We travelled from Birmingham in the UK to Bonaire via Amsterdam on KLM, using frequent flyer miles this time which put business class within our budget. Neither of us had experienced business class on a long haul (9.75 hours) flight before and I’m afraid it’s spoiled us for economy in the future!

This was our 13th trip to Bonaire and Captain Don’s Habitat, and we had a wonderful holiday. Jack and all of the team always make us extremely welcome and the Habitat formula is exactly right for us.

As usual we stayed in an ocean view junior deluxe suite on the first floor. These rooms have an excellent view of the Caribbean and Klein, lots of space, a huge balcony, and good facilities including efficient air conditioning, a TV and phone, lots of power points, a small fridge, a kettle, a hair drier, a room safe large enough to take a laptop plus a couple of cameras and a few other valuables, and access to Habitat’s wi-fi service.

This time we did a mixture of shore and boat dives, and we had some fantastic experiences. Highlights include:

• Several turtles including a Hawksbill on our check out dive.
• Two eagle rays swimming together in the blue at Red Slave.
• Spawning Peacock Flounders, jacks, soap fish and Spanish Hog Fish.
• Lots of squid at Andrea I including tiny babies.
• A very long octopus encounter at Captain Don’s Reef.
• Several - Charlie the Tarpon - encounters during twilight/night dives at Habitat and on Klein.
• Three juvenile French Angels swimming together at Habitat – each one at a different stage of maturity.
• A friendly Queen Angel that liked to eat bubbles and pecked at my camera strobe.
• Millions of juvenile fish on many of our dives, including several juvenile French Angels, blue tangs and rock beauties.
• Two sea horses at Kalli’s Reef.
• A night dive on Salt Pier – lots of crabs, a Spanish Slipper Lobster and two tiny reef scorpion fish.
• A scarlet lady shrimp and a banded coral shrimp cleaning a spotted moray in the rubble at Eden Beach.
• Lots of morays including three greens.

But the best of the best has to be an outstanding night dive on Town Pier. We were a group of five – us, Roger and Wendy from Colorado and our guide Maximi from Habitat. We were very fortunate to be the only people in the water until right at the end of our dive, and apart from the vivid orange, red and yellow corals and sponges we were so fortunate to also see a yellow frogfish, a seahorse, an enormous moray in a pipe, a juvenile French Angel, several bright orange and crimson cryptic teardrop crabs, a large octopus, two scorpion fish and, FIVE tiny juvenile spotted drums inside a tyre – the smallest one must have been no more than a third of inch high. We’ve done nearly 800 dives around the world (including at least six previously on Town Pier) and we both agreed that this one was definitely in our all time top five.

The Dive Crew at Habitat were great as usual. They now have a very strong and friendly team and were very helpful with our cameras and spotting interesting creatures for us to photograph. We thought the water was very cool – around 77-80F, which is positively cold when compared to the 86F we enjoyed in September. We were wearing 3mm full wetsuits and thin hoods, but perhaps 5mm full suits would have been more appropriate for this time of year.

We ate all of our breakfasts at Rum Runners, on site at Habitat – the freshly squeezed orange juice, fruit and cooked-to-order omelettes are an excellent way to start the day, and the Deco Stop Bar is a great place to unwind with a few Brights as the sun goes down at the end of a hard day’s diving.

As far as eating out is concerned, we tried several of the restaurants on Bonaire, some old favourites as well as a few which were new to us:

• Mona Lisa – outstanding - tuna cooked to mouth-watering perfection. Good service and pleasant dining room.
• Richards – amazing location right on the water, excellent food especially the Bonarian Fish Soup. Great service with a smile – we liked the chalk board menus!
• Rum Runners – the ocean side location is fantastic, and we enjoyed two of our best meals of the trip here; Floris cooked a delicious fish and sea food platter which we shared one evening, and on another occasion he created - tuna cooked three ways with an Asian twist - which was wonderful. Consistently very good service from friendly and helpful staff.
• Den Laman – another wonderful location, only 10 feet away from the ocean. The food was delicious, particularly the parmesan crusted catch-of-the-day. They weren’t that busy and we can’t understand why – the quality of the food and service was excellent as is the ambience/setting. Seeing the empty tables we really recommend a visit here.
• Bistro De Paris – nice chowder.
• La Flamboyant – pleasant courtyard setting and tasty fish soup, good service and nice wines.
• Patagonia – we hadn’t booked and they were very busy, but quickly showed us to a lovely table with a great view of the harbour. The food was delicious, particularly the shrimp cocktail and garlic shrimp main course. Good service - an excellent addition to the Bonarian dining scene.
• Cactus Blue – Very nice rare tuna and efficient service. Pleasant table outside on the deck and a refreshing (and potent!) strawberry margarita.
• City Cafe (for lunch) – one of our favourite spots for lunch. Very tasty tuna salad baguette and grilled fresh fish Caesar salad, both washed down with ice-cold Brights.
• Brasserie Bonaire (for lunch) – enjoyable freshly grilled tuna salad.

