Bonaire Goes Green

This island is changing, and progressing in the fast lane to green but still remains true to its cultural roots seeking a future of sustainable growth. Bonaire has always maintain an ideology that their reef system must be protected, and that was proved true to form at the dive orientation on the Saturday we arrived. If you wear gloves while diving on the reef, you WILL be fined over a $1000.00, and forbidden to continue diving. And that was just one of the laws being enforced on the island. The entire island waters is a marine park with strict regulations and enforcement.

Our two-week Bonaire adventure began with our participation in the 2009 Bonaire Photo & Video Shootout. Wrapping up our last week photographing and diving with our underwater club, Houston Underwater Photographic Society

This is our third year participating in the shootout. The 2010 Shootout will be in Little Cayman, hosted by Little Cayman Beach Resort. We were just there in May 2009. Please checkout my May 2009 blog if you are interested in what Little Cayman has to offer.

My husband, Jim Heimer, won first place in the Underwater Video Category. To view this video, click on 2009 Digital Shootout

He did an excellent job, and was well rewarded for his hard work with a $2700 Light & Motion LED Lighting System for a Bluefin underwater video housing. We will not be back next year since the still photography part of the program has not changed. I had hope their program would be updated to reflect the massive changes to Photoshop with the introduction of Photoshop CS4. Unfortunately, I did not get much out of the program this year. . . I just went diving. I did suggest that they divide the photographers into advanced and novice. In my opinion, this will give the novices (photogs who are  here for the first time or who do underwater photography as a hobby but want to improve their skills) a better chance at the spectacular prizes. I also suggested that they hire local professional photogs to judge their contest.  This way the contest will truly be blind without the direct contact of participants and sponsors, especially when you have the people judging the contest also helping on the last day with the contest participants’ photos. For the three years that I have been coming to the Shootout, the same photogs continue to win. Since photography is subjective, it would be nice to have no contact with the judges until after the contest. 

We are experiencing cooling breezes and sunny days. The nights are very pleasant making outside dining desirable since most restaurants have beautiful views of the ocean.

Bonaire is one of the top dive destinations in the world. However, there is much to do here besides diving. . . wind sailing, kite boarding, ocean kayaking, caving, hiking, birding, exploring Washington Slagbaai National Park, visiting the donkey and flamingo sanctuary. And for the more risk takers, there is Divi Flamingo Casino. But we are here to dive, photograph, dive, photograph, dive. . . . 

One of our favorite dive sites in Bonaire is “Windsock.” We have dived this site several times by boat but we also did a shore dive here, with easy entry/exit. One of the Hupsters, who is a dive instructor, is a super "critter finder." She had been told by one of our divemasters where two seahorses were on that site. She zeroed in on them at 45 feet depth along a large star coral formation. Interesting fact about seahorses is the female deposits the eggs (which could be 1000) in the male seahorse pouch to be nourished. The male seahorse then goes into labor to birth his young. Now that would be a photo to get.

The longlured frogfish was in 35 feet of water near the “Windsock” buoy. I never got my belching frogfish photo. The one time I was setup to get it, and knew that it was going to belch, another diver, on the boat, moved on me, causing me to move so as not to damage the reef. He got the shot, which won in the Shootout. My only redemption was I did get a "semi-belching" frogfish shot. One Hupsters, on our boat, got a great shot of a belching frogfish, which won the monthly photo contest at Capt. Don's Habitat. Check it out. I was told if you just wait patiently, the frogfish will belch again. I spent an entire dive waiting. These guys are truly the master of disguise. It is very difficult to locate them when they are on a orange sponge. Enough about the frogfish!

Another great dive site is “Karpata.” Because of its more northernly location where the winds are stronger, it is better to dive by boat. Water can get pretty choppy making for tricky entries/exits. However, it’s worth it. . . the underwater topography of rolling reefs with huge soft corals and sea fans teeming with sea life. As the story goes, there are seven old anchors located at varies depths. Some of the Hupsters found a couple of the anchors.  Unfortunately, the anchor eluded me as did the “belching frogfish” photo. 

I will say, at the Shootout, I met some great people, and also renewed old acquaintances. One of my new dive friends is a dive shop owner named Karen. She owns a dive shop in Mexico, called Dive Aventuras. We spent one dive sharing a very cooperative Common Octopus . . . timing our shots between each other's recycling of the strobes. Check out her website, and if your planning a trip to Mexico, look her up, tell her I said "hello." 

My husband and I were anxious about coming to Bonaire with serious reports of reef damage by Hurricane Omar, which hit Bonaire last October, 2008. But we were pleasantly surprised that there had been little damage to the reefs, the only casualty was the famous dive site, “Town Pier,” which had the pilings scraped and inspected for damages. Now, the site is being used for research to see how quickly sea life returns and coral will grow back on the pilings. One of the more interesting reports was the sad state of dying eels caused by a human cholera-like bacteria, called vibrio. However, Hurricane Omar cleaned out the reefs of Bonaire, sweeping away this nasty bacteria. As reported by Jerry Ligon, naturalist, the eel population is recovering. Click to read the full report  I was able to get some nice shots of a chain moray, which was one of the eel species that had been affected by the bacteria. This was my first shot of a chain moray.

