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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for the ‘Islands + Topside Attractions’May 27, 11 Comments Off
Hello all, it was a busy day at Substation Curacao yesterday www.substation-curacao.com , I was in the water three times photographing the sub and it’s passengers. Yesterday again we had handicap people in wheel-chairs joining us for a day of adventure. With practice we are now able to put a body harness on just about anyone and lift them into the sub with our big crane, so those of you thinking you wish you could go but are wheelchair bound, we have an adventure for you!! Once our handicap passengers are lowered into the sub we have a doctor inside waiting who will gently slide, push or pull or guests into position. Some folks are not able to lay on their stomachs so we put them in the back, there they have a window on each side to look out of or they can just look straight ahead over the shoulder of the pilot out the big front window. For the others, you can lay up front, we have two full size benches with pads that are very comfortable to lay on. We are currently offering two trips and two different price packages. The first trip is called the “Beauty Run” which is my favorite. This trip takes you to two sunken tugs, past sunken relics, down to a place called Jeff’s Ledge and then deeper to a place called Arjan’s Rock. From there you enter the darkness and the exploring begins reaching depths of four to six hundred feet! The second trip we offer is the West run taking you to a 350 foot sunken ship called the Stella Maris. This is a spooky run, the ship lays in the sand at around 475 feet and the sub slowly takes you all around the metal beast searching for all kinds of new and strange creatures that call this place home. Prices for a normal East or West run cost around $650 per person. Price includes, me photographing you underwater, all your photos on a cool custom made Substation flash drive, t-shirt, and a certificate to prove you went down with us. The other price package costs $450 and takes you to either the East or West but is shorter in time and excludes the underwater photo shoot. So if your on the island or planning on visiting, drop us a note and tell them Barry sent you, I’ll see you underwater!
Here is a much needed dolphin shot for my poor neglected fans out there, and yes I will try harder to send more dolphin pictures! This was taken a few years back and please don’t ask me their names. I am the worst at being able to identify our dolphins and like Aimee says; I should be the best because of how much time I have spent photographing them over the years! Some one asked me recently, “do dolphins jump in the wild’? They do if they are Spinner Dolphins! Bottlenose dolphins typically stay beneath the waters surface when traveling along the coast or hunting, just their dorsal fins breach the waters surface. If chased by a shark or something big, maybe even a female being chased by a male then they may leap out of the water but normally they don’t jump. I have seen young bottlenose in the wild jumping out of the water but then almost always it’s mom to the rescue and slows the youngster down and puts an end to all that showing off.
I have to get to work, Aimee is still home but feeling much better, a few more days of rest and she should be good to go. Our new guests from the States arrive Saturday night, I will be spending tomorrow getting everything clean and ready. Have a wonderful day folks, Barry
May 23, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends, how was your weekend?? Mine was fairly relaxed with no diving or biking, just a bit of trail work and going to a new bigger and better sea glass location that we just found. I spent most of the day yesterday cleaning up photos on the computer and taking care of Aimee who came home early from work with a real sore back and am taking her to the doctor this morning. Here is another Curacao vegetation photo for my green thumbs out there this morning. This is a giant tree of Sea Grapes that we have next to the Sub Station and it is currently filled with edible fruit. The Sea Grape plant yields grapes, but it is certainly not a vine like many of you have in the States. This plant can grow to the surprising height of 30 to 50 feet tall, but ordinarily most are found to be in the 12 to 13 foot tall range. Originally the Sea Grape, Coccoloba uvifera was a native of the Caribbean, but now can even be found in Argentina, and much of Central and Southern Florida even on the Gulf side! It has been known to grow wild on some sandy beaches, but has been often used on the ocean side of Florida as a windbreak or to add a tropical setting by landscapers for large condominiums or hotels on beach side. The sea grape itself is extremely hardy, and since it is a tropical plant, it grows wild in beach strands, coastal grasslands, coastal scrubs, and coastal hammocks. The plant somehow acclimates