ScubaDiva
Contributor
Day 0-1: Arriving in Bonaire
I wish I could start out with a great story about how smooth our flight was and our room being ready when we got here, BUT I cant. We arrived at IAH three hours early after driving from Austin. Turns out it is $17/day to park at the airport, so we headed down the street to park in a $6/day lot. We patiently waited for our red eye Continental flight that was to leave at 11:30pm and arrive in Bonaire at approximately 5:18am. Well everyone boarded the plane, we took off at 11:36pm and we turned the plane around to head back to Houston approximately 20 minutes later because the wing flaps would not retract. Apparently, those are important. 2.5 hours later, we were in the air again. Yea! Now, we were wondering if we would make it on time for the 9:30 am (verbal) orientation (required for Bonaire newbies). We made it on time!
We picked up our rental truck that came with our Den Laman package and headed to the condo. The lady at the front desk told us that our room should be ready at around noon. It wasnt .but whatever Im not going to go into that. I am writing this from my room, so I am a happy scuba diva now.
We checked in at the dive shop and went over to the Sand Dollar for a small buffet breakfast that cost us $27!!! Yikes!!! I was amazed after hearing how cheap it is to eat on Bonaire. Anyway-our tummies were happy, and we were on our way to orientation. For some reason, everyone else on our plane didnt make it on time, and they rescheduled their orientation for noon, so we had a one-on-two with the lady who led it and learned a lot about the diving as well as the other activities on the island, which was nice.
Waiting for our room and wanting nothing but a shower and a nap, we decided to drive around a bit. We headed North to Karpata and East to Rincon and back through town. Somehow, we ended up near the airport again and back to Den Laman. Jeff tracked our drive on everytrail.com with his BlackBerry because we are huge dorks and like to log all of our activities, so we can never look at them again after telling the story 23 times and getting burnt out on it.
I said I wouldnt go into the negativity of the room situation, so Ill just say that we ate lunch at the restaurant at DL and got into our room at 1:30pm. Nappy time!! after a shower, of course. We took a one hour nap, and then on to the part that you are waiting to hear about .DIVING!
Normally, Jeff and I each take a camera, but neither one of us did for the check-out dive. We dove the house reef, and saw lots of cool guys 2 bright yellow and 1 cool blue trumpet fish, about 5 white trunkfish with black polka dots, a small hawksbill turtle, a HUGE tarpon (known as Charlie) at DL, tons of little macro stuff, including a tiny tiny bright red crab with bright yellow eyeballs and some other teeny guys that I need to look up , get some pics of and get back to you on. Also saw 4 eels (the small, white, spotted ones and 2 black spotted ones not sure if those are the scientific names). Total dive time was 63 minutes. I so enjoy the freedom of the shore diving experience.
Went to the market after the dive to get our breakfast and lunch for the week and back to the room. Made dinner, used half my bottle of Deep Woods Off killing the 800 tiny bugs (dont know what they are) that have already attacked the garbage can (now outside) and one half of an entire wall in our room!
Anyway-We dont really have a plan for tomorrow, but it will most likely entail a minimum of three dives that I will share, so subscribe to the thread and check back! Ill keep updating it!
Pics of our studio below here...Picasa Web Albums - Michelle - Bonaire Septe...
Jeff, being the Graphic Designer that he is, started a website...return of the 'fro
Dive pics to follow tomorrow when we have our cameras with us!
I wish I could start out with a great story about how smooth our flight was and our room being ready when we got here, BUT I cant. We arrived at IAH three hours early after driving from Austin. Turns out it is $17/day to park at the airport, so we headed down the street to park in a $6/day lot. We patiently waited for our red eye Continental flight that was to leave at 11:30pm and arrive in Bonaire at approximately 5:18am. Well everyone boarded the plane, we took off at 11:36pm and we turned the plane around to head back to Houston approximately 20 minutes later because the wing flaps would not retract. Apparently, those are important. 2.5 hours later, we were in the air again. Yea! Now, we were wondering if we would make it on time for the 9:30 am (verbal) orientation (required for Bonaire newbies). We made it on time!
We picked up our rental truck that came with our Den Laman package and headed to the condo. The lady at the front desk told us that our room should be ready at around noon. It wasnt .but whatever Im not going to go into that. I am writing this from my room, so I am a happy scuba diva now.
We checked in at the dive shop and went over to the Sand Dollar for a small buffet breakfast that cost us $27!!! Yikes!!! I was amazed after hearing how cheap it is to eat on Bonaire. Anyway-our tummies were happy, and we were on our way to orientation. For some reason, everyone else on our plane didnt make it on time, and they rescheduled their orientation for noon, so we had a one-on-two with the lady who led it and learned a lot about the diving as well as the other activities on the island, which was nice.
Waiting for our room and wanting nothing but a shower and a nap, we decided to drive around a bit. We headed North to Karpata and East to Rincon and back through town. Somehow, we ended up near the airport again and back to Den Laman. Jeff tracked our drive on everytrail.com with his BlackBerry because we are huge dorks and like to log all of our activities, so we can never look at them again after telling the story 23 times and getting burnt out on it.
I said I wouldnt go into the negativity of the room situation, so Ill just say that we ate lunch at the restaurant at DL and got into our room at 1:30pm. Nappy time!! after a shower, of course. We took a one hour nap, and then on to the part that you are waiting to hear about .DIVING!
Normally, Jeff and I each take a camera, but neither one of us did for the check-out dive. We dove the house reef, and saw lots of cool guys 2 bright yellow and 1 cool blue trumpet fish, about 5 white trunkfish with black polka dots, a small hawksbill turtle, a HUGE tarpon (known as Charlie) at DL, tons of little macro stuff, including a tiny tiny bright red crab with bright yellow eyeballs and some other teeny guys that I need to look up , get some pics of and get back to you on. Also saw 4 eels (the small, white, spotted ones and 2 black spotted ones not sure if those are the scientific names). Total dive time was 63 minutes. I so enjoy the freedom of the shore diving experience.
Went to the market after the dive to get our breakfast and lunch for the week and back to the room. Made dinner, used half my bottle of Deep Woods Off killing the 800 tiny bugs (dont know what they are) that have already attacked the garbage can (now outside) and one half of an entire wall in our room!
Anyway-We dont really have a plan for tomorrow, but it will most likely entail a minimum of three dives that I will share, so subscribe to the thread and check back! Ill keep updating it!
Pics of our studio below here...Picasa Web Albums - Michelle - Bonaire Septe...
Jeff, being the Graphic Designer that he is, started a website...return of the 'fro
Dive pics to follow tomorrow when we have our cameras with us!