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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for October, 2009Oct 16, 09 Comments Off
 Spawning Brittle Star Good evening readers, guess what I did today, yep, NOTHING! I had a fairly relaxing day at home while Eva went to the Aquarium and did some shopping on the beach and Aimee had to work. About the only outside adventure I did today was to take the dogs for a nice walk at the salt ponds and while I was there I picked all my trail tools I had hidden over there in the brush. I spent most of the day backing up photos onto mini-hard drives and burning DVD’s, I took a whole lot of pictures this week!
Here’s a fun shot from last night, this is a large Brittle Star Spawning! I tell you it’s such a strange and wonderful thing to see! It’s like an underwater alarm is sounded and all at once every brittle star crawls out from underneath something and starts mating and spawning. Here you can see the body raised up high and all those eggs being released into the water, I mean is that cool or what?? I raced all around trying to get more of these type of shots but it just happens so fast! I am going back tonight at 7:00 to see if that was it or if it is still going, stay tuned.
I am off to a birthday party at work, talk to you later, Barry
15-10-2009
Oct 16, 09 Comments Off
 Hawksbill Turtle Good morning, we are all waking up asking “what happened”, these fast paced fun vacation days can wear a person out! We again packed up dive gear and drove an hour to the west end of the island to a dive site called Playa Kalki. Our friends Mark and Suzy and Rob also met us there plus another friend from North Coast divers bringing our total to seven, the more the merrier! It was a beautiful morning, just a light breeze and the ocean was super flat and calm. We jumped in around 10:30 and took off to the east, something new for me as I have only dove the reef in the other direction in the past. It was a fun dive filled with lots and lots of little surprises like a tiny cone shell Aimee found under a shelf, some weird sponges, a big green moray eel being cleaned by some shrimps, a tiny trunkfish and the highlight of the dive, this small 14 inch Hawksbill Turtle. This little turtle could have cared less about all of us he just swam around doing his thing. He swam a complete circle around me when I took this photo and then went right back to reef searching for breakfast I assume? I think we dove for close to 90 minutes, Aimee and I kept busy taking beauty pictures while Eva just swam around finding all kinds of great creatures, it turned out to be a really fun dive.
We got back home again after 1:00, the dogs were so glad to see us again!! Aimee immediately took off and went shopping and returned tanks while I stayed home and worked on the computer and cleaned dive gear. At 5:00 Eva and I went to the Sea Aquarium for another dive. We jumped in again around 5:30 and immediately came across two Yellowtail Hamlets mating!! I hung out with them for quite awhile hoping for some photographic action but finally I said enough and we moved on. As we took off now at 50 feet I spotted two more Yellowtails chasing each other and this time it looked promising. Eva hung out above me while I followed these two all over and then finally like magic they stopped in mid water above a coral head and did a beautiful 2-3 second mating ritual! The two fish come completely to a dead stop and just float wrapped together in a ball, you have to see it to believe it! I haven’t looked at my photos yet so I don’t know if I was able to capture it or not, it happens fast! We watched them mate three more times and then off we went to find something else. The next major find of the evening was by Eva, she called me over and pointed to some brittle stars all together on top of this cluster of fire coral. One look and I knew what was going on, the Brittle Stars were Spawning!! I was so low on air and here this great event was unfolding right before our eyes! I took as many shots as I could before Eva swam over and showed me her air gauge she was close to out as well so off we went! When I got out I raced over to our dive shop and found another half used tank and quickly put it on and raced back to the water! I again found them all over and proceeded to shoot away, normally these things are so shy they would never come out not even at night. I ended up being under there again in about 15 feet of water for 35 more minutes so that ended up being one long dive but boy was it ever fun! Eva and Aimee were waiting for me on shore they had been watching my lights from above and had been wondering what was going on? So it was another fun evening, we all went home super tired and crashed immediately!
