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"Vacation in Aruba or Bonaire? One has beaches and casinos, the other has
world class diving. Hmm... How about both?!"
We decided to go with 7 days on
Aruba and 8 days on Bonaire and set off on the last day in November to get
the cheap rates before they went up to prime-time on December 15th. Aruba,
Bonaire, and Curacao form the ABC islands, the Netherlands Antilles. Rain
is rare, brief, and strong while the ocean water temperature runs around 80
degrees F. The trade winds here are constant and stiff, and keep it
comfortable even as the temperatures reach into the 90's every day.
On Aruba we stayed at La Cabana, one
of the low-rise hotels on Eagle Beach. This was a good choice for lots of
reasons. Being half-way between town and
the high-rise section you could walk to either passing aloe plants every
five feet along the way. They had their own casino at La Cabana and it
turned out to be our favorite on the island - especially a toy horse racing
game that we either figured out or were very lucky with. Many of the
high-rises had small casinos and more restaurants nearby as well as the
docks we left from to go diving on three different days and one evening.
Diving sites of interest included some sparse reefs, downed planes, and the
huge wreck of the 400' long Antilla (built in 1939 to service German subs
and sunk in 1940 just off the coast of Aruba in 40' of water by her German
Captain to avoid capture by the Dutch). This wreck made for great diving
and an even better night dive! We took a car one day for a tour of the
island - the northeast side of which is very rough and volcanic. We found
ancient caves and natural bridges among the cactus.
As we approached Bonaire by plane we saw the small island of Klein Bonaire
("little Bonaire"). This is the largest undeveloped island in the
Caribbean and is surrounded by pristine reefs. One-half mile from Bonaire and
directly across from Captain Don's
Habitat where we stayed and dove from,
Klein provided the base for our sunsets each night. The "house reef" in
front of Habitat as well as the other reefs surrounding the main island are
equally as nice as those on Klein. (Dennis' best underwater photos here were
taken with an Nikonos-V camera during a photo class and are in slide format.
When they are scanned, some of them will be added to this web page.) We were
pleased to learn that in 1999, after 131 years of private ownership, Klein
Bonaire was purchased and returned to the people as part of the Marine Park
to remain forever undeveloped. Habitat is known as the "home of diving
freedom" and we found it to be just that - dives were frequently over 70
minutes and unrushed. Our positive experience here led us to try
Habitat Curacao in 2001. One
afternoon off from diving, we hired a local Biologist
to give us a private tour of the island. We learned about
the pink
flamingos that call Bonaire (and one other place) home and why they are
pink, windsurfing on the east shore, the days of conch farming, their white
beaches, evaporating water for salt on a huge scale, and the former use of
slaves in that endeavor.
Both Aruba and Bonaire are islands we are anxious to get back to again!
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Picture Legend
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Aruba... |
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1 - The Divi Divi tree is the symbol of Aruba. This one on the end of
Eagle Beach shows which direction the trade winds blow. |
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2 - Tori & Dennis get ready to dive into the world's biggest
bath tub. |
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3 - Dennis looks like a commando as he gets ready to dive the
Antilla at night. |
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4 - Tori says this shot of Dennis on one of the natural bridges is
the most genuine smile she's ever captured him with on film. |
Bonaire... |
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5 - Klein Bonaire with Bonaire in the background taken through
the haze and the scratched window of the plane. By luck, Habitat is about
in the center of this picture on the mainland behind the island. |
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6 - We lived it up in this villa at Habitat Bonaire, the ocean
and the diving was right behind me as I took this picture. |
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7 - It's always weird to see Christmas decorations in the
Caribbean, even around Christmas. |
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8 - Many giant mounds of conch shells told of the days when the
bays were picked nearly clean. Conch are now making a comeback after some
education was provided to the local fisherman. |
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9 - The evaporation basins were huge and turned pinker as the
water evaporated and the concentrations of bacteria and protein grew. As it
was the "rainy season", the mounds (mountains) of salt were small when
we visited. |
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10 - A barracuda always makes for a good subject; they aren't
intimidated and thus hold still for pictures - right until they get
annoyed and turn with a flick of their tail to bite your nose off. |
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11 - A honeycomb cowfish cruises the shallows in the
sunlight. "Moo!" |
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12 - This photo started our interest in fish behavior. Dee Scarr
told us the trumpet fish had colored itself to match the parrot fish and was
"shadowing" it since the little fish knew the parrot fish only eats
coral/algae and therefore aren't afraid of him. The little fish get a
surprise as the parrot fish gets close and suddenly the trumpet fish
they didn't notice before lunges out to eat them. |
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13 - A school of Blue Tangs flash by just feet from the dock at
Habitat. |
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