Caribbean Note VIII

Wow, our last Saturday on Bonaire. This time next Saturday we’ll be on our way back to Portland. This has been a great trip, but we’re looking forward to seeing you all.

Last week we dove a new site in the south called Soft Coral Garden and it’s trying to break into our top five dive sites hit parade. What a great site for coral lovers! It’s a dive that’s kind of like swimming along the path at the Japanese Garden; around every coral head is a new arcology of life; so much variety and interwoven habitat.

On the big dive last week I set a new personal depth record with a 430 ft deep dive down the wall at Karpata that required a total of three hours run time to account for the deco. This is the closest I’ll ever get to my lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. On a dive like this I really do feel like I’m seeing new things in a place few have been able to go. I feel like I’m on the outside edge of experience. Berit joined me for an hour while I worked my way back from seventy feet to thirty feet and was there when I surfaced to help haul my sling bottles out of the surf. She was a big help, a great safety diver and wonderful dive buddy.

Yesterday we spent the day in Washington Slagbaai Park, which is comprised of two huge plantations in the north that have been donated to the island and designated a nature preserve and public park. We made camp in the park at a site called Wayaka II with our friends and left them to snorkel and sit on the beach while we dove the site. We were shadowed on the dive by three big tarpon and on our return were greeted by a pair of huge (two foot plus?) Midnight Parrot Fish in the shallows near the beach.

This is a nice place to picnic ‘cause it’s one of the few places on the island where the sand collects to cover the coral rubble along the shoreline. We think it’s one of the best spots on the island to snorkel. Berit brought along our (waterproof to thirty feet) camera to get some fish pictures and discovered it’s a lot tougher than she’d imagined to get them to hold still and pose. She did manage to get a couple (attached) and even a French Angel Fish who’d swim up to you as you got into the water in case (like Rexx) there was food to be had.

Slagbaai is also the site of the biggest mountain on Bonaire, Mt. Brandaris, which has a hiking trail clear to the top where the summit (the highest point on the whole island) tops out at a whopping 784 feet!

Tonight we’re going to a kind of fancy restaurant called Wil’s, to celebrate the 19th anniversary of our first date. Awwwwwwe . . . how cute!