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Yes, the Donkey Divers went Back to Bonaire in 2006. Johnny, Linda, Wally, Robin and I were joined by four others who had never been to Bonaire before, Carol, Steve, Dick and Loretta. We had a great time. Enjoyed great diving and dining. Most of the group flew back on Saturday but Johnny, Linda and I were scheduled to fly out on Sunday morning. There was a volcanic eruption at Montserrat that stopped all flight in and out of the southern Caribbean for over a day. We were stranded in Divers' Paradise but since they did not know when they could get us off the island, we couldn't really dive so we enjoyed the top side of the island for an extra day and a half. Our luggage got enjoy the island for even longer. It finally made it back on Wednesday. It had been packed since Saturday. You can use your imagination to figure out how damp dive gear smelled after sitting in the heat for four days. I am thinking of going back to Bonaire in September for the coral spawning season. Wally and I tried that last year but my work schedule made us leave a couple days before prime spawning time. Golden Reef Inn has a great special running now for that week. Prices start for under $1,000.00 and include airfare, diving, rental truck, room and breakfast. If you are interested, check it out and let me know.
Brief summary of the trip: Total time underwater this week = 29 hours 27 minutes 29 total dives 10 boat dives 19 shore dives 4 night dives 28 on nitrox 1 dive on air (shop was out of nitrox) Total lifetime dives on Bonaire = 210 Individual dives are logged in a table at the bottom of the page.
Click on the thumbnails below to see enlarged picture. Then click on the "BACK" button on your browser to return to this page. |
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Cactus Blue is a great new restaurant on the island. | |||||||||||
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Robin took this picture of me under water. I must have been doing a safety stop. | |||||||||||
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We found this crab on our first night dive on Sunday night. | |||||||||||
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An eel sticks his head out say, "Hi." | |||||||||||
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Can you find the frog fish? | |||||||||||
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This flounder is keeping an eye on me. | |||||||||||
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Here are three sea horses that we found a dive this morning. | |||||||||||
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This guy is a red one. | |||||||||||
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This one was located in a spot where it was hard to get close without touching coral around him so this is a long distant shot. | |||||||||||
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Here is one of several turtles that we saw on dives off Klein on Thursday. | |||||||||||
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After looking at the picture of the turtle above, I know that many of you are wondering, "What does a turtle's bowel movement look like?" Well, here is a picture of a turtle turd that the turtle dropped while I was video taping it. If you are having trouble identifying the fecal sample click here. | |||||||||||
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Here are 5 squid lined up in formation and watching me closely. | |||||||||||
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This is a honeycomb cow fish (notice the horns above his eyes). I noticed a few of them seem to have yellow skin disorder. I will consult some of my bovine dermatology books when I get home. | |||||||||||
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Here is the group
of Donkey Divers that made the trip to Bonaire on this trip. They are:
Back Row (L-R): Wally R., Dick*, Mike
(that would me),
Steve (hiding in the corner
under his blue hat),
Front Row Johnny, Loretta*, Linda, Carol & Robin.
