Boys got home this week. Nice to have them home. Leaving SMF at noon today. Hannah, Alex’s girlfriend also flew out today back to Bozeman. First time for her on an airplane. Nervous but excited; took a Dramamine just in case. We fly to Houston; a 5 hour layover, then a red-eye to Bonaire, getting there at 5 in the morning. Our vacation starts tomorrow.
Arrived in Bonaire before dawn. Our driver is waiting for us and we are off to the Caribbean Club. Unfortunately, when we get there, we find they don’t open till 7AM! So, more relaxing! Once they open, we do get our room, so we can get a couple of hours of sleep before breakfast.
The hotel, and many of the businesses on the island are owned by the Dutch. Back in the 1600’s they “liberated” this island along with others in the area and started the slave trade. All of the streets and towns are in Dutch and all of the signs are bilingual as well.
After a European breakfast, we are off to town for our check-out dive. Typically for a “check-out dive” you go down with an instructor and he runs you through the paces to make sure you can clear a flooded mask and regulator and you can maintain neutral buoyancy. However, in Bonaire they only want you to hop off the pier and do all this on your own! Unique, appropriate and less intimidating. So after we did the above, we went ahead and dove “Buddy’s Reef”. 30-70 foot deep reef dive with lots soft and hard corals and many, many fish. Actually a very nice dive for our first one.
Also unique in Bonaire is “drive thru tank pick up”. Since most of our diving is shore diving, (not going out on a boat), everyone here has rented a mini truck, and you pick up your tanks as you cruise the island. So, think of it as In & Out Burger except instead of a double-double you drop off your 4 empty tanks and pickup 4 fresh ones!
After a PM dive we worked up a real appetite for dinner. Went to the Casablanca Restaurant, and Argentina Steakhouse, where Alex and Greg shared a “”sampler”. Whatever eats and moves on a ranch, they had parts of. Easily enough for four people, they actually almost finished it off!