Better get moving, it’s late for me! Curacao regards, Barry
15-10-2009
Oct 15, 09 Comments Off
 The Blue Room in Curacao Good morning friends, we had quite a day yesterday at Santa Cruz. For any of you wanting to visit the famous Mushroom Forest or play in the Blue Room you only have two options. Do what we did and drive to Santa Cruz and pay for a water taxi which cost $20 dollars each and he will take you out and drop you off or you have to arrange the dive thru one of the many companies on the island and jump on one of their big boats, it’s just not possible to do from shore it’s too far out! So we got there around 10:00 after a long drive, set up our gear on shore, climbed in the little boat and off we went, it was about a three minute boat ride at high speed. We asked to get dropped in an area that wasn’t dove as much and turned out to be a very beautiful area. Aimee and I kind of raced from beautiful sponge or coral outcrop to another, I would set up and she would swim over and pose in the background we really work good as a team doing this now. The whole time we were shooting Eva just hung out along side and enjoyed the dive she was just super relaxed with a smile on her face! This was really a nice little reef, it’s right before the start of the actual Mushroom Forest. We stayed for one hour and then slowly began our assent to the surface where the water taxi would pick us up. Our little boat showed up right on time and one by one we took off our gear in the water and handed it up to the driver. We then asked if we could go check out the Blue Room real quick since it was so close and we all had extra air. Beware of this though folks if you go with the Santa Cruz water taxi he will charge you for another dive if you get out and get in again which would have been useful information before the dive. Ask as many questions as you can before you leave shore he won’t tell you much unless you ask. So he pulled up at the Blue Room, Aimee decided she was going to just free dive and left all her gear in the boat and Eva and I jumped back in on scuba. I went directly inside the big cave and just watched as my half fish half human wife dove down 20 plus feet time after time and explored the cave by just holding her breath, made me tired just watching her! Eva explored the cave behind me which goes in pretty far and I just sat there on the sand watching them both. This is really one of Curacao’s coolest water attractions and I highly recommend this to everyone and please call me before you go!!
I think we got home around 1:00 all of us hungry and very thirsty and the dogs were so glad to see us. Aimee and Eva went to Punda for some shopping and relaxation time while I cleaned gear, and worked on the computer. Thanks to our friend Cindy in Rapid City I was able to put together a little Halloween Video for you all, actually there are two they are really funny and we think you will really enjoy them! Here’s the links, monstermashup.com/
 9298b2 and monstermashup.com/5dd85b That’s about it we are really enjoying Eva although we keep calling her Sheila? We have two best friends that have come here a lot Leon and Sheila from Hill City, South Dakota so we keep calling her the wrong name, forgive us Eva. We are again headed to the West end this morning for some great diving at Playa Kalki, join us at 10:00 if you wish!! Gotta go, bye now, Barry
14-10-2009
Oct 13, 09 Comments Off
 Four Wheeling with Eva Good evening readers, the adventure continues! Eva and I started the day off with a super fun three hour tour of the north side of the island on these fun Quads. We start out with about 6 miles of winding thru residential neighborhoods and finally ended up popping out and stopping at the Aloe Vera Plantation. There we briefly watched as they took harvested Aloe and made it into useable products like the refreshing Aloe drink Eva tried while she was there. Our next stop was at the Ostrich Farm although we didn’t have much time there, we just got some drinks and then headed back out to continue our tour. The rest of the trip was all on trails and dirt roads like you see here that go along our north coast. We did stop at some caves along the way and went inside to see all the bats, will have to go back there for some better photos. I didn’t realize the caves were so big, not only can you go inside them you can take a trail that leads to the top as well for a scenic view you won’t soon forget! Your photo below is of our guest Eva enjoying her trip to the fullest! Ahead you can see the giant wind-mills and beyond those is a place called Canoa, that’s where we stopped for a nice rest and a refreshing drink while sitting in front of a great little beach. During the whole trip today Eva was waving at everyone she passed, I felt like I was in a parade at times and found myself waving as well! Some of the guys she waved to just kept waving even when she passed as if to say, “please come back” it was to funny! I think the only disappointing thing for Eva today was that there was not enough mud to go thru but she did manage to find enough of it to satisfy her need to get down and dirty!
