On Karen’s birthday – December 5th -(Happy Birthday Karen!) we headed to Playa Lagun. Pam and I had been wondering when Continue reading Playa Lagun – There be turtles here!
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Our anniversary
Today (August 12) is our 36th wedding anniversary so we had a nice relaxing day. We slept in, had a late lunch then headed to place called Black Durgon Beach, but the owner of the inn would not let us use his dock. That’s the first cranky Bonairian we’ve encountered. (Beaches are all public in Bonaire, but using someone’s dock requires permission.)
Not to be deterred we went down a few doors to Captain Don’s place, and they welcomed us with open arms. The water was super clear and we saw just tons of stuff. Highlights included several large tarpons, a couple of turtles, various eels, and some ginormous rainbow parrotfish which were well over four feet long.
We had dinner at the Patagonia, an Argentinian steakhouse. To say it was fantastic is to understate the experience. The restaurant itself is impeccable, clean crisp and welcoming. There was light jazz playing at a quiet level, quite nice. The waiter was impeccable. The food was divine. The experience was wonderful. We could not have planned a better dinner!
We had a three course, dinner special. Soup or salad, steak with caremelized onions, fresh veggies, superb mashed potatoes, and a tiramisu Pam said was the best she ever had. Total price was 79 dollars, including two beer and pop. When the owner discovered it was our anniversary, he treated us to a complimentary after dinner aperitif. Very cool.
Here is a brief movie, using several clips from various movies we took of some fish we saw today.
Our anniversary
Today (August 12) is our 36th wedding anniversary so we had a nice relaxing day. We slept in, had a late lunch then headed to place called Black Durgon Beach, but the owner of the inn would not let us use his dock. That’s the first cranky Bonairian we’ve encountered. (Beaches are all public in Bonaire, but using someone’s dock requires permission.)
Not to be deterred we went down a few doors to Captain Don’s place, and they welcomed us with open arms. The water was super clear and we saw just tons of stuff. Highlights included several large tarpons, a couple of turtles, various eels, and some ginormous rainbow parrotfish which were well over four feet long.
We had dinner at the Patagonia, an Argentinian steakhouse. To say it was fantastic is to understate the experience. The restaurant itself is impeccable, clean crisp and welcoming. There was light jazz playing at a quiet level, quite nice. The waiter was impeccable. The food was divine. The experience was wonderful. We could not have planned a better dinner!
We had a three course, dinner special. Soup or salad, steak with caremelized onions, fresh veggies, superb mashed potatoes, and a tiramisu Pam said was the best she ever had. Total price was 79 dollars, including two beer and pop. When the owner discovered it was our anniversary, he treated us to a complimentary after dinner aperitif. Very cool.
Here is a brief movie, using several clips from various movies we took of some fish we saw today.
Last day in Aruba
Our last full day in Aruba was on Friday. We had a late start, slept in and took it easy. We got to the beach about noon, and it was super calm. The visibility was very good, and we went turtle hunting. We quickly found four, while dodging about ten boats. The waters close to shore have become quite dangerous in Aruba. This recent development is quite disturbing. There are several speed boats towing these inflatable couches, with four or five people on them. They zip up and down the heavily populated beaches, with little regard for snorkelers. But the problem is not just limited to the speed boats. The big snorkeling tour operators are bringing their huge catamarans and pirate ships so close to the beaches, that it is shocking. It was not fun!
After our turtle sightings, we had a leisurely swim among the fishes.It’s always tough doing that last swim. We never want to get out, but the time always comes when it’s inevitable. We had a great time this year, with lots of firsts. And lots of old favorites seen, and enjoyed.
For our last night here, we decided to go out to dinner. We drove around, with no location in mind, and we drifted all over town. We finally wound up about three blocks from our resort, at a Dutch restaurant called Bingo! It’s a fun place, with lots of nice dishes and a nice selection of beer and drinks. Our dinner was very nice, and we had a couple drinks. Service was fun, friendly and efficient.
Short post
I’ve managed to repair most of the damage I caused with the upgrade! The blog is not back to where it should be, but it will do until we get home.
We had a short swim today, saw some turtles. I put this little video together from a couple of sightings.
The water has been nice, just not as clear as we’d like. It’s made our photos hit or miss. Some have been great, some have been lousy. No in between really.
It’s been very nice being back in Aruba. We do feel very comfortable here. But our last week started today and we are not eager to get back to the bad weather at home!
Nice day in Aruba
I really like this picture Pam took of the beach at Boca Catalina. Nicely framed with the palapa, looking out over the ocean, it’s a keeper.
We picked up Mike from the airport on Sunday and had a quick little swim in the ocean. We had an all you can eat rib fest at the Sweet Peppers restaurant attached to our resort here. The ribs were nice, but the service was not great. They automatically add fifteen percent to the bill for a tip, so that often translates into mediocre service, and Sunday was no exception.
