same weather as us-sometimes it is nice to warm up through pictures!

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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sheila K (BonaireTalker - Post #55) on Friday, January 21, 2011 - 11:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Sorry, my computer didn't cooperate, so here's a few more pictures I hope you enjoy.
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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Beth (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #199) on Saturday, January 22, 2011 - 10:31 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I LOVE your Parrot Photo. We are leaving for Bonaire on FEB 5th and I am counting the days.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Pietri Hausmann (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #488) on Saturday, January 22, 2011 - 11:33 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

FYI ..not parrots but the indigneous PRIKIHCI.. the Caribbean or Brown-throated Parakeet...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By "Barbie"Ruth******Ken's forever love (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5377) on Saturday, January 22, 2011 - 11:34 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great picture of the parrots and the iguana! If you have more pictures, keep them coming! It really does help to warm up the cold winter doldrums :)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By marge karalis (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #983) on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 10:08 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I agree totally, Barbie"Ruth". Keep those pics coming.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By KOB (LBR32) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #412) on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 8:13 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Excellent photos, Sheila! Thanks for posting.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sheila K (BonaireTalker - Post #57) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 1:41 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Since you asked....here's a couple more pix!

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e A new variety of coral?? Believe it's called ice crystal tree! Ooops, guess this looks more like Idaho than Bonaire!

Ohhh, how I wish we were going back already...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Guilherme Losch (BonaireTalker - Post #26) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 9:44 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

It´s equally beautiful!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By "Barbie"Ruth******Ken's forever love (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5386) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 4:52 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Sheila, the sea lettuce slug is an awesome shot! I love those little creatures. I have certain things I look for when I'm diving and that is one of them!

Interesting tree coral ;) We have a lot of that around my area too right now!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By **Jim Mc **-- But you can all me Link (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5016) on Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 7:37 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Wow, absolutely tremendous pics, both topside and beneath the sea!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By elaine sculley (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1940) on Friday, February 4, 2011 - 1:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

fabulous pics. really enjoyed
thank u

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sheila K (BonaireTalker - Post #58) on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - 4:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks, everyone! We are always in awe of the variety in the underwater world, and it such a beautiful place to be. Sometimes I wonder why we stay landlocked! (especially when we just had -20 below zero...brrrr!)

I'm not sure what is in the picture that looks like eggs? Or is it something else? Any help would be great. Also a couple more pictures I hope someone enjoys-

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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eric author of "Why is the Grass Green?" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1584) on Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 4:00 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

No idea on the weird stuff. One of the nicest banded coral shrimp pics I've ever seen. Cool sunset. Did you use "sharpen" on Photoshop to get that effect?

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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sheila K (BonaireTalker - Post #59) on Friday, February 11, 2011 - 2:21 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks, Eric. I did do an "auto sharpen" on my editing program, but this was pretty close to the actual picture my camera took. (except losing lots of resolution to post here) I was playing with my manual settings on my camera this trip (I really don't know anything about photography) after someone explained the ISO, F-stop, etc... stuff to me. For some reason, this photo came up with these beautiful colors! We did have lots of clouds & very different & beautiful sky colors while there because of all the rain.
I think I'll post the "weird" pictures on another forum for some help!
Have a great day-

 


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