itself to its locations. For instance if found growing on the beach on a sand dune, it will remain basically a shrub, whose thick foliage will rarely show a distinct trunk to hold it up, as it must resist sand and salt spray that is almost constantly found on a beach. This one here is a giant tree with a nice thick trunk but because of the weight of all those grapes a few of the arms broke the other day including this one. After fertilization the grapes appear, at first green but then ripen to a beautiful bluish-purple color and are wonderful to eat, although they do have a slightly acidic taste. I often see the locals here picking them, they call this plant the; Dreifi di laman, or Mata di Druif, yeah say that 10 times real fast! I have to run, need to walk the dogs and get Aimee some relief on her back. See you soon, Barry
Apr 18, 11 Comments Off
Good morning folks, just a quick note to say hi. I finally finished the trail at Saint Joris yesterday, it’s now open again for biking and hiking although the end is still a bit muddy down by the palms. The goal now is to close the end and continue the trail in another direction away from the area that gets flooded when it rains, this will require some help. When Aimee got home from work at 3:30 yesterday we took all the dogs down the coast to a little private beach and went for a fun swim. Well, all of us except Inca, she just wasn’t into it Aimee thinks it’s because she doesn’t like the puppy jumping up onto her while she is swimming? So everyone but her had a great time, she just kind of stood there on the beach keeping guard, whatever.
Here is a view taken from the very top of mount Christoffel, our highest peak in Curacao. Many months ago when Loet and Maikel went with me on this fun climb I remember handing my camera up to Maikel who was literally sitting on the highest peak there was, and only room for one! I said “snap way”, take as many pictures as you like and once your done you can hand it back down to me. I’ve never been a real fan of heights, especially heights that involve grasping a chunk of rock with your butt cheeks and legs and trying to stay in one place because the wind is so strong, yeah not for me! The view up there is something all visitors should see, your completely surrounded by water! Most days you can see the coast of Venezuela off to your right and on the left nothing but blue water, definitely one of my favorite spots on the island.
Off to work, see you tonight, Barry
Apr 17, 11 Comments Off
Good morning from no rain Curacao, or at least not at our house! These last few days the sky has been dark and we all thought for sure it was coming but it just passed us by either raining out over the sea or other parts of the island. I spent a good part of the afternoon at work, we had one sub dive with four people. Also during the night my big deep water hermit managed to escape out of his underwater aquarium but with less than a minute of searching I found him sitting in the middle of the sand. Since he was eating and just as happy as a hermit crab can be I just left him there all day. At 4:00 I went back to work, jumped in the water, picked him up and placed him back inside his temporary home this time putting a net lid on top. Our plan in to take the crabs back to where we found them, Dutch just wanted photos first so we can start seeing just how many different crabs there are down there, cool idea huh??
I got a request for a photo of the bush around here and found this one that I took out at Saint Joris a while back. This plant with the purple flowers is called Euphorbia lactea or a Monkey’s Puzzle and it grows wild here on Curacao. It looks like a cactus, it feels like a cactus and yet it is not a cactus. This plant actually belongs to the same family as the Poinsettia and the Crown of Thorns. Like these it contains a milky sap which real cacti never have. However, as it has spines, triangular branches and a fleshy appearance, many people still call it a cactus. These plants are absolutely beautiful and can grow to be the size of a house making it a perfect habitat for dozens of creatures that call Curacao home. Here on the island and in many other parts of the World, like Africa and India it is mainly used to make live fences which are indeed impenetrable! The sap does have toxic properties, it may irritate the skin and will for sure burn the eyes, like all toxic liquids immediately flush with water and consult a physician. Iguanas love these plants! They live in-between the convoluted branches and hide in the innermost parts of the tree where they are as good as invisible! This was the only time I had ever seen these plants bloom and from what I have heard they will not bloom in captivity? Behind the Euphorbia, you can see the thorns I have to deal with on a daily basis called Acacia tortuosa. Many a flat tire and sore foot can be blamed on these stupid thorns, they have drawn a lot of blood from this boy over the past seven years!