For non-diving relaxation, we drove around the island and watched the flamingos at Gotomeer and the windsurfers at Lac. We spotted an impressive Caribbean vulture near Rincon, and watched pelicans, ospreys and frigate birds from the shore and dive boat; we were pleased to see (and hear) lots of loros around the island. We fed ‘our’ cats at Habitat, tried to spot ‘our’ gecko just under the light outside our room each night, and Sue didn’t even scream when she almost trod on a scorpion on our bathroom floor!! We visited Cultimara and Warehouse for food/drink shopping, bought a few things at Littmans and Atlantis, and made a few appearances on the various webcams. We reviewed our photographs and did a lot of reading, and enjoyed relaxing massages at the Intermezzo Spa at Habitat (highly recommended). We watched George Buckley’s entertaining - fast slide show - history of Bonaire and Habitat over the last few decades, saw the - week in review - slide shows, participated in a bit of friendly rivalry at the weekly photo competitions and enjoyed a Bright or three with old and new friends at the Deco Stop. The dolphins showed up on our last day – we spotted them off Klein as we enjoyed a Bright at Karel’s Bar. We also saw some massive splashes just off Klein from Habitat which we could not identify but now think they were the humpback whales breaching.

Michael Gaynor – we hope you make good use of the curry powder - sorry we didn’t manage that lunch date but despite our best intentions time ran away with us again. After unsuccessfully playing telephone tag with Cynde for several days I did eventually bump into her at Habitat’s nitrox filling station, and although we didn’t get to meet up with Jerry we did talk on the phone.


Although this trip was almost three weeks long, the time to fly home came around far too soon – we had to go via Curacao (on DAE – no problems at all) but Business Class on KLM made it a bit more bearable. This was a fantastic trip, one of the best – but PBD has started to kick in, and we’ve already booked our next trip back to paradise.





This is TigTag who we fed most evenings

Any idea what this was, it was about an inch long – Juvenile Sea Cucumber maybe?

This Graysby had something like a leach stuck to him

Wow beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing.

Brian...A big WOW...Your photos are really super..
Amazing clarity!

Great pics. Thanks. Hopefully we can meet and do some diving in Sept.

Fantastic pictures. Thank you for sharing. Any more?

Awesome photos, Brian. Thanks!!

Brian, as usual, absolutely fantastic pictures! Sorry we didn't actually get to sit down and chat longer

Brian, Thanks for a great report. You and/or Sue's pictures are, as always, outstanding. What a gift you both have! I'm sorry you and Jerry didn't hook up after so much online banter - but I know how fast the time flies on Bonaire and how much you don't fit in - and that's why we have to keep going back! I did get to meet Cynde last July, and although we shared a dive, we didn't share enough talk time! It's hard to fit it all in! that's why I'm REALLY planning on the FLA Mini-meet!

Thanks for the SHOW Brian!! you made my day.. Ron

Brian - outstanding my friend!... would love to dive and party with you someday!

Hello Brian - thank you for your great report.
The right thing to start a new week in the office.

Loved the pictures, really made the PBD bad. Glad your flights went well and you got home ok.

wonderful report and photos as usual Brian and Sue thanks so much for sharing.

I see you both are again in the running for the Habitat Photo contest.. Brian won for the month of January and Sue is the winner of week 5 for February..Good luck both of you

Hello Brian

Love your photos and hope you don't mind me asking for a little advice. Just how do you get those close-ups? Mine never turn out like that. We're off to Bonaire in 2 weeks and 5 days time (not that we're counting). Your photos have inspired me to "try harder" and get closer! Best wishes, Jo

Brian, Great report and pictures!!! Really nice octopus shots! Love seeing those guys down under and all out in the open. Thanks for sharing. Two sleeps and I am on my way, uh huh...

