This is a report of our first time to Bonaire, and we loved it!

That's the lovely Laurie sending everybody greetings in the school of fish, and the peek-a-boo Jim hiding behind the rock. Give us a little while to get the photos resized and the captions written, and we will have a decent report of our wonderful trip!

I do have a question for all you experienced people -- what the heck are these cute little Nudibranch things?

(Message edited by aeroplane on September 16, 2006)

And what is this ugly (yet fascinating) night critter?

Jim and Laurie, can't help with your question but I love your pictures! Looking forward to more!

The fist photo is of a " Purple-Crowned Sea Goddess" Nudibranch, Your second photo I believe is of a "Beaded Sea Cucumber".


Jim

Agh. All I ever see are cute little sea lettuce. I'd love to see A "Purple-Crowned Sea Goddess".
I love the Diver-though-Chromis shot. I just love brown Chromis, even if they are common.
I'll look forward to more pics!

nice pics ;)

So how about some boring trip details before going back to photos...

Flew in to Bonaire on the Continental flight from Houston - everybody complains that it's a red-eye, yep, it is, and so what? Because you can fly direct to Houston from just about anywhere in the US and then take one more flight straight to Bonaire, without an overnight (because of the late departure time...) it really is convenient.

Of course, the Plaza didn't have any of our rooms avaliable when we arrived... However, we had a chance to meet and talk to 2 couples who wound up being on our boats for the rest of the week and immediately struck up some great friendships! Of all of us that arrived on that plane (5 am or so at the hotel) our rooms were ready at 9:30am, 1:00pm and (sadly) about 5:00pm. However that is where the complaint about the Plaza begins and ends. It's a nice hotel with good facilities, the breakfast buffet is quite good (in stark contrast to our trip to Cozumel last year...) and Toucan Diving is the best big operator I have ever dove with!

Ok, enough about that for now -- back to pictures!

Well, things started out slowly, especially since this is my first underwater camera, so the first two days of photos are pretty much junk and/or deleted by now. But on our first full day we saw the only green turtle of the trip. The dive site was 'Sampler' on Klein. He came up near the boat during our interval to say hello, and we found him much later in the dive, and then this picture was taken almost at the end.

Of course we saw a bunch of Eel, like this guy who would like to say 'Hi' to everybody...


And since I love Flounder, and only saw one during the trip, here is the good picture of it. I also got some great video of it, with a wonderful color change as it landed on sand, but I stupidly didn't take any photos of it when it was white..

Our third day we went to the Hooker, and had the beginnings of an incredible day. We were the first on the wreck and saw a couple of big tarpon,



And they were nice enough to stick around for a little while to have their picture taken.



Once they were gone there wasn't much to look at near the top of the ship, so we went up to look at the screw,



and then found a little divot in the hull where the divemaster got a manicure from a cleaner shrimp.

The wreck was quite nice, but we really saw some wonderful stuff once going up to the shallows.

There was this cute little Hawksbill



As you can see, it wasn't camera shy at all



A Spotted Eagle Ray



Who was camera shy

My, my Jim/Laurie !! you saw some neat stuff. And good work with the new camera.

Also Good ID on the nudibranch, Jim Hix!

(Message edited by aeroplane on September 16, 2006)

About the time I turned around from taking some video of the Eagle Ray, Laurie was waving to get my attention. I couldn't see what it was right away, but it was swimming towards me... This 6ft long moray out for a morning jog. (or at least the eel equivalent!)

I got a few more photos of him, but nothing that shows scale. As luck would happen, both of the video cameras were very close to it as it swam by, and they both got excellent footage.

The Hilma Hooker was such a great dive! But as I said before, it was just the beginning to a great day, and out trip to the town pier was every bit as wonderful. we got to the pier about 7pm, donned our gear and got in the water just as the sky went ablaze in a wonderful sunset. This is Bruce, one of our buddies on the dive.



The life on the pier was incredible! I have heard the stories and seen the pictures, but until you see it yourself... WOW!

I like to go around with my light off unless needed, and the scene of the pilings and the other divers and the lights is something straight out of a science fiction movie. I could not get a good photo of the effect (it's just too dim) but it's very very cool.

Anyway, in addition to the beaded sea cucumber photo above there was lots and lots to see, such as;

This arrowhead crab,



a couple of yellow Frogfish



a juvenile Drum (which dart around so much a good picture is close to impossible, here is my best attempt...)



Another Frogfish



and this beautiful Seahorse, with onlooker!

Geez!! What a day! You definitely saw a lot of neat stuff! I have never seen that much great stuff on Bonaire all in one day! And you got fab shots. What kind of camera Etc.?

There was lots of life down at the Town Pier - I wish I would have been able to get good pictures of it all, or that all of the critters came out to see us... There were a number of eels as well as 2 octopus that the pictures are not worth showing. Also of note there were a BUNCH of fireworms there - so many that I was very careful to look on the sand before resting to take some of the pictures.