Off to Saint Joris to work on the trial, have a wonderful day, Barry
Apr 6, 11 Comments Off
Good evening amigo’s, how are we all doing tonight?? I just got home from a fun hard-core mountain bike ride with Stiyn who again placed first in this weekends race, I kid you not when I say he is fast and very talented! Our ride would have been longer tonight but Stiyn had multiple thorns sticking out of his tire and it immediately went flat! Crashing and flat tires are the two things we hate most, crashing seems to be my job and flats are his, we make a great team.
Many have asked me about the different places we ate while in Bonaire and I must honestly say “Cactus Blue” located in downtown Kralendijk was my hands down favorite! www.cactubluebonaire.com The owners, Hagen and Carinna seen here in the painting above the entrance treated us like royalty from the second we arrived and did everything possible to make our stay a memorable one! Trust me when I say the food was fantastic!! It’s Caribbean Cuisine that will leave you wanting more, they of course have Ocean fresh seafood, Caribbean lobster, tender steaks, jerk grill platters, finger lickn’ribs, stone baked pizza and deserts that you would only think of finding in a five star resort! Just to tell you how fresh the fish was, while seated at our table eating desert, a fisherman walked in carrying a meter long barracuda that just came out of the water within the hour, that’s fresh! I had some kind of pork steak that was so tender you could cut it with a feather and the taste, oh man, I’m drooling just thinking about it!! Please go there and taste for yourself, ask for the owner and tell him “the Sport Diver magazine” group sent you, he will remember! Thanks again for a fun evening Hagen, I will be back, can hardly wait to bring Aimee there for one of your fantastic meals!
Well, busy day on tap tomorrow, we have three fun submarine dives planned at Substation Curacao, have a great evening, Barry
Apr 2, 11 Comments Off
Good morning all, Aimee and I both had quite a busy day yesterday leaving us with no time or energy in the evening to do anything, like blogging. Curacao continues to be very windy and getting dryer by the day, I can’t believe I am saying this but we could use a little rain. Yeah I know we just had three months on non-stop terrible rain and now I am asking for more, will I ever be happy?? I am headed to Saint Joris this morning equipped with new clippers to finish what we started a week ago, I really want this trail to get open again! I know I keep telling you I will send a puppy photo but we just haven’t had time, I will try real hard tonight, she is doing great and her hair is 80% filled in now.
Who would ever have guessed that Bonaire and Curacao are filled with Caves? These caves are not just little holes in the sides of the cliffs where you can seek shelter from the rain but caves with stalactites and stalagmites and rich with history! I was shocked mostly by the fact that these caves still had all their calcium formations still in place, nothing had been removed by looters or rock collectors. For years caves in the states have fallen victim to either vandalism or folks wanting to either take home a souvenir or just plain trying to remove everything to try and sell it. I was told that the locals are for the most part superstitious and stay away from and out of these caves, that’s one big reason they still look so great. It’s all about water… shallow seas covered the land millions of years ago, depositing layers of sediment that eventually hardened into limestone. Rainwater, made slightly acidic by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and soil, penetrated cracks in the earth and slowly dissolved passages in it. Later, lowering groundwater levels left behind vast, air-filled rooms. Water seeping down from the surface of the earth dissolved minerals on its trip through the limestone. Once it reached the cave, the trapped carbon dioxide escaped from the water. No longer able to hold the dissolved calcite, the drop deposited its tiny mineral load. Over time, minerals have created the beautiful speleotherms and variety of colors found in the cave. The form a speleotherm takes is determined by whether the water drips, flows, seeps, condenses, or pools. In this one little cave we saw Soda Straws, Flowstone, Bacon/Cave Drapery, Columns and even some Dog Tooth Spar, you have to check it out. This is our friend Jen checking out a section of perfect Stalactites and most were still dripping meaning the cave is still very active. Jen is also the one that kicked my butt in mountain biking and because of her I have had to start seeing a physiatrist! I should send her photo out to all the bike shops in the States warning riders “who think they are in shape” to just let her pass, swallow your pride boys you don’t have a chance, she is an ex champion!
