The wifey and I just got back from our vacation on Bonaire (small island near Aruba, north of Venezuela in the Caribbean). The island is one of the top spots for scuba diving in the world and it did not disappoint. We logged 20 dives totaling 18.5 hours underwater over the span of 7 days. Deepest dive went to 103 ft, longest dive was 82 minutes.
Saw a hawksbill turtle, moray eels, goldspotted eels, garden eels, sharptail eel, a gigantic tarpon, 2 eagle rays, 2 sting rays (one was very big), a few lobsters, huge barracudas, spider starfish, some blennies, peacock flounder, pufferfish, and tons of other fish: jacks, grunts, parrotfish, grouper, butterfly fish, angel fish, triggerfish, tangs, cowfish, jackknife fish, spotted scorpion fish, and a bunch more that Alina wrote down that I forgot. Unfortunately we did also see quite a few Lionfish, I think around a dozen, bummer.
We did the wreck dive at the Hilma Hooker during the day, and then went back on Halloween night to do a night dive there. We were the only ones there and I'll admit that it was a little freaky being down at 98 ft. at night checking out a shipwreck. Alina was happy to get out of the water when we were done. We also did a "UV" night dive, something I had never done before and it was pretty cool, though probably just a do-it-once kind of thing.
It was a great vacation. We stayed in a guest house and the owners were an extremely nice Dutch couple who we will definitely stay with again. We rented a truck for the week and had the unlimited air package from one of the dive shops on the island. You basically just pack your gear up in the truck, go to one of a few tank locations on the island, throw 5 tanks in the back of the truck and head out to wherever you want to dive. There are over 80 sites on the island and many of the sites we went to we were the only ones in the water. During surface intervals we ate PB & J's and changed out empty tanks for new ones. The water was fantastic - 82 degrees top to bottom all week long with 80-100 ft. visibility.
We both can't wait to go back.
Pictures to follow...