That dive was Laurie's first night dive. Talk about getting spoiled!!!!!

My camera is a Sony DSC-W7, a recently discontinued little digital point and shoot that was bought because it runs on AA's - Laurie travels all over the world to out-of-the-way locations for her work - and because it had a dedicated underwater housing that gives full use of the camera. I got the housing on Amazon for about $150! That's practically free compared to just a few years ago, the last time I looked at getting a camera.

The on-camera flash is really weak, but it does well for macro shots. All the rest are heavily color-corrected in photoshop, but the camera gives you a lot to work with.

Welcome to BT Jim & Laurie, Thanks for the great pictures

Belive it or not, that day wasn't quite over yet! We had dinner with the people we were diving with that night at the City Cafe, and it really cemented the friendships together -- we basically dove with the same group of people the whole week, and that dinner was just grand! it is always nice to meet people when traveling, and one always enjoys it, but this was an especially good group of people. I am ashamed I don't have a good group picture to post, but we do have one, I just have to get a copy from one of the others (I have only seen it in the DVD they sent us)

The food at City Cafe is good, and we all agreed that the french fries on the island are quite wonderful They are not from American potatoes - it seems that the common import is French, I think... Bruce would remember... but they are kind of like a yukon gold, and always seem to be made fresh for every order. I know they are at Wattaburger.

I had the special fish - Wahoo (Ono, in Hawaii) which I adore, and can't get in Denver. Yum!

As long as I have changed the subject and am talking about food, I have to mention La Guernica. We ate dinner there the first night, and were spoiled the rest of the trip! We ate there 3 times! Everywhere else we went was very good, but La Guernica was our favorite. Great staff, great food, neat place to people-watch, just wonderful! The menu is tapas and fresh fish, and the coffee is the best that we had on the island. (The standard cup is a 4.5oz Cafe Crema, FWIW)

If I recall correctly (this photo is from the first night) starting clockwise from top, a 'windjammer' or maybe 'windsurfer'... kinda fru-fru, but very refreshing, shrimp in a lobster sauce, tenderloin skewers, prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe with a bit of strawberry, salmon something in a cucumber cup, a three fish special, (the grey-ish piece is tuna in a peppercorn sauce, and was to die for!) and the potato au gratin, which was simply the best either of us have ever had.

If it sounds like I'm gushing, well... Yep, I guess I am! It was wonderful!

Jim & Laurie
Great report & great pic's!
I don't know which pic I like the most - the seahorse maybe or that big eel or the eagle ray - they're all good shots!
It's so nice when you meet people on vacation & bond almost instantly.
Bonaire has my vote all the way around for a great vacation & always meeting the best people!
And, of course, the dining places are hard to beat anywhere.
Glad you enjoyed your trip and thanks for the wonderful report & pic's!

One day, at Weber's Joy (Witch's Hut), in about 20ft of water, there was a beautiful formation of Caribbean squid flying in formation.



The color correction got a bit over-zealous on this picture, but you get the idea.

Great pictures so far. I think I have seen that very same group of squid hanging out at Witch's Hut. LOL! They are amazing to watch. I love La Guernica as well. Looking forward to more of your pictures.

Great Photos--thanks for sharing!

great street shot too

Jim and Laura, thank you very much for the trip report and photos! I am happy to read you had a great time.

For your first time using an underwater camera you did a fine job! Kudos!!

One of the best meals I had on Bonaire last year was also at La Guernica.

Jim and Laurie,

Nice report....now you know why we on BT are addicted!
And you said a certain word, Denver, that peaked my interest. Check my profile to see where I live. I agree regarding the Continental flight. It's really ideal for our teenage daughter to meet us in Bonaire on her Spring Break. She just can't take more than a week off from school and we can't stay on Bonaire for only one week.
Anymore to your report ???? Did you get to dive with Sherman? Great DM and all around nice guy.

Great trip report. Thanks for taking the time to share all of the pictures! I have been considering getting an underwater camera before our Bonaire trip next June and seeing your pics swayed me to buying one It looks like you had some incredible dives in Bonaire.

Awesome trip report and pictures! Thanks!

Great report, a full spectrum of Bonaire diving experiences, cool photos - love the big loggerhead and the squid formation at Witch's Hut - that site seems to really attract squid.

Are you using PhotoShop to reduce the cyan? We use little Sonys too (DSC-TI and DSC-N1) because they just slip into our BCs and that convenience more than makes up for the small amount of decreased quality (if any) over most big rigs - we load them up with 2 gig cards and shoot movies (with the magic filter and mounted on a UK Light Cannon with diffuser) as well as stills - so we understand where you're coming from.

Thanks for great report.

Thanks for sharing the great report and all your awesome photos!!!

Thanks for a great report and pictures. Now I'm really counting the days!

Nice pictures !nice colors.... do you have more ?