Bonaire 2024 (page 4 of 9)

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Day 4: Feb 13, 2024

Forgot to mention that yesterday, we had a bit of a room card debacle. The card we'd hidden outside our room (because we don't want to take it diving) no longer worked. Mike went to the front desk & got another one but then realized that the one still in the room also didn't work. Later, we went back to get them both reprogrammed and were told that the system was down and they couldn't fix anyone's card. We weren't the only ones with that issue, and were going to try find someone in housekeeping to let one lady in who needed to bring their child inside. Fortunately, a few hours later everything was up & running but what a mess that would have been for them!

Greta got to sleep in until 8 (Mike always gets up early) and then we headed to the restaurant for breakfast. Afterwards, we planned our next couple of dives. Mike went to get tanks and Greta got the other stuff organized. Our first planned dive was at "Something Special" but we could NOT find it. The directions in the book were not useful whatsoever, and we were definitely warned about bringing phones with. Overall, at any dive site you drive to, you are told to not leave anything expensive (even nice sunglasses) in the truck and leave the windows open and doors unlocked. Buddy's gave us a small dry box to put the key in and we dove with it - the only things left in the truck were flip flops, shirt, shorts & water. But we couldn't find "Something Special" without GPS so stopped in town, at the Buddy Dive Shop, for better directions. She assured Greta that the book directions were bad, and told us how to get there. BUT because a cruise ship was in town, it tends to be loud and will scare away all the fish in the area (which is near Something Special) so she recommended a few dive sites further north.

We were able to navigate to "Weber's Joy" without any issues based on her directions and what we read in the book. We finally geared up and carefully waded in, using the side-stepping method recommended by Dimphy yesterday. Success! Navigation is pretty easy in Bonaire as the reef runs along the island - so you either go North (and keep the reef wall to your right) or South (and keep the reef wall to your left) - and then half way, turn around and come back. Visibility wasn't too bad and we had a good dive. Visibility was better where it was deeper and not so close to shore. Near the end of the dive, we came upon a couple tall coral structures and those had a LOT of interesting life around them. We definitely will keep a close eye out for those again.

Once we were done, we loaded everything up into the truck again, had some water and bananas, and drove to the next dive site "Andrea II" - which wasn't far from our last site. We had some "Cheesy Poof Rings" from the Chinese grocery store & finished off the water, and by then our surface interval was done, and we were ready to dive again.

This time, we went south first, and rather deep, but didn't see a lot of fish. After we turned around, we did see a few trunkfish, a honeycomb cowfish and a porcupine fish. The current had picked up a bit as we returned but we were able to get out with few issues. Greta grabbed a rock and got a few little stinger splinters in one finger but no other problems.

We unloaded at the Buddy Dive Drive-thru and it was busy. But we got everything rinsed twice (chlorine then fresh water) and headed back to our room. We relaxed for a couple hours. Greta got a few pictures of some Blue Whiptail Lizards which seem to be common on the island. We decided we wanted to try eat Indonesian for supper and found a place on Trip Advisor.

We headed to Roos Surinam that evening. Getting there was a bit of a challenge because we didn't want to pay $10 just to activate Mike's phone for the drive there, so he saved the map to the restaurant on his phone and then we navigated there. The map does show your progress but it doesn't indicate what roads are one-way - so we ended up doing a bit of back-tracking before getting there. It was tucked away in a seemingly residential area, although some of the buildings were marked as if they were places to stay. We found the restaurant and even that appeared to also be a hotel of some sort. The open air seating area had numbered doors along both sides and while we were there, a number of people came in/out of their rooms. Mike spoke to the lady at the front counter and so we got menus in Dutch only. The menu wasn't extensive, so he just explained what everything was. We ended up choosing two appetizers - Loempia (which are a little like egg rolls) and Bana Baka (battered, deep fried banana). The banana dish was HUGE - easily two large bananas sliced in half down the middle, breaded and deep fried, served with peanut sauce. The Loempia were served with sweet and sour. For the main meal, we ordered Rendang (shredded pork in a sauce with rice and vegetables) and Bami Kip Satay (noodles with chicken skewers, peanut sauce and vegetables). Everything was SO good! We had to ask for seconds on the sambal oelek (hot chili paste condiment). It was definitely an excellent meal.

Driving back to Buddy's wasn't very difficult - we glanced at the map but were able to get back on the main road easily. It looks like they are gearing up for a night-time Mardi Gras, so we are lucky we didn't run into any more road closures. Then it was time to sit down, relax a bit more, and rest up for the next day. We are really enjoying our time here - everything (except for the navigation issues on the road) has been just great.

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