Landed in a blizzard here at home, nasty landing, great job by the pilots. We were the last flight into YHZ, and still closed this am. ugghh So, trip was as expected...fantastic! We had rain daily for the 1st 4 days, short heavy downpours 3-5x's daily. Lots of water damage (cracks etc.) to the roads, and properties (patios etc). It's my understanding that they have begun spraying about the island for mosquitoes. Great amounts of standing water. And the grass......holy...waist high grass walking about. Very lush green beautiful island right now. Apparently the cactus were so busy soaking up water, many fell, and the park was closed while we were there. It was fun playing/diving in surge on Bonaire, docks were damaged, and places were pulling up some boards to allow the swells to pass up and through, rather than crashing and smashing. I did see lots of coral bleaching, however signs of regeneration (new growth) beginning on the bleached areas. Tarpon everywhere, dolphin (3x's 1 day!), turtles, huge grouper and insanely huge snappers (4', I had no idea!), octos, squid, angels, eagle rays, on and on. Lots of deep sea jellies and aliens coming up with the currents. Lionfish on every dive in multiples, the largest being 6", the majority under 2" (measure body length only, of the 1s I saw). Our dm on 1 dive took 4 off 1 large sponge formation (they double back and spear them when guests aren't around), didn't know till back on the boat. The spear guns are a very slick little unit, didn't even notice it among his gear. Allot of the dms and locals are eating them, they divi up the catch after every dive, and a bag for Stinpa. Back from the northern dives, they had 2 coolers full. I don't see that they (lf) won't become permanent residents. We had no issues with mosquitoes, no bites, never saw even 1, but it was quite windy the whole time there. But dragonflies, holy at dusk and dawn looked like a fairy sceen from a movie their wings twinkling in the lights. They take their jobs seriously! Picked up the dogs already, they had a nice vacation too! Now, gotta go shovel....... |