Off to clean trails, see you soon, Barry
Mar 28, 11 Comment (1)
Here’s a photo for all my sailors out there who quite often request boat photos and remember, “beggars can’t be choosers”!! This photo reminds me of how simple life was a child, wake up, eat, and entertain yourself till lunch or dinner and try to stay out of trouble! I remember as a kid living on the Wisconsin river and how much fun we had making things to float on, fishing and trying to be home by dark, it’s the simple things in life that seem to have passed us all by! They say; “necessity is the key to invention” and really this is a pretty well made boat, I mean it carries two! I love the dolphin sail which is a sun-screen from a car window and the mast is an old shovel handle, heck they should sell these at Wal-Mart! Over the years I seen the kids in Curacao do some pretty crazy things and still at the top of the list is the young man we saw recently riding his bike down a really busy street, riding a wheelie with one hand and texting with the other! I am still looking for that kid to do it again for me on film!!
Curacao has been VERY windy as of late, not looking forward to the bike ride in it tomorrow evening, I hate riding into the wind! I did one relaxing dive with the sub today and spent the rest of the day working on housings and photographing deep water fish.
Sorry so short, I have lots to do this evening, Barry
Mar 16, 11 Comments Off
Good evening friends, I had a request yesterday for some Caribbean Architecture and just happened to have this shot from my last trip over to Bonaire. This was taken in downtown Bonaire or Kralendijk as it is called. I found this cool site called “Virtual Bonaire” http://www.virtualbonaire.com/Kralendijk.html and it has 360 degree views of the whole area this building is located in, if you have a second check it out. Kralendijk is the capital city and main port of the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean Netherlands. The language spoken in the town is Papiamento, but Dutch and English are widely used. In Dutch, Kralendijk means “coral reef” or “coral dike”. The Papiamentu name for the town is Playa or “beach”. The current population is around 10,000 and I believe there are about 25 dive operators on the island with Americans being the #1 folks that visit. Off the coast of Kralendijk lies the uninhabited island of Klein Bonaire, a diving and snorkeling paradise. This small island can be reached by water taxi, or, for divers, by practically all of the local dive operators Fort Oranje was built in 1639 to defend Bonaire’s main harbor. The fort was extensively modified during the end of the seventeenth century. The English settlement of “Playa” was established adjacent to the fort in 1810. The town was renamed “Kralendijk” by the Dutch colonial rulers in about 1840. On May 10, 1940, 461 Dutch and German citizens were transported to Bonaire and interned in a camp just south of the fort. After World War II, this camp was converted into a hotel, which is now the Divi Bonaire.
This building is also currently being featured as the cover shot for Nights Bonaire magazine, it’s the same magazine that Aimee was on the cover on a few years back free-diving in Curacao, any of you remember that one?? http://www.nightspublications.com/index.php
Lets pray that things in Japan don’t get any worse! Take care, more tomorrow, Barry
Mar 15, 11 Comment (1)
Good evening my friends, how was you Tuesday?? Mine started out with going to a doctors appointment and in route the brakes in the car went out!! Yeah that’s fun! It was a case of how quick can you grab the emergency brake before you run into the back of a cement truck!! No I saved it, and all is well, my cat like reflexes are still rock solid! I did however make a bee-line for the nearest Napa store and immediately got them changed which to my surprise was very quick and not too expensive. After that adventure I tried to get into a place called SVB, it’s our island insurance but there were close to a hundred people in line so I said no-way and drove away from that mess as quick as I could! At around 12:30 Jonny and I went Lionfish hunting right out in front of the Substation and managed to find three in just a small area, it’s really getting bad here! Every time we do a sub dive now down to 200 plus feet we see lionfish all over and sometimes many of them together in one area, I think it’s safe to say, “nothing good will come of this”!!
