This was my wife, Pat,and my fourth trip in the last four years to Bonaire and it was the best, although all four trips were great. Thinking back I said that last year's trip was better then the first. I think Bonaire is such a great place to visit that every year we are able to visit will be the "best".
Prior to 2007, our first trip Bonaire, we spent many summer vacations in the Florida Keys, in Key West. At that time the Florida Keys were where we could go to get into the "clean" warm water to snorkel. A location where the waters were clear enough to view the marine life and were I could take a few amateur photographs
We stayed at the Plaza Resort. We stayed there during all four of our visits to the island. We had another great time at the Plaza Resort. We had a problem getting into our room the first day, no wake up call on our departure morning and there still was construction going on but those were small matters. The staff at the resort is just great; the scenery from the room was unbelievable. To top it off the reef at the Plaza right off the beach is one of the very best on the island to snorkel and see marine life to photograph.
We regretted having to get on the Continental flight back to Newark Sunday July 11, but as they say "all good things must come to an end". I must say that the only real drawback to a vacation on Bonaire is getting there and home. We had flight issues coming and going but again not enough trouble that would cause us to stop visiting. We did eventually get there and home.
I should mention that we do not dive but we both snorkel and I do a little free diving. I have always snorkeled that is why we went to the Florida Keys in our past but my wife Pat only became really interested in it since we discovered the really clear waters of Bonaire.
In the Florida Keys she was usually too scared to spend much time in the ocean because of the poor water quality and clarity on most days. She was not able to "see" far enough to feel safe. Pat really had a fear that some of the creatures in the ocean might consume her. She does not have that same concern on Bonaire because the water is so clear, therefore now she "thinks" she could see anything dangerous far enough away so that she then could safely "out swim it" to the shore.
I must admit she can move rather quickly when she sees something "dangerous". Last year she was with me when we came upon and I photographed a LARGE GREAT BARRACUDA during one of our swims and she put her plan into action. For some reason I think that fish could have caught her if it had any desire to do so. As I did, the barracuda must have thought how funny this scene of my wife splashing off toward the shore really was. As I tell everyone, nothing in the ocean has much interest in hurting anyone. People are generally much safer in the ocean then on land. Unfortunately, we all are aware of some people who will hurt others for little or no reason.
As I noted, prior to our coming to Bonaire we had been going the Florida Keys, Key West, for many years. The reason we changed and researched to try to find a much better trip destination (Bonaire) was that unfortunately the quality of the water and of the coral reef around Key West just got worse and worse over the years. The run off from the streets after rains and the sewage leaks made things in the water bad and getting worse fast. Added to these facts, Mother Nature has not helped when the Keys had some close encounters with hurricanes for a few years. Now the entire Gulf of Mexico may have long term problems associated with our needs for oil.
Key West is still a great place to visit, but not if you really are looking to get into very clean clear water. I really only mention this is because I know the fine people from Bonaire will not make the same mistake some people in the Keys (USA) have made. The mistake of taking nature for granted for the sake of too much growth too quickly. It does not take very long to ruin what was a great natural environment.
The sea life on Bonaire is so much more diverse the in the Keys. Bonaire has to be the best destination in the Caribbean to snorkel or dive. The only fish that I did see many more of during my snorkeling in the Keys were sharks. I have some nice photographs of nurse sharks, reef sharks, and bull sharks during those trips. One time I even had a large Bull Shark come to check me out after being the first person in the water from the dive boat. In our four visits to Bonaire we have not seen any sharks. I should note that this fact does NOT make my wife, Pat upset at all.
This trip we did all our snorkeling from shore again.. We rented another Jeep from Total Rental as we did the other three years and off we went. I do need to note that we did have some troubles with the Total Jeeps; yes before we left we had to replace two jeeps for mechanical reasons during our stay.