After the ride we hung out at home for awhile and at 3:30 I took her to the Aquarium to meet Aimee for a swim with the dolphins. I hung around for around 30 minutes taking photos then took off as I had to meet my friends for an evening bike ride. The bike ride was great, it was only an hour and a half but fun was had by all, it’s getting dark so early now!
That’s about it, we just had a great dinner again and now it’s off to bed! Till tomorrow, Barry
13-10-2009
Oct 13, 09 Comments Off
 Superior Producer BW Good morning from adventure central. Our day yesterday started out with yet another trip to the Superior Producer. We figured since the ocean was a bit more calm now getting in and out would be so much easier. Well for the most part this was true, it was much easier than the day before but still a bit of a challenge. I was hoping for killer visibility but instead it turned out to be the complete opposite. As we descended down the coral reef and out over the sandy flat at 85 feet normally you can see the giant ship resting ahead of you on the sand from quite a distance, well not yesterday. It wasn’t till we got fairly close that the outline of this monster beast came into view, in fact it was kind of eerie as you can see from the photo this morning. As we approached I gave the signal to Eva to descend all the way to the bottom which was about 112 feet and for her to swim thru the big hole where the propeller used to be, fun for her and cool photo for me. As I got into position on the sand waiting for her to swim thru I noticed a family of four Yellowhead Jawfish just next to me popping up and down out of their holes checking us out, I told Aimee she has to come and see these guys. Even though the ship was engulfed in a watery fog it was still a blast! We swam all over checking things out like the sponges and corals stuck to the sides and the creatures that live in them or around them, it’s just always a great time there! Our time quickly ran out and off we went headed back to the safety of the reef and shallower waters. On the assent up we found what looked like the same two big squids from yesterday and hung out with them for a bit during our mandatory “Deep Stop” to decompress from our deep dive. Eva is a great diver, very calm and getting better and better with her air it sure has been great having her as a dive buddy and guest.
The rest of our afternoon was fast paced as well, we first cleaned gear, went to drop off the tanks, went to the grocery store, then to the bakery, lunch and then I took her to our favorite glass beach to collect polished glass.
While collecting beautifully colored polished glass we decided we should go get two more tanks and do a night dive as well, my kind of girl! We jumped in this time at 5:30 on the Sea Aquarium reef and got out after dark. Our dive was one for the books, we ended up seeing so much!! We started out with watching two French Angelfish mating, three Spotted drums together, a pair of Hamlets mating, two Spotfin Butterflyfish chasing each other, a Seahorse and much, much more!! I found this Seahorse in the dark if you can believe that, and it was the first Seahorse Eva had ever seen in the wild on all the dives she has done all over the World! When I pointed to it underwater and for her to come closer she looked and then let out a great scream of delight underwater, that made my day!! Doing dusk dives is really the best time to be out there for behavior photos, I have to start doing more! Our night dive ended with watching a squid eating a shrimp but he wouldn’t let me get close, I think he thought I would take his food or something! Aimee came to pick us up at 7:15, the night ended with a homemade dinner of Mexican enchiladas, it was great!!