Here is yet another fun photo from Bonaire, I shot close to 100GB so I have tons of cool stuff yet to show you. This is our new friend and tour guide Clay who runs a company called Jentis, he can be reached at this address. reservations@jentis-tours.com and tell him Barry, Aaron and Jen sent you! Clay showed us the “Lost World of Bonaire”, (hey that would make a great business name) by taking us not only to beautiful caves with untouched formations but also to caves filled with crystal clear water, perfect for swimming in. Getting to the cave and into the cave is as much fun as the snorkeling was, it’s an adventure from start to finish and I won’t ruin the surprise by telling you all about it, write him and set up a tour, your going to love it! Clay is in the process of getting his website up and running and when it is I will let you know, there will most likely be a few of my shots on there somewhere. I really have to take the time to thank everyone again for all the help in helping me pose for the photos and helping to get my underwater camera gear safely all the way into the cave, that was no easy task folks! http://www.jentis-tours.com/ Website added 3-16-11
Off to bed, see you again tomorrow, Barry
Mar 13, 11 Comments Off
Just a quick hello from Curacao on this quiet Sunday evening. It’s been a fairly relaxing day, I took the dogs to the ocean for some fun in the surf and sand, collected some beach glass, worked on the computer and went to the movies with Aimee, we saw the new Adam Sandler movie.
This could be my new favorite sign, and really what better place for a divers crossing sign than in Bonaire. This can be seen on the corner below the Caribbean Club Resort which I think is also the Oil Slick Leap dive spot. This is the road that also takes you to dive spots like, Jeff Davis Memorial, 1000 Steps, Bon Bini Cas, Country Garden, Tolo, Bloodlet, Rappel, La Dania’s Leap and Karpata just to name a few. All these names have fun stories behind each one like La Dania’s Leap. Back during the pioneering days of Bonaire-diving, Captain Don led groups of shore dives around the island. This site, definitely one of the more challenging on Bonaire (due to its blind leap into the water), was a good test of a diver’s nerve! On one memorable day, only Diana (the sole female in the group of divers), was brave enough to leap off the coral cliff and complete the drift dive with Captain Don. Thus, she will always be remembered and has a site named after her. What we didn’t know while in Bonaire was that Caption Don is still around!! We passed his house on a tour and we all wanted to go back and meet the guy as he is a legend beyond belief in Bonaire being the man who brought diving and conservation to the island.
It’s day over, hope all is well, Barry
Mar 11, 11 Comments Off
Hello friends, how was your day?? Mine went quick because of two sub dives and a brief Lionfish clean-up by non other than our own Lionfish Hunter Jonny. The ocean has been very calm these past few days and very little wind, Curacao is hot!! Today at the floating platform where we park the sub I spotted 3 tiny little baby squids and tried to find time to go and photograph them but there was never time. After my dive at 2:00 I couldn’t find them anymore but I sure will be looking for them tomorrow, they are so cute! Weeks ago I had found a handful of squid eggs laying in the sand under our platform and one by one gently scooped them up and placed them under a big rock for safety, I think the babies I saw today were from those eggs!
I will be headed back to Bonaire next weekend for 2 solid days of diving with our friends Sal and Patty who spend much of the year in Bonaire each year diving. Also my mountain biking buddy Stijn is going also as he is quickly becoming an avid diver as well as a hardcore biker. One of the places I need to go back to is a dive spot called Karpata and look for the juvenile Tiger grouper I saw a few weeks back when I was there. This is a special fish because when they are young they are bright yellow and soon he will turn different colors of brown, grey and red as he gets older and it’s the first one I have ever seen. Speaking of things I have never seen before, how cool is this mailbox?? I found this on a back roads of Bonaire while touring around the town and begged our driver Rolando to go back and let me take a picture, I want one!! If this would have been a white dog with black spots, well let’s just say it may have not been there in the morning!!
