This is our 6th year in a row we have returned to Bonaire for our annual dive vacation. We've been diving for 17 years and have been all over the Caribbean prior to our "discovery" of shore diving and the wonders of this enchanted island. We stay at Den Laman and dive with Bonaire Dive & Adventure. Their service is excellent.

My husband, brother and I arrived March 6th via the redeye from Houston. Our trip was uneventful and we had previously booked a room one day early at Den Laman so we would have immediate access to our room. One of the office staff was there to meet us and had our key ready for us. The second week, our son & daughter-in-law joined us. This was their third time on Bonaire.

The first morning consisted of dive orientation (shortened version after many years), grocery shopping (try to stay away from The Warehouse on Saturdays, it's crazy with people lined up & down the isles with carts - no room to grab anything off the shelves in front of the shoppers!) and a rest before our afternoon check-out dives. An early dinner at Captain Don's and we were done for the day.

We managed to get in 2 dives per day,sometimes 3, each lasting over 1 hour. There was a terrible infestation of jellyfish most of the first week and we were all covered with bites. Vinegar helped, but it was pretty unbearable on some of the southern reefs. The divemasters claimed it had to do with the full moon. We had never seen so many and weren't convinced that was the reason for the many, many little critters that were totally attracted to our faces and hands! However, we did notice they disappeared toward the end of the 2 weeks.

We dove the north and south sites and enjoyed the ease of Bari Reef every day. The sealife didn't disappoint us. The second day I found a frogfish "pea" on the reef, then a frogfish "dice" (we look for them every year!), juvenile peacock flounders, drumfish, filefish, etc. The fun is finding the little creatures that are often overlooked by divers "cruising" over the reefs.

Eels were plentiful, including a couple of green morays. Spotted morays were often seen swimming outside of the protection of their reefs. We saw a hugh green turtle, as well as the usual hawksbills that hang out on the reefs.

We found 2 frogfish - one white at Capt. Don's and another, by chance, at Yellow Submarine. We were looking at a purple anenome and taking pics of it when my brother spotted a piece of "red coral" moving. He looked up and noticed it was a dark red frogfish with white fingers. He signaled us back to the coral head and I witnessed the froggy swimming to a new spot. I was too late with my camera, but I got a shot of him as he settled into his new hideout. I also caught him with him mouth wide open. He was really a little angry that we found him in his secret location!

We had "Charlie" accompany us on day and night dives. He's as beautiful as ever! Very shiny at night!!!

We saw a permit fish on Yellow Submarine -- second time we saw one there.

There is a huge anchor at ChaChaCha and we saw a huge Grouper hanging out there in camouflage. He watched us dive past him and barely blinked an eye.

We found our way to Taylor Made again this year by watching the charts on Wind Guru. It's a beautiful site north of Bopec and as some stone markers for entry. It's not a very popular diver, so there are lots of gorgonians, etc., that seem to be in good health.

Karpata is a wonderful dive with sand chutes and huge coral formations. We tried to dive it twice, but the surge was too strong the second time we tried.

Oil slick is always a fun dive and if you look carefully you can see an octopus near the ladder.

Alice in Wonderland produced an huge eagle ray at the end of our dive.

The restaurants were great and our favorites are Casablanca, Donna & Georgio's, Wills, It Rains Fishes, Captain Don's and Lion's Den for shrimp. As usual, the Brights are the best!!

We had no issue with theft this year and never felt unsafe. This was a relief after reading all the info about the recent thefts on the island.

We're already dreaming of our next trip to "The Bon." We are all seeing fish in our minds' eyes!

C&D we would love to see some photos... especially of the juvy frog fish..PLEASE
Great report BTW thanks for sharing

Forgot how to add pics - can anyone help? I have some edited and ready to go!!!

sure.. first know where they are on your puter..
then type \image{dice frogfish} { with no spaces and mind the slash and the squiggly bracket} then just follow the cues when you hit post and you should be good to go.. the photos need to be under 100kb and in .jpeg formatting.. If you have a problem I will be lurking..

duhhh what's a dice frogfish?

Great report ! Can't wait for the pics !

might still be a bit large.. sometimes you have to reduce the size less than 97kbs.. but you seem to be right there ..

Kelly that is what I am waiting for.. never seen a juvy one...

