Life in Bonaire

We have now been in Bonaire 3 weeks and are loving it. We have completed our PADI open water course which took 4 days and was very tiring. I (Karen) found it very stressful as one of the things you have to do is take your mask off and put it back on. For some reason breathing through my nose always seems good when I don't have a mask on so I struggled but managed to do it once in the pool by holding my nose! The actual dives are amazing, we have seen so many fish and the coral is so colourful. Both of us are so much more relaxed in the water now. We have had our first day diving by ourselves and dived under the boat. We have so many divers under our boat that we thought it must be worth a look! Even snorkeling we have seen so many fish including Angel fish, Parrot fish, Squid, Tarpon (big) and a Turtle. We may need to get an underwater camera!

Besides diving we have also been exploring the island. We decided to get fit and hired bikes. Our first ride was around the south of the island which according to the local map is about 10 miles. It was very hot and windy with huge salt ponds and mountains but fairly flat. Mike spent ages trying to photograph Ospreys but they flew off every time he got the camera out! We also saw old slave huts used by the workers on the salt ponds. The only break was on the east coast where we had a welcome beer. It turned out to be about 25 miles back to town and we were both exhausted and in pain! Neither of us have been on a bike in the last 6 years so our legs and bottoms were definitely feeling it and drugs were required to sleep!!!! Our second ride was shorter, across to the lagoon on the east coast. Again we saw lots of birds including Flamingos, Osprey, Herons and Storks. It was on dirt tracks and on the way back I managed to acquire 2 punctures so we had to get a lift back to town (neither of us was too upset about this!). We still have one more day cycle hire left and are hoping to head north.

Last weekend we took our dive instructor out for a sail which was a lovely relaxing morning. As usual the fishing line was out and as we pulled it back the line screamed out. We thought we had caught the bottom or a piece of debris but no, it was a huge Wahoo. It put up quite a fight and several times pulled the line back out but eventually it was gaffed and hauled onto the boat. It was 52” long but too heavy for our scales. However having weighed the bits we estimate it was about 30lb and we had 16lb of skinless fillets. We gave some away but still have a freezer full!!! Its our first Wahoo and it tastes lovely.

We have also been socialising with fellow cruisers. Our neighbours, Bonnie and Tom are very keen and expert divers. They keep recommending things to see which unfortunately are too deep for us novice divers to see. We are meeting up with boats who are heading in the same direction as us so we should see them again in the coming months.

Still not sure when we will leave as we are now looking to have dive gear shipped from the States and want to do some more diving! We also have to wait for our dive certificates to be delivered.