That’s about it, Stijn and I are going to Saint Joris in the morning at 8:00 to start the process of re-opening my new single-track trail there, it’s a mess! Have a wonderful weekend, Barry
Mar 9, 11 Comments Off
Hey gang, I have officially reduced the daily e-mail/blog list by half! Those names I no longer recognized or folks that we haven’t heard from since the beginning of time are no longer with us and maybe they never were, we may never know?? I want to say thanks to everyone for all the comments about today’s picture, I am so glad you enjoyed it and yes I have many, many more that are on the way, so stay tuned.
Aimee was off today but I don’t think she was able to much relaxing. She first took the dogs for a walk under a very overcast sky, then took the laundry in, went shopping, got gas in the car and on and on, maybe tomorrow she can relax a bit more?? I had a very busy but fun day doing 2 short but sweet sub dives. My biking buddy Stijn showed up for the 11:00 ride and I was able to photograph him with a big happy grin on his face looking out at me at around 50 feet. After a brief photo shoot I waved goodbye and off they went down into the dark crystal clear abyss in search of new creatures yet to be found and named! The water was pretty clear today, most of the coral bleaching is gone now and back to normal but my big coral face is still weeks away from being fully recovered. I am seeing more and more Lionfish right on our small reef everyday and I hear daily thru reports around the island that they are being spotted everywhere in large numbers, hard to believe something so beautiful can be so hazardous to the reef!
Here is another fun shot from Bonaire. I am not quite sure where this is but my friends on the bench are pointing to the small island of Klein Bonaire, see it?? In 2001 the small island of Klein Bonaire was designated as a protected area and became part of the Bonaire National Marine Park, managed by STINAPA Bonaire. Today when you see Klein Bonaire, a flat island with a white sandy beach and low growing vegetation, it may be difficult to visualize how large a role wood played in its history. The island had many big trees with trunks as thick as 12 inches (30 centimeters). Many species, including Brazil wood (locally called “Palu di brasil”, Haematoxylon brasiletto), West Indian satinwood (“Kalabarí”, Zanthoxylum flavum), lignum vitae (“Wayaká”, Guaiacum officinale), and coconut trees grew there. The wood was used to make charcoal, burn coral stones to lime, provide dye for paint color, for medicines, and to make pulleys for boats. These products were then exported. Large waves, resulting from a strong hurricane in 1859, wiped out the coconuts and many other big trees that were growing near the shore. The practice of cutting trees down in an unsustainable manner soon depleted all the large growth on the island. Klein Bonaire was also used for the keeping of goats for export to Curaçao, which further contributed to the deforestation. Keeping goats was the last commercial use of the island.
We are off to dinner at a friends house, see you soon, Barry
Mar 7, 11 Comments Off
Hola Amigo’s how was your day?? Today was some kind of major holiday here, I think it was Carnival but not sure why they would proclaim Monday as the holiday as Saturday and Sunday were the big events, could be everyone was hung-over today?? I have a big heads-up to everyone on the e-mail list or should I say almost everyone on the e-mail list. As of tomorrow I will be going thru my insane long list of e-mail address and deleting any name I have not heard from in over a year! Close friends, new friends and relatives have nothing to worry about but the rest are going, going, gone! If your name is deleted and you want to still receive these free daily blogs from Curacao all you have to do is send me a 500 word essay on why you want to be kept as a contact and your name will be re-listed, it’s that easy! Ok, I’m just kidding about the 500 word essay, just send a note with your best apology for never writing and your back in, that’s easy enough right!?
I love this photo tonight, it’s a place you can just stare at and envision yourself on an endless vacation! This is the beautiful pier at Sorobon Resort at Lac Bay and yes, how did you guess, that’s Aaron and Jen once again playing tourist. The water here is warm, crystal clear and so inviting, you can literally walk off the end of the pier and walk all the way out to the ocean way off in the distance, it’s a place you just have to see to believe! I could have stayed there all day taking photos and not just because the beach was littered in bikini’s, it was just such a peaceful relaxing place and there were photos to be made everywhere, I can hardly wait to get back.