Eva and Aimee are at the whale already this morning, when they get back Eva and I are taking the four wheelers on a trip to the North coast for the morning should be fun! Better go, lots to do, see you tomorrow, Barry
12-10-2009
Oct 12, 09 Comments Off
 Brain Coral Spawning Good evening friends, sorry for getting the news out late but we have been very busy!! First things first, the dive we did Saturday night in front of Aqua-Electra was incredible!! Aimee, Eva and myself met Dirk and many other top coral researchers for a coral spawning dive at 9:00 on the right side of Aqua-Electra in almost the same spot Mark and Jim jumped out of the helicopter a few weeks ago. The researchers and Dirk got ready super fast and took off without us, we were plagued with problems before we even got in. I had a tank that was leaking and we had to change the O-ring, my new regs started free-flowing and I couldn’t get them to stop losing 1000psi entering the water, Eva forgot her dive computer on top of the car and so on and so forth! Many times when a dive starts out this bad I usually consider it a sign and just say forget it! I was down to 1900psi before we even started but we all agreed to go do a short dive anyways. Well thank goodness we decided to go!! As we went under we could see the glow of the other divers lights up ahead and off we went to join. When we arrived the star corals were starting to release their eggs but I passed those and searched for other things that I had not seen before. Well about 20 minutes into the dive Dirk starts signaling with his light and Aimee who was constantly watching him saw the signal and took off to see what he had found. Seconds later she starts banging on her tank and waving her light for me to get over here ASAP!! As I raced over I could see these giant sized eggs coming from somewhere and as I got closer I noticed that the Brain Corals were Spawning!! This is something we have never seen before!! The eggs were two to three times bigger than the normal star coral eggs that we see all the time and unlike the star coral these eggs popped out very slowly just a few at a time. Here you can see all the Brain Coral eggs ready to go and just a few that have been released! I can’t even tell you what a thrill this was to see all thanks to Dirk. So needless to say after we watched this for awhile we then stuck pretty close to Dirk who ended up finding more Brain Corals spawning plus he found some great Gorgonians as well releasing eggs! So a dive that started out terrible ended up great! We also found a red Doris, a new crab, a new shrimp and Aimee found a beautiful brittle star on a blood red sponge, I’ll send that soon. We got home after midnight, I didn’t even rinse the gear just the camera and off to bed we went, what a great night.
Sunday morning we all woke up in a foggy daze feeling very un-rested! Aimee took off to work, Eva and I took the dogs to Saint Joris for a fun morning walk. After we got home I again got the camera ready and loaded the car and off we went for a dive on the Superior Producer. Eva and I were joined by three other divers one was Dirk and the other’s are friends of mine from work. When we got there the ocean was rough making the entry and exit very difficult and a bit dangerous! You have to time it just right and step down off this big rock ledge and then walk out as fast as you can before a big wave rolls in and knocks you down! We all tried our best to help each other but it was still difficult, we really should take the time to make a nice entry/exit area. Once we all got in and on our way the rest of the dive was great! I took photos of the whole group exploring the ship from above and watched as they all went in and out of doorways and down into the hull exploring the whole way with flash lights. I did do one photo with Dirk swimming thru the back of the boat where the propeller would have been but need to go back and re-shoot it with more light. On our way back to the reef we found squids everywhere but I had my mega-wide angle lens so the most I could do was just watch. Our exit was not so fun, but it’s the price we all must pay for visiting such a cool site.
The rest of our day was fairly quiet, washed the gear, took a nap, played on the computer and at 6:00 Aimee and Eva took the dogs again on a little walk. Eva took us to dinner at the Ribs Factory and then we all came home and went to bed early for a change. We sure are enjoying our new house guest she’s really wonderful, we still have so many more adventure in store for her this week so stay tuned!
Better get moving, Caribbean regards, Barry
11-10-2009
Oct 10, 09 Comments Off
 Car Pile Good evening readers. Once again we woke to a whole bunch of rain! It’s amazing how a rainy morning completely changes the plans you made the night before. Our little Aimee left the house at 6:00am to go help with the whale and was back home by 8:00. I spent the morning getting my camera ready then off we went in search of tanks to rent. Eva and I finally made it to the Car-Pile dive site around 11:00 which is located out in front of Breezes Hotel at 100 plus feet! This is one of the top five best dives in Curacao and is steadily getting more and more famous. The bottom is completely littered with old car parts, wheels, metal beams, barrels, and so much more making it one of the coolest dives in town!! This is our friend Eva above the front end of an old car!! The round cluster of sponges at the bottom is where a wheel would have gone and the other big piece of yellow sponge above it is an old wheel well and fender with tall sponges growing out of the engine compartment! Come on use those imaginations!! We had a real fun dive, I think this was at around 95 feet and it was pretty dark down there today with no sun overhead. On our way back up the slope we came across a big eel that was out hunting so we followed him for around 10 minutes all over the reef, was strange to see him out during the day. So we had a pretty fun first dive, tonight we are meeting Dirk for a coral spawning dive in front of Aqua-Electra on the double reef they have there, we jump in at 9:30!!
After washing dive gear, we ate lunch and then went to the store, after we all took a short nap, it’s been a fast paced day! I’m getting ready to get the grill going, then re-build the camera for tonight, load the car again and hopefully make it to bed by midnight tonight!!