On Monday, we headed over to Boca to see if we could spot some turtles, and it was a turtle party! Seemed every where we turned, there were more turtles. That was nice. But the real unusual thing Pam saw was the color change on a porgy. They are usually a pale silver color, with a jolt of yellow across their head. Well she spotted this unusually colored fish, and thought she’d seen a new fish. She flicked on her camera and watched in amazement as the fish changed color back into a porgy – or stayed a porgy and cycled its color? Or was it a porgy with a new suit? Either way, pretty neat stuff. Turns out they change color when feeding, so Pam showed up at dinner time.
The visibility was quite good, and the surf was not really crashing so it was a nice swim. We can always tell how good the visibility will be almost the minute we enter the water. There is a school of fish who hang around the entrance to the water called a palometa. They are very silvery, and hard to see if the water is not clear. Here is a picture we took of one, so you can tell it was darned clear!
Woodwind snorkel tour
On Friday, our last full day in Bonaire, we took the morning trip to Klein Bonaire, an uninhabited island just off the coast of Bonaire. We had wanted to book a trip earlier on the Woodwind, a trimaran, but they have gone to three sailings a week because it’s the low season I guess. Anyway, I can not recommend this trip highly enough! WOW. The young lady who owns the boat, Dedrie (Dee for short) is so passionate about the waters around Bonaire, and it came across so clearly. She really cares about the island, and doing her part to protect the environment there. She gave great talks on the history of the island, about the creatures in the water, how to snorkel, how to apply your mask – she really was an amazing person.
We got on the boat right at the docks of the Divi resort, so it was easy for us to get there. They had a mango drink ready for us, before we even got on the boat! They quickly got a couple of sails up and we made the crossing very quickly. Along the way we got to see flying fish skimming along the surface. 
Those little suckers can really fly long distances! Then after a talk about the history of the island (cholera quarantine, goat/donkey sanctuary, to uninhabited protected site) we jumped in for a drift snorkel. The coral there is absolutely wonderful which is nothing unusual for Bonaire, of course.
Dee told us the names of fish or coral, then would dive down and point out them out. She would literally latch on to people, and take them over to see various things. She is a powerful swimmer, an awesome diver, able to stay deep under water for longer than I thought possible!
Also along on the trip was LeAnn, from a photo place on Bonaire called BonPhoto. Most of the pictures in this post were taken by her, with her underwater camera, fitted with a fisheye lens. She was amazingly personable as well. And she could dive deeply, and hold her breath a long time too – some of her pictures were taken at incredible depths – especially the ones of the turtles. Remarkable stuff.
After two snorkels, one in the area known for turtles nesting – we saw four turtles that day – we had another quick sail back to Bonaire and grabbed a mooring ball close to the lighthouse. They served us a hot lunch, a kind of goreng, with chicken and noodles and plantains. 
Then they gave us a brownie with caramel sauce and whipped cream. There was plenty to drink, and the conversations were of the fish we had seen. It was a really nice day. HIGHLY recommended if you ever go to Bonaire. Take the tour early in your stay – it will make you appreciate the island even more!
I’m including a slideshow of the pictures taken by LeeAnn of Bon Photo here – I’ve put her pictures in the one gallery, separate from our Bonaire gallery. She used a Nikon P7000 with Fisheye lens to take the photos.
In the late afternoon, we took a quick swim around the reef by the Divi. It was our last swim, so we just slowly wound our away around the place. We saw some cool stuff – the most remarkable was a permit fish. He’s quite a large fish, and while we’ve seen permit fish in the past, we’ve never seen one close up. 
Usually they swim away quickly, before we can even get a half way decent shot of them. This guy didn’t even care if we dove right down into his face and took a picture. He just continued sifting through the sandy bottom!
Another unusual thing we saw was this crazy jellyfish called the tamoya ohboya, also know as the Bonaire banded box jellyfish. It’s a recently discovered jellyfish, officially described in 2011, and it’s sting is quite painful. It’s quite long, eighteen inches at least, and quite active in the water. There have been only fifty sightings of tamoya ohboya, so we’re kind of in a very select group!
It’s always cool to see different things in the water, and this trip to Bonaire was certainly fun for that! It will definitely be hard to go back home after all the fascinating stuff we’ve seen here! One thing we did not want to see was a lionfish, an invasive species, not indigenous to the Caribbean. We had not seen one the whole week, but our last day, last swim, in the last twenty minutes in the ocean, we spotted one! Heavy sigh… We reported it right away to the special “Lionfish Hunters” group.
Here’s a traditional shot for us… the last sunset… I’m thinking we will be back here, sooner rather than later. It’s a great island for snorkeling of course, but the people were really terrific. The island itself is much bigger than Aruba, but with less than ten percent of the population! We both felt comfortable there, like we were “regulars”…
I really can’t wait to get back there!