Today was fairly quiet because of the holiday, I did one sub dive with a family from Canada and worked on the commuter the rest of the day. I am still waiting on some more information on the new slit-shell we found and the Golden Basslet so please be patient I will get them out.
Here’s something cool, go to; http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2011/03/5-caribbean-mountain-biking-escapes.html#more this is an article written by the World famous writer Aaron Gulley about our mountain biking trip in Bonaire and he talks a little about the trails here in Curacao, this is for Outside Magazine on-line.
Off to bed, see you soon, Barry
Mar 2, 11 Comments Off
Hi guys, this one is for my friends in the States who are encased in cold freezing climates at the moment and wish they could be out riding!! This was shot at the “Tolo” dive spot and in background where you see those radio towers in the famous dive spot called “1000 Steps”! None of us brought bikes but we found a great spot to rent them at a place called “Caribbean Sports” www.caribbeansportsbonaire.com which is located near downtown Bonaire. Once we had the bikes we then needed a guide and we found just the right person at a place called “Bon Photo Bonaire”, www.bonphotobonaire.com Our guides name was Leo Hoogenboom, he’s the one in the black shirt with the black helmet in tonight’s photo. My new friend Jen is seen here leading the pack along the scenic coast of Bonaire with her husband Aaron following in the rear! This is the woman I told you about a few days ago that eats sissy riders like myself for lunch, this girl is fast! Her and her hubby are both accomplished cyclists and enter some of the hardest races in the States each year, like the Leadville 100 and countless 24 hour death rides, they both kind of give new meaning to the word “in shape”. I was able to keep up to them on some of the downhill’s with a strong tailwind but when it came to the hills, well lets just say I didn’t have my mini-binoculars with me so I don’t know how far ahead they were? Other than constantly holding my water bottle like it was an oxygen tank the ride was great and super scenic! Keep in mind Leo who lives on the island is in pretty good shape as well so if you hire him for a bike trip know in advance what your getting into, these island boys can do the miles. He took us on a fantastic trip with some road and lots of rarely seen Bonaire single-track that lasted around two hours or 20 miles which ever came first?
I had a pretty eventful day of taking photos of all kinds of cool things like that new slit shell, some tiny underwater hermit crabs, a flying gurnard, and of course this cool flashy orange colored mini-sub. My big complaint for the day was the water, today was as bad as ocean water can get, it was like diving in pea-soup, and I kid you not. Days like this are caused by, rain, no current and a change in the wind direction, I really hope it improves tomorrow as we have to dives to do with the sub.
Off to bed for me, see you tomorrow, Barry
Mar 1, 11 Comments Off
Good evening readers, it’s your daily note from Curacao. Today was spent helping the scientists out again from this little organization called the Smithsonian, ever heard of it?? I started my day out again with a dive alongside the submarine but bad visibility put an instant end to that so I took off instead on a short dive in search of Lionfish. Thankfully I only found one and left it there, I will have to see if I can employ the talents of Lionfish Hunter Johny who handles all our little problems. Most of our scientists leave tomorrow morning but one is staying until Friday and he studies invertebrates. He went down in the sub today and proudly brought back a beautiful new slit-shell of some kind which I will photograph in the lab tomorrow morning, I’ll send a photo. After work I met my little super fast mountain biker for a fast and furious one hour ride thru the wilds of Curacao. Both of us looked like we got attacked by a lion afterwards as we had scratches all over our arms and legs from the sharp thorn bushes and I hit my elbow on a tree, and yes it was still fun!
A little Bonaire sunset for your viewing pleasure tonight. After a long fun day of diving everyone at Buddy Dive was at the Friday night Rum Punch party and got treated to this beautiful sunset, it was the icing on the cake!
Off to bed, thanks for all the kind notes, Barry
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