Gotta go, Cheers, Barry
10-10-2009
Oct 10, 09 Comments Off
 Reef Scene Hello friends, we just got home the airport and our guest arrived in perfect shape!! Her name is Eva, she is from the Denver Colorado area and she loves to dive, lucky me!! Aimee just made a great dinner even though it’s almost 11:00 here but we all had to eat! All of us are very tired, so this will be very short.
I found this photo in my folder from the last dive I did out in front of the Sea Aquarium a few weeks ago. I remember turning off the flashes because I just wanted you all to see how many fish we have swimming around on any given day, it’s really amazing! You can see the tall pillar corals in the distance and a few in the middle, those are my personal favorites. Without man-made light down here it’s all green and blue, the color red is only visible with a light or with the flashes I use, so why are fish so colorful?? I often wonder do fish see in color? They must otherwise it would all look like this to them and there would be no need to be so colorful, just a thought looking for an answer??
Off to bed, I am beat!! Have a great weekend, Barry
9-10-2009
Oct 9, 09 Comments Off
 Stove pipe Good morning friends, I guess it’s starting to look like the blog is moving back to mornings again, I just don’t seem to have time in the evenings?? Last night we had a four hour quarterly meeting at the Dolphin Academy. The first two hours pretty much consisted of listening to talk about how our numbers can be improved and better ways to help the in-coming tourists. We have noticed Americans are spending less or just are not traveling like they did last year. We had the Adventure here on Wednesday and they hardly bought anything after the swim but the European visitors still seem unaffected for the most part with the economy. The second half of our meeting last night was designed around Team Building. We first got put into groups then handed a list of songs that we had to Karaoke to as a group! So after being served a nice dinner each group got up on stage one by one and did their stuff, I laughed so hard I cried at one point!! Our group sang some crazy song from M&M, kind of like Rap, we had our hats turned sideways and our glasses on trying to the do the best gangster impressions we could think of, I pray that video stays hidden forever!!
Yesterday it rained almost all day here! We ended up staying in and cleaning for the most part, didn’t realize what a mess we had going on here!! I guess when you have piles of driftwood laying around, wood working tools, mountain bikes with dirty tires and two shedding dogs the house can get destroyed fast! Our car doesn’t seem to working well, it’s very noisy in first and second gear, I guess it’s typical of the quality of repair one can expect on a small Caribbean island??
A year or so ago someone asked me “do sponges regenerate if they are broken”? At the time I had no idea, we never really see to many broken sponges out there. Well I found this perfect example the other day at 60 feet out in front of the Sea Aquarium. This is the top of a purple stove pipe sponge that for some reason broke off but is now re-growing a new tube again, cool huh?? I will go back every once in a while and continue to monitor this progress just to see how fast they grow.
Ok, I need to get moving, I have to work today, we pick Eva up tonight and starting Saturday I have a week off. I have a list of photos I will be having her help me with so hopefully we will have some fun stuff to send to you next week. Have a great day all, Barry
8-10-2009
Oct 8, 09 Comments Off
 Blue Tang Good morning from rainy Curacao!! The sound of thunder woke us all up at around 3am so we both got up to watch the lightning storm which we never have here. The power was out as well but with a flip of the switch we where back in business. It’s now around 6:30am and it’s still really raining and there is still thunder and lightning all around us, so much for a fun morning walking the dogs. We got our car back yesterday to my surprise which cost us almost $400! They replaced a CV joint in the front end but when Aimee drove it last night we heard a heavy clunking sound in first and second so I am guessing we will have to take it back in?? Today is our last free day before our new guest arrives so we will both be cleaning this place up for most of the day. You know I was thinking, it’s a good thing we have visitors occasionally because it forces you to really clean everything, like the inside of the car that never gets done unless we have a visitor!