The second jeep would not start in the Washington Sabagal Park. That turned out to be an interesting experience in itself. We got so much help from a Belgium couple and their two small children who were on vacation and in the park in their rental.. Actually they took their precious time to drive us out of the park so that we could eventually get back to our hotel. There are still many great people out there.
SPECIAL THANKS to the Hans-Marjolyn-Veerle-Jelle van Dummele family, the two women working at the restaurant in the park, and the ranger at the front gate who drove us back to town after the park closed at 5PM. I must admit I was rather upset with Total Rentals at one point but then I looked at the whole experience as a great addition to our memories. We are too old to get upset at these little problems in life.
As we did in the past to organize our snorkels, we refer to a few books written about the dive/snorkel sites on Bonaire to help us plan our daily swims. These books are essential for any person visiting the island. These books are a great help. Anyone going to Bonaire especially for the first time should get one of these books to help set up their snokeling/diving schedule. The best that I found is Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy by Susan Porter. Because of her advice my photo gallery on my wall at home has gotten much larger and much better every year.
If (I am not a computer person) we can get all this on Bonaire Talk I hope to eventually share some of my 2010 photographs. Actually the nice people who set up and run the Bonaire Talk emailed me and told me that they would be willing to help me if and when I need the help. Pat says I will need the help. I think she is right about this.
I do not have very expensive photographic equipment. This year I purchased my first digital camera and it was the best thing I did in some time. I got a Cannon D10 which is all weather and capable of going to depths of 33 feet. Up until this year I have used two small film cameras. The older one is a Minolta Weathermatic Duel 35mm and the second a Minolta Vectis Weathermatic. I really do not know if they even make these any more.
The film cameras worked fine in the waters around Bonaire but the problem is you can no longer get the film developed on Bonaire. Now if you have film it must be sent to another island to be developed and it takes about one week to get the prints returned. This is the reason I stated it was a great move (and lucky) to have a digital camera and it worked well. This Cannon D10 is small and in the water it can be a little hard to check the focus using the screen but we did OK. I even got to use the digital video mode on the camera to get a few short video clips; two of those were of the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish we saw on two occasions. I thought we were very fortunate.
I still used the old film cameras as back up since those cameras have an eye view finder which is much easier to use for some shots. As I did in the past, I will have the film developed and then have some 8x10's made of some of the prints. I then can scan the prints into the computer and try to get a couple of those onto Bonaire Talk site.
As proof of why Bonaire is the very best place to visit in order to get into the water and actually see marine life. I will just list some of what we saw during our trips.
This year was special, as I noted above, I never saw any sharks during our time in the waters of Bonaire, but this year on two separate snorkel tips we saw what I now know to be the very rarely sighted Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish. I swam with this interesting animal on two separate occasions and it was a great experience. Even my wife Pat agreed although she did not follow as closely.
I also saw a Queen Conch in Lac Bay feeding and a small green mantis shrimp which I observed and photographed.
These are just a couple new forms of Marine Life that we observed while swimming in the waters all around Bonaire.
On our four trips we have seen and photographed:
Octopus, Long Snout Seahorse, Moray Eel(Green, Chain, Spotted, Purplemouth), Sharptail Eel, Goldenspot Eel, Batwing Coral Crab, Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Spotted Eagle Ray, Great Barracuda, Spotted Scorpionfish, Snook, Sand Diver,Peacock Flounder,Ballonfish, Porcupinefish, Honeycomb Cowfish, Queen Conch and now Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish ...YOU GET THE IDEA...WHAT A TRIP...WHAT A PLACE BONAIRE IS...WHERE ELSE CAN TWO PEOPLE SO FAR FROM THE OCEAN, FROM THE FARM FIELDS OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA, EVER SEE WHAT WE HAVE SEEN AND HOPE TO SEE IN THE FUTURE...EXCEPT ON BONAIRE.
If you want a great experience diving or snorkeling, great people, and weather, then Bonaire is your place.
Russ and Pat Miller
Pennsylvania, USA |
By Pat Miller (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #4) on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - 7:36 pm: 
