07/06/11

Most of that first day was spent arranging for our dive package, shopping for groceries and napping since we got little sleep on the overnight flight.  The 2nd day (Sunday) we started at the Divi resort for our checkout dive and then out to Tori's Reef, one of our favorite dives on Bonaire.  We were in for a surprise as every site was impacted by hurricane Omar.  Mostly very shallow damage, but many entries were different than previously.  A new camera that Donna brought had the added benefit of taking small movies.  Kind of fun for some of the many creatures we see, so you can see them moving too.  A couple are included below.

Fish and octopus at Tori's Reef 

Next day, we went to Andrea I, a great site for critters and easy in/out  

This turtle didn't care if we took his picture or not.	In fact he posed.	Don getting up close with a French Angel	Pretty stripes on this guy	Harlequin bass
Trumpets are so strange	This little striped shrimp was impressive	Don found a frog fish	Another trumpet hiding in the soft coral	and these guys were soooo tiny

On to more sites and more creatures....

This site is called Ol' Blue

This lettuce leaf was so colorful	Christmas Tree worms everywhere	A magnificent specimen Scrawled File Fish	Curious barracuda	Tiny cleaner fish in an anemone

Back to Tori's Reef 

So many good creatures here....

Squirrel Fish	Strange coral	Mahogany parrot	Another file fish hiding
Fairy basslet up close	Many beautiful plants	This lettuce leaf was on the move	Arrow crab up close

 

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MOVIES....this new camera of Donna's takes little short movies that shows the unique movement of the different creatures.

We were so lucky to see this eagle ray going both directions.  He was unafraid of us and came right up to us and continued to feed all around as we took pictures.

  And a little movie of his feeding (1 minute, 8MB) 

 

This juvenile spotted drum fish was so animated. 

Here is a still shot and here is a movie     (35 seconds)

And a peacock flounder, first the still then the movie   (28 seconds)

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There was a group of 3 to 4 large rainbow parrot fish, one particularly large that hung in schools of doctor fish.  Or maybe the school hung around the large parrot fish.  They were most impressive.

Coming straight for us		Magnificent

We did see a pair of these elusive ocean trigger fish.  They seemed to be making a nest in the rocks where we were at.

Prettier than your average sponge	Butterfly fish	Glasseye grouper	Flamingo tongue

Three shots of an eel....

On our way back from diving one day, this mother and son donkey walked right up to the car and were ready to feed and be petted.

Our last day on the island.  We didn't dive and went exploring to parts of the island we had not been to.

Flamingos very close to town...

Northeast part of the island had this abandoned light house and housing for the light keeper 

Some ruins of a large building & cistern...

A picnic lunch at Ol' Blue...

 

Coming into Rincon...

 

After two weeks, we had to come back to real life.  Many thanks to our hosts at the Bonaire Village Villas that we continue to rent an apartment from each trip to the island.

 

 

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   This site was last updated 07/06/11