Thanks for the votes on the underwater photography site, I will try and get some more put in there you can only enter one per day. Many of you have written saying you looked for the Nov/Dec issue of Scuba Diver but couldn’t find it. Fear not, keep looking that issue is not out yet! I am guessing that for those of you who have subscriptions you will get it first, for you others it should hit the stores around the last week of October. I also have photos appearing in Ranger Rick magazine soon as well but need to check with Tom to see if he knows just what issue that will be, those will be photos of sponges.
Your photo is of a big older Blue Tang stopped at a cleaning station. You can’t go on a dive here without seeing this, it happens all day long all over the reef, the hard part is getting close enough for a photo. These little yellow wrasses just hang out above or on a coral head and wait for customers to come to them and let me tell you fish of every kind line up to be cleaned! Fish have to have this done, those little wrasses clean little wounds keeping them free from infections or eat little bad things that are stuck to their sides it’s really one of the most amazing things ever to sit and watch.
Ok, need to go, it’s still thundering out so I should un-plug this computer. Bye now, Barry
7-10-2009
Oct 7, 09 Comments Off
 Reef Squid Good morning friends, once again just to tired in the evening to send out the daily so to make up for it I had to get up at 5:00am. I had quite a busy day yesterday beginning with taking the dogs by the leash and riding the bike at the same time along the side of the road, looking for an adventure try that one, it’s not easy!! Really they could make that an Olympic event. Just for fun try to ride your bike on a sidewalk with one hand on the bars and the other holding two dogs who are playing with each other, stopping instantly to smell or chase something or like Inca would do grab pieces of grass as we passed by, it must have looked silly to anyone watching?? We spent around two hours riding around the trails and doing a little clean-up, and by the time we got home I had two very tired puppies who are still fast asleep! I then rode the bike up to the garage, they told me they need a part and they can’t find it but would call me by noon to let me know what was going on, they never did! I then spent the rest of the day building furniture and cleaning up the house, we are just three days away from Eva arriving from the Denver area. I went for a short bike ride with a friend at 4:45 but with some kind of shifting problem had to quit early. Aimee came home from work at 5;30 driving our friend Gordys truck, she then went to the store before walking the dogs around our place, so thanks G-Man for letting us use your truck!! I put a few more pictures on the underwater photography site you can just type in my name to find them and vote on them as well if you like here’s the link again, www.underwaterphotography.com/photo-contest/default.aspx
Here’s another fun little Caribbean Reef squid shot I took the other night. This was the one I told you all about that let me get so close that I was able to reach out and pet him over and over and eventually held him in one of my hands. As I held him he changed all different colors, you just have to see it yourself in person to believe it!! Squid are abundant in all oceans of the world. Approximately 40 species are known to live along the west coast of North America alone. A few live in shallow water close to shore, but most live in the open ocean far from land, often at great depths. Here’s a link if you want to learn more, www.marinebio.org/species.asp?id=286
That’s about it, I have to go wake up the family and make some delicious Highlander Groog, it’s the best time of the day!! As always thanks for all your kind notes, talk to more later tonight, Barry
6-10-2009
Oct 6, 09 Comments Off
 Scorpionfish Eye Good morning from little o’l Curacao! Last night after Aimee made these yummy green chili enchiladas I got trapped into watching t.v. something I rarely have time to do. Still no word about our car even though Aimee went up there yesterday morning and begged them to get it finished! Not sure what’s going on I will go up there this morning and find out. A heads up for you all, I have a bunch of photos in the next issue of Scuba Diver that’s the Nov/Dec issue so be checking early where you can buy it. I occasionally have photos in Sport Diver as well but this is Scuba Diver www.scubadiving.com/magazine it’s easy to get the two confused. I am hoping I can find it here but if not I may have a few of you save me a copy or two. This issue should have a bunch of shots of the Superior Producer with Mark from the World Famous Dive Bus Hut as well as an article of the Helicopter Diving so start looking folks and thanks for the support!
Here’s a shot I took last week on a night dive at the Sea Aquarium. This is a close-up of a scorpionfish’s eye, I have never seen one so red before?? He was just laying there in the dark completely motionless but had this eerie glowing eye, needless to say I kept my distance!
