As you may have guessed from the new Bonaire series on Wednesdays, Michelle and I went back to Bonaire in January. It’s where we met a couple of years ago, making it a special place for us. We had a great time diving, and thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
whisper pier and diving pier
Part of the Netherlands Antilles, Bonaire is right at the bottom of the Caribbean. Though below the hurricane belt, several months after our previous trip, Hurricane Ivan hit the south end of the island. Ivan destroyed the old diving pier at the Divi resort, and wrecked a bunch of houses further south. The rebuilt pier replaced the communal storage with individual lockers, while providing a more feel. Divi also built a new deck along the water with some spiffy hammock chairs, where we spent several afternoons reading or napping, enjoying the warmth while avoiding the sun.
The Divi makes diving so convenient; we love it there. Each morning, we’d wake up just before 8am reciting our vacation mantra: “it’s not 4 am, it’s not 4 am, it’s not 4 am.” After breakfast on the semi-private balcony, we’d stroll down to the pier in two minutes, toss our equipment onto the dive boat, and head off for a two tank dive.
Bonaire has about fifty dive sites, including one wreck dive, which is one of our favorite dives. In January, the Sergeant Major fish spawn. They’re about four inches long, white with blue-black vertical stripes. They lay their eggs in round, vibrant purple patches about a foot in diameter, which they guard fiercely. As Michelle and I took a look, she ventured a little bit too close for one of the Sergeant Majors liking and it chased her away. It was the funniest thing, watching a four inch fish chasing away a grown woman, like a chihuahua chasing a lion. Amazingly, the torpin and barracuda don’t seem to bother the Sergeant Majors, preferring to cruise around in more open water, offering themselves for viewing to the divers.
On our last day there, we went to see the sites on the island (which turned out not to be worth the effort, overall, but had its highlights) with another couple from Northern California who we met at the Divi. Washington Slagbaai National Park comprises the north end of the island. Visiting the park entails a two to three hour drive along a one-way, partially washed out, dirt road cut through brush. We jostled and jounced along between stops to view the pink flamingoes, the coast, and the beach.
blue whiptail
At Playa Funchi, we stop to check out the ocean on one side, and the flamingoes on the other, but the Blue Whiptail lizards ended up stealing the show. One of the lizards became bold, walking right up to Michelle’s feet. As it went closer and closer, a few more ventured out from their hiding places, and soon there were half a dozen creeping toward us. Michelle was snacking on some garlic pistachios and happened to drop a shell on the ground, which the closest lizard immediately grabbed and took off with. It didn’t get very far before three other lizards tried to get the shell away from it. Of course, this prompted more pistachio shells getting tossed about, with dozens of whiptails careening about, trying to escape into the brush with empty shells as others tried to steal them away.
We returned home after a week, wishing before we even hit customs that we were back in Bonaire.
