2019-12-13  Bonaire

The day I was most looking forward to was dawning!  We've only been to Bonaire twice (both by cruise ship) and the last time it rained so hard we didn't get much snorkeling in.  So I was up with the sun as we sailed in.

I didn't realize how large the island is.

Didn't like what we were sailing into!

come on sunshine!

go away rain!!!!  Actually the rain I can handle---but last time it stormed really bad with lots of lightening and thunder, too.

Finally there.  Looks a lot more promising.

Look at that gorgeous water!!!  A snorkelers delight!

Since I was on my own (Ken's being in a wheel chair pretty much restricted him from leaving the boat---at least that was his excuse), I booked the water taxi through the ship excursion desk.  I knew I could catch a water taxi for about half the price a couple blocks down the street, but with $150 OBC to burn, I went ahead and spent the $40 for the ship excursion.

I've wanted to go to Kleine Bonaire (the barrier island off Bonaire) for quite some time, but with the weather being bad last time and having a blast snorkeling at Eden Resort the time before, we didn't taxi over to Kleine Bonaire before. 

The taxi let us off in about 6 inches of water.  The nice thing about being on the tour was they set up a tarp on the beach and had water and a free punch or alcoholic drink for us, too.  And said they would watch our stuff.  Since I use a waterproof (suppose to be!) holder around my neck, I didn't have anything of value left on the beach, but it was nice to know someone was watching. 

Didn't take long for me to head on in.  They say to walk down the beach then drift back.  Heck with that!  I'm snorkeling up and drifting back!

Immediately I was treated to all kinds of flourishing coral.

and lots of fish

And the rather quick drop off into the deep.

more coral

fluorescent little fish

love these parrot fish.  They're a kind I don't see around the Hawaiian islands.

Finally, some Christmas decorations---Christmas tree worms.  There are no decorations on the ship----yet.

lots and lots of coral

Usually where we snorkel we see a lot of dying coral.  Nice to see some that's healthy for a change.

Looking back towards the beach.  I'm just on the outside of the reef.

Looking across to Bonaire.

Another kind of parrot fish

yellow tail snapper

parrotfish

the spooky deep water.

back to the reef

hogfish

Can you tell I'm really enjoying all the coral?!

coral on coral

lots of parrotfish

more parrotfish

spotlight parrotfish

butterfly fish

yep, more coral

the butterfly fish again

another colorful parrotfish

blue head wrasse among the soft coral

his close up

This guy was quite large---angel fish

Black triggerfish---a reminder of snorkeling around Maui!

This guy must be use to being fed, it followed me for quite awhile.

a trumpet fish doing a poor job of hiding.

a school of blue tangs.

a trunkfish

black triggerfish again

white spotted filefish

he deserves a close up

another white spotted file fish that actually has white spots

hard to tell from this photo, but the guy in the middle was quite large.  I believe he is a grouper.

just admiring the variety of coral in this view

and all the soft coral here.

where's the puffer fish?

bunch of juveniles.

spotted drum!

the odd couple

my buddy angel fish again

another filefish

the angel fish even brought a friend over to say hi.

drifting back.

love the iridescent spots on these little guys.

quite a bit of broken coral along here.

parrot fish

butterfly fish

schools of smaller fish.

school of snappers.

I don't see this kind of coral too often so I went overboard with the photos of them.

school of little guys

scrawled filefish

even some chub

the water was great---probably about 85 degrees, clear and calm.

back to the drop off area.  I would have snorkeled farther up, but was afraid my clock on my camera might be off so I figured I'd head back and confirm the time with the gals at the tarp.

And get my free drink----plain punch, didn't figure drinking alcohol and snorkeling was a good idea.

Still had time to snorkel some more so I went the other direction for awhile.

Found another trumpet fish

and more iridescent blue fish and lots of coral

Wonder how this kind of coral is able to grow in such perfect circles?

More of the landscape that direction.

more butterfly fish

a large puddingwife wrasse

orangespotted filefish

another parrotfish

lots of brown chromis

2 juvenile damselfish---yellow tail (the blue one) and 3 spot (yellow one)

clam?

fuzzy coral

another spotlight parrotfish

pompanos!

wide angle

mullet??

goatfish and bonefish

all too soon (about 3 hours after being dropped off), the taxi was back for us.  Another disadvantage of an excursion ticket, there are set times for departures. 

Heading back to the Zuiderdam.

some of the buildings near the port.

yep, still windy on the ship.

looking over the port from our verandah of the Zuiderdam.

I believe this is where one of the water taxis to Kleine Bonaire leaves from.  Not a bad walk from the ship.

looking over the town of Kralendijk, Bonaire. 

zoomed into the soccer field. 

From our verandah

a frigate bird fly by

looking straight down from our room.  That's some clear water!

Up to the observation deck.  I like the symbol HAL paints on their stacks.

Too bad we weren't in port longer--like we were on Curacao and Aruba.  But today we had to be back onboard by 5:30.  So when I got back from the excursion at about 2:30, I stayed onboard.  Found Ken on the Lido deck by the taco bar where we had lunch and visited with some other passengers.

Pretty soon it was time to go to the observation deck to watch sail away and sunset.  The ship was already throwing a shadow over the port.

waiting for the last of the passengers.  It always amazes me when you see a few stragglers arriving 5 or 10 minutes after all aboard time.  I would be running!  But today there were some just slowly meandering.

the little shops by the port all folded up.  Those are the ones I should have checked out!

The boat bringing the workers to unhook the anchoring ropes from the cement posts.  Then we were off.

just in time to catch another lack luster sunset.

not bad if you zoom in.  Thought there might be a green flash tonight.  But didn't see it.

 Tonight on the Mainstage was the Comedian Jeff McBride.  He was entertaining, but I don't really remember much of what he did.  But then, I'm not a big fan of magic. 

A day couldn't get much better then today!  Sure would like to do a land vacation in Bonaire---or Curacao or Aruba!