So it’s another morning of having to take the dogs with the bike all the way over to the trail head, not a big fan of walking the dogs along these streets we have here! I may try and take some photos of the trails this morning with me riding have had a bunch of requests for those lately! Have to run, have a wonderful day gang, talk to you tonight.
Sunny Curacao regards, Barry, Aimee, Inca, Indi and yes the of course the cat!
5-10-2009
Oct 4, 09 Comments Off
 Zenzi and Annie Good evening all, did you have a nice weekend?? Hard to believe it’s over already isn’t it? Boy do we ever take our cars for granted, kind of tough to do anything without one?? This morning I took the dogs to the trails via by bike. I kept them on leashes and rode on the sidewalk until we got to the Aquarium then off we went for an hour and a half bike ride in the desert. It was really a super morning, not to hot and just a little wind. I did do a little trail work this morning but mainly just kicking larger stones out of the way. Once I got home I thought the dogs would be tired after their five mile bike ride but I was wrong, they kind of just gave me the “that’s all”?? look!
As promised here is a photo I took yesterday underwater of our trainer Zenzi with her favorite dolphin Annie. Each trainer is assigned a certain dolphin for which they care for daily while working at the Dolphin Academy or Sea Aquarium. So as you can imagine one could and does get very attached to their dolphin and this is as you see here is the result of one of those relationships, pure trust!! Not just anyone can do this with Annie, she knows as long as Zenzi is there no scary camera man will harm her. I shot this without scuba, Zenzi and I both take a deep breath and down we go, I stay in one spot while she brings the action to me that way it doesn’t seem like I am chasing the dolphins underwater. We are going to do this again next week so keep tuning in for more!!
Since I couldn’t go anywhere today I built another driftwood towel rack except a longer one this time, didn’t quite get it finished but will keep working on it. I just got home from a hard hour and a half mountain bike ride, I did two long loops around the salt flats that’s all my back would take. That’s about it friends, hope you have a great monday, our house guest will be here in 5 days!! Sunny regards, Barry
4-10-2009
Oct 3, 09 Comments Off
 Cycad Good evening all, something a little different for you all tonight. With all the rain we had a week ago our plants around the house as well as the whole island are all sprouting new growth! This is a Cycad we have in the back yard and this morning before I left I quickly stood on something tall and shot straight down into the center of all it’s new growth! The wind was really blowing causing the upper leaves to move but ended up giving it a cool look, stare at it too long and you will think you have had to much to drink! I know kind of strange but it’s something different for a change!
No word again about our car. After work I raced to the garage but to my disappointment they were closed! I could see our car inside and I yelled to it saying “everything’s going to be alright, mommy and daddy still love you”! I waited but heard no answer?
It looked like it was going to rain all day but nothing, maybe something will come in tonight? So my plan tomorrow is to walk the dogs from the house to the trail head with my bike and get them out for some exercise, it’s been two very boring days for them!!
I did a fun snorkel today with our beautiful dolphin trainer Zenzi, I will send you a photo tomorrow. Time for bed, see ya, Barry
3-10-2009
Oct 3, 09 Comments Off
 Touch me not sponge Good morning, here’s a little reef-scene from right out in front of the Sea Aquarium. This is a beautiful cluster of Touch-Me-Not-Sponges and remember these are the sponges that are full of worms! Behind the sponges is a nice chunk of Star Coral that more than likely spawned last month and we never got to see it because of the dumb current! It seems out current is now gone but has been replaced by big waves driven by this strong wind we are still having. I was trying to tell someone the other day the importance of using flash underwater, if you didn’t the whole photo would look like the background in this picture.
Aimee and I are still without the car, I found out that it has something to do with the front wheel drive and or steering, whatever it is it doesn’t sound good. We were unable to take the dogs anywhere yesterday so Aimee just walked them around here. Aimee and I did jump on our bikes and do a grocery run after work, she stayed outside with the bikes and I ran in.
They are still hunting for a missing American Consulate guy here in Curacao, he has now been missing for one week?? They found his clothes at one of the beaches we dive at and that’s about all they seem to know, I myself have heard 100 versions of the story now??
Off to work, talk to you tonight, have a great weekend, Barry
02-10-2009
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