Great report and absolutely incredible pictures!!! Thanks so much for sharing them all with us!!

Thanks for another great set of pics Brian!

Wonderful report and photos.
Thanks for sharing.

Wow! Great report - loved the pics. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

hey, great pics, good report...i had a scorpion in the shower too

so i wonder how many times we passed (each other) without saying hello;)

maybe next time;)

Thanks for all the positive comments, we will post more pictures at the weekend.

Jo we get close, I think the secret is to approach slowly and try not to spook the subject. Watch your breathing as the bubbles frighten most things, once you have the trust of the subject give it space to get away if it wants to. Move slowly and shoot upwards towards the face. We have had 30 minute turtle encounters, so this does work.

Watch your bouyancy and remember if you cant get a shoot without touching the coral - then don't take it, move on to something else.

We would recommend the PADI photo course, we did the course with Wilco at Habitat and that gave us a really good insight in what to do.

Have a great trip and good luck with the pictures.

Thanks Brian, I guess I'll just have to be more patient. The fish aren't as cooperative as my dog!! It's a good point to make about touching the coral, something that I would never do, but I think it's always worth mentioning. I trained in Egypt through an English dive centre and that was one of the things that they, quite rightly, drummed into us.

I look forward to seeing some more of your photos. I don't often write on this board, but as a daily lurker I see some wonderful reports and photos.

18 days to go and counting ..........

Most excellent pictures and report. I am not as patient as I should be and can not bring myself to wait for the subject. Another disadvantage to a one week vacation, it just ripples through everything you do on-island.

Brian

Your pictures simply amaze me...3 days to Bon!

This quality of the photos in this thread is a prime reason why you'll never see me with an underwater camera in my hand. No way do I have the time nor patience to develop the skills necessary to be anywhere near Brian's league.

Vince, I am obliged to point out there is an in-between option. You've seen my pictures, not as great as Brian's or Bill's but then I have a tiny camera without an external flash that fits in my BCD pocket or under a strap when I want to be a diver and not a photographer. I am holding one in this picture.

Thanks, one thing I should add is that all the underwater pictures so far are Sue's. Mine will follow.

For us, the extra light from an external strobe was a major step forward as more colour and depth of field become available. But I also take Cecil's point that it then alters the focus of the dive as you can't put the camera away. We did a few dives with some friends on Bonaire this trip and it was very nice to lend them the camera for a while and be just an observer for a change.

John and Sue T-Shirt divers - we will PM you nearer September about diving.

Well, I am for sure not posting the rest of my UW pics now...they are crap for sure!

I second Brian's advise to move in slow, and be quiet, and let the subject know you are not there to harass them...but just to observe...I had a 30 minute ride along (I was the rider) with a turtle at Black Durgon...once he knew I just wanted to "hang" with him he happily went about his business and let me just chill with him...of course, I did not have my camera!

Hey Cynde, no they are not. We like to look at other peoples pictures as well.

The more pictures the less our and every other BTr's PBD gets.

Well, you haven't seen the rest of my pics Brian! lol! What do you about backscatter? Does the strobe help that? Vis wasn't the best this last trip, lots of particulate in the water so a lot of my shots aren't real "clear." How do you get yours so clear?

It was a pleasure meeting you finally! I wish we could have gotten together to chat more...next time

Cecil...Well for me it's really a matter of my own personal "point of view" and certainly not meant to apply to anyone else. I for one have found that most people (who are not divers)really do not appreciate how much effort, time & expense goes into producing really quality shots. All I can say is that underwater photography is really not for me.

Frankly, (for me) it requires too much concentration & focus. When I'm underwater I normally just "go with the flow", relax & enjoy. But as they say; to each his or her own. That's what makes the world interesting!

I enjoy photography very much, but I prefer to take photos above water.

Wow, Great trip report and pics, thanks for posting! Can't wait for April to get here, we will be in single degrees just about every night this week...Is there such a thing as "PreBonaireDepression?!"

honeymoon2
http://honeymoon2.smugmug.com/

FANTASTIC Brian - just really, really fantastic. Great report - so now I'm missing Bonaire - AGAIN!

great pics and would like to hear more about the land scorpion...thanks, scott

Scott, no idea how it got in, maybe it hitched a ride in one of our dive bags; it was very slow moving and just over an inch long.

Brian, good job mate!
Wish we could have linked up.

Wonderful, Brian, simply wonderful. My compliments to Sue. Looking forward to your own pics.