C&D if you want you can send it to me and I will post it for you freddie@bonaire.me

Sorry about the miss communication regarding "dice frogfish." I meant dice trunkfish!!!!" I was in a hurry to get the report posted that I made that error. Regarding the "dice" trunkfish, look at the fish ID book by Paul Humman and you will see what I mean. The little froggy baby is literally the size of a pea - when you think of how big the ocean is, you will realize what a challenge it is to find such a wonderful specimen on a dive!!

More pictures to follow...

(Message edited by colleen__dan on March 25, 2010)

yeahhhhhhh it worked thank you great shot

|image{parrotfishlaughing}

(Message edited by colleen__dan on March 25, 2010)

Sorry to say, it seems I can only load one pic at a time, so bear with me!! Also, these are just a few shots taken on our 30 dives. Enjoy!

/

(Message edited by colleen__dan on March 25, 2010)

C&D great pix and wonderful trip report. Love the laughing parrot!!!

Can I get it straight?!!! Regarding the Pea, I DO mean trunkfish pea!!!! So sorry, still have my mind in the ocean!!!

Why is it that when I hear the Dorkfish comedy routine, I always picture a parrotfish?

e.

/image{schoolofsnappersbt}

White toes on the red froggy at Yellow Sub

Nice pics!!
Sounds like a wonderful trip as all Bonaire trips should be.

Love all the photos, especially the one of the parrot fish. What a cutie

Love love love ! Great pictures !! I have a dice trunkfish picture that is one of my all time favorites. They are so stinkin cute.

Re: the laughing parrotfish... "So a priest and a rabbit walk into a bar..." lol

Great frogfish pictures, too ! Love the one with the white pedicure!

oops, forgot the disclaimer:

No actual priests or rabbis were harmed during the posting of this joke.

One more thing I wanted to mention to any of you who get bug bites while on Bonaire. This is the first time I didn't get any and I owe it all to a product called "Cactus Juice." You can find it on the internet...it is a natural bug repellant & has an SPF. I put it on as moisturizer (it smells lemony) after I shower and am amazed how well it works! Good alternative to DEET.

It does not work for everyone. I took it the first time to Bonaire and I looked like a pin cushion by the end of the week. I thought for sure it was a call to arms for all of the bugs.

I agree with the Cactus Juice suggestion! Steve and I both used it the time he went and we really liked it, and it was pleasant smelling, too!

Fabulous pics!

A priest an rabbiT walk into a bar lmao!

I uses cactus juice on my last trip and got eaten alive :-( it's back to feet next year...

Fantastic pics!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Kelly LMAO!!
Hmmmmm - buggies cant bite me underwater - maybe Ill just stay there the whole trip..
Thanks for the cactus juice tip - will try it too (somehow covered in deet on my wedding day just doesnt sound "romantic" (we bring everything - sometimes stuff works - sometimes no - depends on how bad I stink!!)

Just want to add a few more pics....
{trunkfishdice}

Thanks so much for the pics!!!

Thanks for the great pics!

thanks for sharing your great pics, makes me miss the place even more.
I was also bitten up by bugs this year, perhaps we should start a new thread about it. I have been to other islands and they are even worse there. I must have an allergic reaction to them, I never see them so I have been calling them no-see-ums.Nothing I have found seems to help prevent the bites, I will try and find the cactus juice and see if that helps next time I am lucky enough to visit.

Great pictures and report - what kind of camera set up do you use?

Great juvi pics :-) And I did lol at the laughing parrot fish - great shot! You sure were good at finding frog fish!

Thanks for sharing. I miss Bonaire :-(

For Gail, I use a Sony Cyber-shot 13.6 digital with a housing, no special flash attachments, however, I set the image brightness lower to filter out some of the blue.

This picture cracks me up - after 17 years of diving, it shows how close we stick together as buddies...

Last October, my husband and I came to Bonaire for our honeymoon. Fell in love and are going back this October. I think it's gonna be a yearly trip for us. Thanks for the tip on lowering the brightness when taking pics. I was gonna ask how ur pics have soooo much color. Mine always have alot of blue. Gonna try and learn a little more on taking uw pics before our next trip.

Colleen, the red Frogfish looks like the one I found a few years ago at Yellow Submarine. Remember? It was hiding under some coral right by another Frogfish. I remember the bright white feet. I sure wish we could dive Bonaire with you & Dan again. I miss the fun we all had. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome to BT Barbara.
Many of our members take some outstanding underwater pic's, I'm sure they will walk you through the "BLUE" problem.

very nice report and pics thank you