So this last set of photos starts with sunset, because that Friday was our last day of diving and we were in the water all day. We did two boat dives at 8:30 and at 11. Then after a late lunch and relaxing, mom and I did a night dive. She and Drew had gone the night before but I'd been too tired. I've never dove at night before and it was a very interesting experience. We went down to a wreck at 40ft or so where we saw rock lobster and lots of fish. On the way back a 3 ft tarpon decided he liked hanging out in our light beams and followed us most of the way back to our dock. It scared the crap out of me when he first showed up because he came right out of my blind spot and swam directly in front of me. I jumped, as well as you can in water and my mom was laughing when we got back to land.
Before we got in the water I had said that I wish I had seen an octopus or squid, and low and behold, on our way back in I spotted one. It was very opaque and I wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't oozing over the coral. It was fascinating to watch. Hard to believe that they can fit in anything that their beak fits through. Crazy!
I forgot to mention in my previous post about our wreck dive. I've never done one before. We were told about this wreck by some of the other divers, but I'm not sure any of us expected the ship to be as large as it was. And by ship I do mean an actual ship. It was 150 ft from bow to stern and was laying on it's side in the water. The lowest part of the wreck was down around 90 ft, which is the deepest that I've ever dove. You could actually swim into the wreck, but mom was the only one who seemed to have much interest in doing so. The lights we had weren't very useful and I don't want to go swimming into something where I can't see well and things may want to eat me. Drew apparently doesn't like diving when there are things above his head. Drew and I did see the largest morray eel we've ever seen. As we were swimming around the bow, up by the crowsnest on the ocean floor, I suddenly saw a very large green eel. And by very large I mean all I could see was his head and it was approximately a foot in diameter. He was just hanging out and little fish were swimming around his head. While I'm curious to know how long he was, I'm not sure I really want to be that close to find out. The dive master said that's one of the eels favorite spots and that he's been around for years.
Backtracking to our earlier lives, we went back to another site on Cline Bonaire. Drew and I saw two turtles, one who was hanging out with a parrot fish under a big fan. I thought it was an eel when i first saw it, because I could only see his head. This dive had tons of fish, and on our way back to the boat, our dive master had caught a cowfish between his fingers and stuck him in my face. Cowfish really are the most adorable fish I've ever seen and it looked like a toy at first. It seemed completely unphazed and when it let it go, it just simply swam away. We also saw 6 lionfish, a couple small eels, and some cleaner shrimp.
Our other boat dive was right off of the north cliffs. Here we saw some of the largest and most diverse corals of the entire trip. There were fans as tall as I am, 3 ft across brain corals, and forests of finger corals. It was also cool because this spot had a double ledge, meaning there were two ledges that you could swim by. Also because at 30 ft or so it was pretty flat across, you could swim very close to the island rock wall which fish seemed to like hiding in.
For dinner we went to the 4 Seasons. It was perhaps the best meal of the entire trip. It was all very rich and fresh seafood. My appetizer was a hit, with shrimp egg rolls and thai chille shrimp. Drew and I both got the seafood stew, and the base broth in it was so delicious, my dad ended up asking the chef if he would give him his recipe. He agreed and my dad gave him his gumbo recipe in return.
Saturday was our last day on the island. Because of the depths we were diving and the frequency, we had to take a full 24 hours out of the water before flying. We took this opportunity to take a trip around the island. We drove back down by the salt fields and around the southern tip. On the east coast of the island, we finally saw a flamingo. We also ran into the native donkeys/mules. On up the coast, we drove to the other town on the island, Rincon. There we stopped at the cactus distillery. We stopped for sandwiches on the way back to our part of town (the hand chairs), and then mom, Drew and I went shopping downtown. I found a very cool metal work turtle, and we all got coffee mugs by a local artist.
For our last night, we did dinner at Rum Runners again. If something is good, why not go again. Mom loved the seafood pasta so much, she got it again.
We were up and out early Sunday morning, and got into Charlotte around 6:30 pm because of our stop in Aruba again. I can only say we were all glad that we weren't catching a connecting flight because the winter weather in Charlotte/up the east coast had canceled at least 40 flights and lines were insane at every ticket counter.
Overall, it was an amazing trip. The diving was some of the best I've seen and Captain Don's was a great little place to stay.
Until next time, Bon Voyage!
Pictures I found online of Himla Hooker, the wreck dive
This is what the eel we say looked like, except he was just hangin out on the ocean floor.