 

The first week (2009 Bonaire Video & Photo Shootout) we stayed at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort, where the only casino on the island is located. The resort took some severe damages during Omar, losing its pier and damaging some of the rooms. The pier has been built back better than before and the rooms have all been upgraded with nice kitchenettes and European style showers and granite counters in the kitchen and bathrooms. Sergio is the manager of the Divi Dive Bonaire and runs a superior dive operation. The dive boats are fast and roomy. Large dive lockers, with built-in hooks and hangers for storing your wetsuits and dive gear, are located on the pier in proximity of the dive boats making easy access to boats with dive gear in hand. Shore diving off the house reef, Calabas Reef, is made simple by providing tanks right there.  The resort is located near town making in within walking distance of any of the absolutely great dining places. If journeying down to Bonaire, I highly recommend staying and diving at the Divi!

Unfortunately, the second week was not as nice as the first week even though we were diving with the Hupsters, of which we have many great diving buddies and friends. Capt. Don’s Habitat is showing its age, and that’s putting it nicely. Luckily we had been there a week and we're not caught in the ghastly fatigue from the Houston flight, which departs Houston at 11:30pm, arriving Bonaire at 5:05am the next morning. It still took the Hupsters until 4pm to get checked into their rooms. Our room had a heavy smoke smell. I complained at the front desk, which I must say, had NO DESIRE TO HELP! We aired out the bedspreads, which reeked with cigarette smoke and then stored it away in the closets. When the market open on Monday, I purchased some Lysol air freshener in hopes of some reprieve from the smoky room by spraying down the curtains.

The dive shop is poorly run by a lady who has a serious attitude problem. Capt. Don’s had borrowed a dive boat from Divi so we were lucky in that respect, with spacious room, diving with the Hupsters. Our divemaster Lutie, and our boat captain, from Divi, Orlando, were the best. The dive lockers were in a dark, covered area that smelled of mildew and mold, which made it impossible to dry out your gear before the next dive. The lockers were too small for wetsuits, which meant that your heavy wetsuits had to be lugged back to your room each day to dry. Rinse tanks were not clean, and I wouldn’t even think of putting my camera gear in the camera designated rinse tanks. For shore diving on the house reef, tanks had be hauled down stairs to the diver’s lockers, then a short walk out to the pier where the ladder was for entering/exiting. It was a walk to haul gear on the boats and a walk to haul camera and wetsuits to the rooms. Capt. Don’s is NOT a diver-friendly facility, and I would not recommend it. However, the spectacular reefs and marine life, and shopping in town, made up for the uncomfortable living arrangements.   If you do not want to stay at Divi Flamingo Resort, there are plenty of nice and reasonable resorts. Several Hupsters stayed at the Yacht Club Apartments. For more information on places to stay, click here.

Even though Bonaire's famous symbol is the Pink Flamingo because of the flamingos that make Bonaire their home, there are over 200 different species of birds found on the island. Two of the more vociferous but colorful birds that resides on Bonaire is the Yellow-shouldered Amazon Parrot and the Caribbean or Brown-throated Parakeet. On my last full day on Bonaire, I went out to photograph parrots and sights around the island. There are approximately 400 wild yellow-shouldered Amazons. The World Parrot Trust has setup operations in Bonaire, and has the full cooperation of the Bonaire people.

I had heard the panoramic views from Seru Largu of the island of Bonaire were fantastic, and they weren't lying. Seru Largu is a hill, approximately 400 feet in elevation, sporting a beautiful architectural designed cross. You can see almost the entire island. . . salt lake, Lac Bay, Klein Bonaire, downtown Kralendijk, the northern shoreline of Bonaire, etc. I will return. . . 

Comments

[Laurel]

Fantastic photos, just like always, and very interesting narrative. Will definitely cross Capt. Don's off my list.

[Sylvia]

Great stuff. Something I don't care to do, that is, go under water, unless I'm in a "sub". Thanks for sharing the under side of the world to us. Beautiful stuff, I loved the sea horse, but I really loved the parrots more.....what can I say, I love birdies....be blessed and keep up the awesome work.....sylvia :-)

[Bob Costantini]

Beautiful photos, such great underwater color. The Moray eel and the Queen Angel are great.

[Jim Skogsberg]

My caption for the eel picture is: "Here's lookin at you kid."

[Ashley Perry]

As usual, you come through with some incredible shots and a great trip report. Thanks for the heads up on Capt. Dons. Kim and I always enjoy reading the updates to your blog and hearing more about the "Adventures of Kandace & Jim".