(by Inger Jonrup)
“That is it, NO MORE! Next Christmas I just have to get away from all this.”
This was the thought going through the mind of four friends that also happened to be divers. There was a frantic search on the internet for places to go until Tim and I happened to mention that we had a lovely time 8 years ago on Bonaire and wanted to go back sometime. “Where is that? Is it warm? were a couple of the questions that arose. After another visit to the internet, it was decided to let Caribbean Fun Travel take the strain of organising two weeks holiday where we could spend Christmas on one island, Curacao, and New Year on the other, Bonaire. We wanted to stay at Captain Don’s Resorts on both islands, as they run 24-hour diving freedom, have self-catering villas and could hire pick-ups on both islands. Caribbean Fun Travel earned their fee and on the 22nd of December we arrived on Curacao after a very long time travelling.
It was hot, we were knackered and after a few beers we slept like logs. The first morning we were introduced to Easy Divers by Anne-Marie, from Holland, who gave us a thorough induction stressing our safety and their ethos on respecting the environment during diving with “Captain Don”. After that it was; “Here are the tanks, there are the boats, there’s the ocean….enjoy!”. Both Habitats have two jetties each, one for the boats and one for the divers. By the jetties are secure lockers for dive-gear and a small room where cylinders are stored and filled. It is simplicity to grab a bottle, kit up and jump in, swim for 5 minutes to the reef drop-off and descend. The House reefs on both islands were among the best dives we did over the two weeks and we spent a lot of time exploring the walls, various out-crops and the small wrecks.
The life was prolific
with large shoals of blue tangs and all the usual butterflies, damsels and
wrasse, plus a couple of Peacock flounders, stone fish, shrimp, various coloured
spotted morays, harlequin pipefish, trunkfish and lots of Christmas-tree worms.
We found a few lovely snake eels (beige coloured with white spots) trying to get
into crevices and purple tube coral, which was also abundant. Toss the kit and
bottles in the back of the pick-up and drive to the next dive site. The closest
site, The Valley, Port Marie, was a lovely beach with a bar/restaurant for
post-dive refuelling. The surface-swim to the reef was slightly longer, but the
result was very nice with barrel sponges, brain coral, smooth flower coral,
branded fire coral, tube sponges and lots of anemones. The usual wildlife of
eels, barracuda, trevally, trunkfish and bar jacks and some new species like
lizardfish, banded butterfly fish were in evidence.
Another excursion was to Playa de Lagun, a little further up the east coast. It was small beach area, high rock on both sides with a nice café by the car park. The surface swim seem to go on for a long time before it was time to descent. There was some coral damage and not as interesting as the other dives. New wild life added to our list was Southern Sting Ray, a few lovely nudibranchs and three spider crabs. Christmas Day was spent on the House reef but my Video camera flooded, never to be revived again. To celebrate the seasonal occasion the dive was undertaken wearing suitable headgear!! (see gallery). Apart from unlimited shore diving, included in the price, were 2 boat dives, which took us to Mushroom Forest, with spooky pinnacles growing like a forest of…..giant mushrooms, and Witches kitchen; I didn’t dare to ask why this was named. Some lovely black and white spotted/striped Drum fish and the biggest shoal of wrasse ever, passed by.
The last day was spent on the house reef, packing, having the last cocktail made by lovely barman Sherman (very tank like), and saying tara to everyone else that had looked after us splendidly. Apart from finding two flat tyres on the pick-up (one of these being the spare!!) when trying to leave for the airport, and so nearly missing our flight, we landed safely on Bonaire, where it was even hotter. Captain Don’s had grown a lot in 8 years but there were still the same easy going attitude to diving. There is a similar set-up with jetties and kit storage. The food and the wine here, was definitely superior to the smaller outfit on Curacao, but it was also not as personal or friendly and definitely no Sherman.
A lot of the diving week on Bonaire was spent on the House reef but as Bonaire is smaller and flatter it was easier to get to the various dive sites around the coast. Some of the entry and exit point were harrowing to say the least, and we all had bruises to prove it. It would have been easier to take the boat but this meant loosing the freedom of our own time. They had experienced a hurricane about 7 years ago, which was why Tim and I remembered the coral being in a much better condition. All the French and Queen angel-fish were still there and as beautiful as ever.
The first night on
Bonaire was slightly more dramatic than we had anticipated. Tim and I were woken
at 3 am. by Bob and Freda telling us they had to go to the hospital, as a
scorpion had stung them in bed. Luckily the doctor decided that it was not the
dangerous kind and after an extremely thorough cleaning session of the bedrooms,
we could try to catch up on some sleep. The day after this was spent taking it
easy and we went sightseeing in the capital, Kralendijk and along the south
coast of the island. The island is famous for its salt lakes, which have been
producing salt for export since Santa Claus was a nipper. The west/Atlantic side
of the island has some fierce sea conditions that make spectacular sight-seeing
and explain why all the diving is done on the Caribbean side.
Our 2 boat drives here
we did around Klein Bonaire, a small island 10 minutes boat ride from base. We
found the coral damage worse here, but still good enough to support a large
number of the usual suspect including some wonderful nudibranchs. The only large
wreck round Bonaire is the Hilma Hooker, a Korean ship found carrying drugs, The
Government burned it in 1984 and sunk the hull. It lies at 30m. on its side at
the sandy bottom next to the coral reef, and is guarded by 4 awesome tarpon!!!
New Years Eve was spent eating a lovely supper with wine, and listening to a Caribbean band playing at the ocean-side bar. At midnight, the hotel had laid on champagne, so we could view a spectacular firework display out over the water. There was still some diving to be done before we had our enforced day off so we went both north and south of the base looking for sea horses. None were to be spotted but instead we had to settle for turtles, barracuda, various morays, filefish and more angel-fish; …sad isn’t it?
At Angel City we were
greeted on descent by a procession of 11 squid lining-up to watch us.
Investigation over, they turned their backs and swim away. Here we also
encountered the largest green moray I have ever seen. Our last dive was spent on
the House Reef, where patrolling one of the small wrecks we encountered
the 2 very large and inquisitive resident porcupine fish.
Bonaire has a large
area to the north that is a National Park consisting of acres of cactus and
acacia and salt pools with pink flamingos; spectacular compensation on our
desaturation day! Sadly it was time to clean the gear and pack, taking nothing
back but some t-shirts, a couple of pictures by local artist, hundreds of photos
and hours of video.
It is a difficult place to get to, KLM is not the most helpful airline in the
world and a 4 hour stop-over at Schipol waiting for a short hop home is less
than ideal, but this was a small pain after such a wonderful trip.
Inger,
Tim, Freda, Bob