We were awaken this morning by the sweet song of one of those green and yellow parrots. I'm not a bird person, so I don't know the exact name of this species. All I know is that it sure beats the heck out of waking to by annoying alarm clock.
I got up and walked out onto the veranda of our two-bedroom SandDollar condo. I peered through the screen and scanned the ocean and sky. How can one place on Earth have so many perfect mornings? Yes, the evenings and sunsets are pristine, but give me the mornings. Its not too hot; its not too cool; its not too windy..... the ocean is calm, there are a few slight clouds billowing across the sky, and the birds are instinctively orchestrating a fabulous choral arrangement. As I'm cooking breakfast a few minutes later, I realize that I am humming "Morning has Broken".
After having our breakie and watching the 9:00AM dive boat depart, Leslie begins her "I have to get my camera ready for diving" routine. I load the truck with gear, water, snacks, and tanks. In not too long, we are off towards Ole' Blue.
We have always loved Ole' Blue. The reef is close, the entry easy, and there always seems to be tons of fish life. I saw lots of schoolmasters. Actually, for some reason I am noticing a ton of schoolmasters on this trip - not sure why. And they all seem to be looking at me.....
We found a Spotted Spiny Lobster beneath a coral overhang. We also found another baby spotted drum. Surprisingly, there just never seems to be many people at this dive site. We'll dive this one again - if not this week, then next week.
From Ole' Blue, we drove around the island, through town, and down to Invisibles. I like the dive, but it is a long swim to and from the reef. And unlike other sites, it is just a sand bottom - so not much to look at during the transition. But the swim was well worth it. We were rewarded with several nice barracuda, a big tarpon, and two scorpion fish. And apparently, there was a yellow tail snapper following me the entire dive. Leslie said that he hooked up with me from the start and was by my side the entire dive. I never noticed it...... not sure how to buddy breath with a yellow tail snapper.
After lunch, a short nap, and more camera maintenance, we did a late afternoon dive on Bari. Lots of activity - the reef really comes to life late in the afternoon.
We actually found the famed seahorse that I mentioned in my first posting. After you see it, it stands out like a sore thumb. But until you see it, you could swear that there isn't a seahorse anywhere around..... We looked for the frogfish, but were unsuccessful in finding him. We are going to try again tomorrow.
After a quick shower, we sat down for some leftover Casablanca stuff and a little homemade salad. Dessert was carrot cake from the Last Bite Bakery. Pretty good..... will probably have to go back for some more (written as Leslie is watching "The Biggest Loser" on TV).
We are going to try and make it to the WebCams tomorrow. We will be the ones with the Drake T-Shirt. Our daughter is a junior at Drake, and we want to rub it in that we are here and she isn't. So please, please, please could someone catch us and post it on a thread? We are going to try for the morning, but plans have a way of changing on vacation - especially a vacation on Bonaire.
Thanks for reading. This is actually rather therapeutic for me. I find it very soothing to sit down at night and recap the day while having a couple of beers. Maybe I'll start a journal when I get back home.... Hmmmm.... "home".... everything changes when I get back "home". I don't think I want to think about that right now.....
Hope everyone's day is going well.
Dave & Leslie.
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By Dave Goodwin (BonaireTalker - Post #82) on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 - 11:04 pm: 
