We took another drive out to the National Park, this time bringing along a set of tanks. Afterwards we stopped off for some cliff-diving again. The wind was absolutely howling, though, and even standing at the cliff’s edge was difficult. Put a damper on the day’s planned picnic and diving, though we did manage to get a few jumps in.
Lots of Lizardfish in Bonaire. Either they don’t care about people, or they are just seconds from attacking, I can’t tell which, but they don’t seem to care about how close you get to them.
Always gotta stop to check out an International, especially an old firetruck. Unfortunately it was swarming with bees, ruining any chance at play time.
The animals of Bonaire must get pretty adept at taking care of cactus. This guy probably didn’t need our help, and even if he did he wasn’t going to stand still long enough to let us do it.
A Bum friend has been sending our kids books for as long as I can remember. Always fun when they pull out a book to find “The Texas Book Lady” inside.
The kids saying hello to one of the seahorses.
Working on flips. This one didn’t make it.
Dove down on a nearby wreck, which turned out to be pretty torn apart and not all that interesting. We continued further on for a while, looking for where we had been told there was another small boat wreck nearby. As we came up on this turtle we practically went blasting past him. That’s when we realized how strong the current had become around the corner from where we started. It was a long slog to get back to the boat, but we made it, barely. On the bright side, even if we hadn’t, shore is never more than about 100 feet away when diving here.
13 Comments on “Diving Down”
I can’t wait to start sending books again. One of the last things I did before we closed for the summer was sort through a huge order. I found 3 titles I’ll try to pick up at the fall book fair.
Awesome! It is a joy for them to receive, and a random act of kindness for them to pass-along.
Are those 2 gigantic lionfish in the photo above the lizardfish? According to our REEF cookbook, they make great eating:
“Cut off the venomous spines, and lionfish go from malicious to delicious!”
Love your photos-miss diving! Maybe one day I’ll also get to see a seahorse? Have fun.
Hi Gail, yes, lionfish are good eating. On Bonaire, they have sandwiches and PiZZA (unfortunately when we wanted to try either, they didn’t have any). To hunt them on Bonaire, I believe you need to get a “license” of some sort, and have equipment.
Seahorses in the wild – it really should be a goal for all!
I have eaten lionfish ceviche’ twice in Bonaire. It was delicious! Turtle needs to visit a cleaning station. Enjoy your Bonaire time.
Awesome, Pat! And yes he could use one.
I’d feel a little weird seeing them down there in their natural habitat and then thinking about eating them. There must be others that feel this way.
Sadly the lionfish invasion is destroying reef native fish populations:
https://californiadiver.com/save-a-reef-kill-a-lionfish111/
Yes, they are a problem. Sad, but hunting is needed for the others to survive.
Goodonyas! “Magical” will be how the describe their childhood to peers! Go get’m tiger (s)!
Hope so!
I like your seahorse picture. Bonaire is the best for diving in the Caribbean. This is where I saw my first seahorse (in a natural environment). I was just snorkeling off the back of the boat one day in the mooring field and right underneath us was a couple of seahorses. Very cool.
I mentioned it on the FB group page. And then some other boater got very angry at me for telling people I saw them. He ranted on about how I was irresponsible because they are endangered and I shouldn’t share the whereabouts. Go figure. It kinda ruined a fond memory.
Ha ha – cruisers are the best!