More Mangroves

Another view of mangroves in a different spot - GBI has a lot of mangroves. That's what happens when your whole island is a whopping 30 feet or so above sea level.

Liz contemplating life

After her near death experience with the giant barracuda just off of this very shore . . . beneath these waves lie toothy giants!

visit to the beach

Here are liz and I down at the Lucyan National Park.

Mangrove

Liz took this. It's cool.

A place to relax and read a book

The pool! A nice spot to cool off and read a book.

Here are Liz and I at the same beach.

Well, We are warming on GBI

Hey folks. We have arrived, and it is HOT!!! Haven;t done a whole lot. Went to the airport this morning to get my luggage. Spent a nice evening at Al & Karin's last night.

I took Liz out east to show her a cool beach this afternoon. A bit of wind and rain, but still very nice.

The calm side of the sea (western shore) and a "typical" beach

Bonaire Terrain, Flora and Fauna

As you can see from these pictures, Bonaire isn't exactly "tropical." There are some Palm trees but there are far more cactus and low-lying shrubs. Also, when taking a closer look at the ground you'll find it's mostly coral - at higher elevations you can actually see where the water level was thousands of years ago.

I wasn't able to capture all of the fauna on camera - but here is a picture of a lone donkey we met while traversing some "back roads" in an attempt to find the northeast coast of the island (luckily Nate is an ASTOUNDING navigator :o). There is a donkey sanctuary on the island that is helping to reduce overpopulation, I believe the overall effort is to phase out the donkies altogether as their primary purpose used to be transportation of salt.

Other animals you might see crossing the road include goats, chickens, iguanas, lizards, cats, dogs, etc

East Side of the Island

The eastern coast of Bonaire is notorious for it's rough seas - only highly experienced divers are permitted to explore this side of the island and as I'm sure you guessed by looking at the shore... they can only dive by boat. An interesting article I read while there said that the marine life on this side is nothing short of incredible (hawksbill turtles, stingrays/eagle rays, green moray eels, shipwrecks , and untouched coral reefs)

More pics as promised...

Pictures from our afternoon/evening at the slave huts. Located on the southern tip of Bonaire, you can get an amazing sunset and watch as the flamingos make their daily trek back to Venezuela (over 60 miles each way). I was able to get a couple of shots of the birds as they were making their way home - but I wasn't able to zoom in enough to truly capture their color or size. Also, I added a picture of Nate's mom in front of one of the huts to give you perspective of size - four to six people to each hut during the height of the salt trade. An amazing view but certainly not very accomodating for the workers once housed there.

Picture of a cool beach in Aruba with lots of stacked pieces of coral
(hikers and passers by add new pieces to the stacks). This view
stretched for at least a couple hundred yards. We were able to tour
pretty much the whole island of Aruba by rental car during our 7 hour
layover this am. Put over 100 km on the car and can honestly say that
I don't need to go back - some beautiful scenery but it's too built up
and we saw it all.

Super bowl Sunday

So we're chillin' at a DC airport, watching the super bowl and munching on some french fries. Feels strange to be back on the states but am glad that we're almost home (can't wait to see the pet menagerie). We left Bonaire at 6 this morning and should be back on the farm by 1 am. We have lots more pictures and stories to share which we'll start posting tomorrow. Thanks for keeping up with us and for all the great comments :-)

Aruba

We have a 7 hour layover in Aruba. Instead of sitting in the airport
we are driving around. Here is downtown Oranjestad - cruiseship
central. Aruba is night and day from Bonaire.

Eating lunch in an awesome Dutch pancake (crepe) house.

Indian inscriptions

Behind the cage are Indian drawings from roughly 300 BC. The depict
ocean currents and safe landing sites on the island, as well as pieces
of an astrological calendar.

The countryside

Bonaire is a very arid island. Below is a typical photo from the car
window of the interior of the island.

Belated post from Saturday.

Yesterday we did the 30 mile tour of Bonaire - a practical
circumnavigation. It took 7 hours. The "roads" through much of the
island leave a little to be desired. Actually they leave a lot to be
desired mainly pavement, or at least driveable gravel, any type of
roadsign at all and widths over 6 feet (on a two way road).

Here is a typical bonairian beach. Hard, sharp, endless stretches of
reef left bare when the oceans receded. It's about 15-20 feet down.
Looks great for snorkling. Getting in is easy. It's the out that I'm
hesitant about.

Saturday

This morning we're heading out to rent scooters and tour the island
(marine park, donkey preserve, and miles of cactus and coastline).
Will hopefully post pictures tonight, if not will update the blog as
we travel home tomorrow. Liz

Hi

Just wanted to say hi. Will post more tommorrow (our last day). I am
off to do a night dive and leaving liz with mom. I am far more worried
about liz's safety than my own . . .

I just can't seem to get over the sunsets here . . .

As you may have noticed, I like these guys. It seems however that she
was just using me for my lettuce. When it ran out, so did she. While
it lasted, she was very petsistant however!

Ps- don't mind liz's finger, she's still getting used to the iPhone
camera.

Breakfast

It's often a little rainy at night here this time of year. But check
pit this rainbow that appeared at breakfast!

At Last - underwater

Well, there's no videos. We'll see how many underwater pics I can do - they are very high res. . . .

These guys looooove lettuce

They are about 3-4 feet and come running if you dangle salad bits!

Sunset down at the slave huts.

Unfortunetly I got none with the flamingos. Hopefully liz did. We'll
see.

Nate

Pre sunset at the slave huts.

This guy has become a regular!

A word about the weather

So the weather here is amazing. NEVER again will you ever hear me say that 85 degree weather is anything close good. But here it is different. We sit at 12 degrees north of the equator, smack dab in the middle of the trade winds. This means that every day, all day, there is a 10-15 mph wind blowing. It is a little humid, and god the sun is bright, but the sky is always checkerboarded with ample clouds to give you little moments of shade, and that steady cool breeze from the ocean really does the trick.

All right, I am off to find liz fresh from her first day of dive class. I hope the videos weren't too boring.

Here is where we dive from. The room is about 150 feet north. Breakfast is 100 feet south. The dive shop is 30 feet away. Never has diving been so incredibly conveniant. Dad and I rented a camera today for the rest of the week. I just need to see if they will give us a cd before we return it of individual day's photos.

Another sunset has begun.