*Dick and Loretta were making their first trip with the Donkey Divers. |
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Here I am with the Donkey Diver flag on the underwater reef cam, a live web cam off Eden Beach. | |||||||||||
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Click on the thumbnail to the left to see a bunch of small fish in a bait ball. | |||||||||||
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This is another picture of the fish in the bait ball as they all change direction simultaneously. | |||||||||||
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Here you can see some tiny striped shrimp in an anemone. | |||||||||||
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Here is a blue tang. | |||||||||||
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Now here is something you don't see everyday. Two dogs were swimming above me to get a plastic that was thrown by their owner on the beach. I got the picture as they were swimming away from me back towards shore. | |||||||||||
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This is a view off my balcony. | |||||||||||
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The tiki bar under the thatched roof was just a stone's throw from our room. | |||||||||||
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This is a view of Wally and some other divers over a formation of various kinds of coral. | |||||||||||
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In many places on Bonaire the floor is covered with a solid layer of coral of various types. Before Lenny, the storm of 1999, sent huge waves to the west side of Bonaire there were many areas in the shallows that were like this with even more staghorn coral. | |||||||||||
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The walls of coral are spectacular. The various types of coral are thick and healthy and very colorful. | |||||||||||
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Bonaire has many good restaurants. This is a new one that just opened in February of 2006. Corinna, who used to be a divemaster at Buddy Dive, along with her husband Hagen are the proprietors. It is located next to Casa Blanca, another good restaurant on Bonaire. We found the food, service and atmosphere at Cactus Blue to be to our liking so Johnny, Linda and I went back there a second time when we got stranded for a couple of extra days. Next time you are on Bonaire, check them out. You will not be disappointed. And you can see a picture of the Donkey Divers on the wall there. http://www.infobonaire.com/cactusblue/ | |||||||||||
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When we had a little mix up with
my reservations Liz and Ed at The Golden Reef Inn came to my
rescue. I gave Liz a call and she was able to put me up for the final
two nights on the island. They just opened the place last year. They
have some very nice rooms and condos. The place is very clean and set up
for divers. Check out their web site. They are running some great
specials, many of which include really great airfare. http://www.goldenreefinn.com/index.html |
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To see pictures from other dive
trips, click on the button below to go to my SCUBA page. It has links to
other pages of pictures and dive reports from many different dive trips
over the years.
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| Date | Island | Dive Site | Depth | Bottom Time |
| 5/14/2006 | Bonaire | Buddy Reef | 76 | 1:12 |
| 5/14/2006 | Bonaire | Reef Scientifico | 65 | :48 |
| 5/14/2006 | Bonaire (Klein) | Knife | 76 | 1:07 |
| 5/14/2006 | Bonaire | Bardadera | 42 | 1:03 |
| 5/14/2006 | Bonaire | Buddy Reef | 51 | 1:02 |
| 5/15/2006 | Bonaire (Klein) | South Bay | 59 | 1:08 |
| 5/15/2005 | Bonaire | Something Speacial | 59 | 1:07 |
| 5/15/2004 | Bonaire | Red Beryl | 60 | 1:01 |
| 5/15/2003 | Bonaire | Pink Beach | 56 | :55 |
| 5/16/2002 | Bonaire | Hilma Hooker | 99 | :47 |
| 5/16/2002 | Bonaire | Bachelor's Beach | 84 | :55 |
| 5/16/2002 | Bonaire | Front Porch | 73 | :56 |
| 5/16/2002 | Bonaire | Bari Reef | 54 | :48 |
| 5/16/2002 | Bonaire | Buddy Reef | 45 | 1:04 |
| 5/17/2006 | Bonaire (Klein) | Carl's Hill | 101 | 1:04 |
| 5/17/2006 | Bonaire | Kelley's Reef | 46 | 1:14 |
| 5/17/2006 | Bonaire | Alice in Wonderland | 94 | 1:11 |
| 5/17/2006 | Bonaire | Oil Slick Leap | 51 | 1:08 |
| 5/17/2006 | Bonaire | Bari Reef | 32 | 1:05 |
| 5/18/2006 | Bonaire | Bachelor's Beach | 87 | 1:02 |
| 5/18/2006 | Bonaire | 1000 stpes | 53 | :52 |
| 5/18/2006 | Bonaire (Klein) | Joanne's Sunchi | 43 | 1:07 |
| 5/18/2006 | Bonaire (Klein) | Ebo's Reef | 49 | 1:02 |
| 5/18/2006 | Bonaire | Reef Scientifico | 57 | :48 |
| 5/19/2006 | Bonaire (Klein) | Forest | 73 | 1:02 |
| 5/19/2006 | Bonaire | Petries Pillar | 57 | 1:11 |
| 5/19/2006 | Bonaire | Lake | 64 | :57 |
| 5/19/2006 | Bonaire | Angel City | 41 | :56 |
| 5/20/2006 | Bonaire | Andrea II | 49 | 1:05 |