We accidentally got turned around a couple of times, and at one point I went to go ask some random people in an official looking building where the hell we were. Luckily, it was the Slagbaai field office, so they provided me with a map and told us to head even more north, through a town called Rincon that is famous for the great number of goats and donkeys that populate its streets. We saw it from above before we entered its streets.
Everyone in Rincon seemed fascinated by us, staring at our car as we slowly drove down the streets. As we drove through Rincon and up to the park, we saw exactly what we were promised.
A baby donkey and her mama!
AWWWWWW!!
Upon reaching the park, there was a giant whale skeleton out front. Which always equals cool in my book.
We went to talk to the park ranger, who looked like Morgan Freeman with a long, grey beard, who told us that the cafeteria we'd heard about in the park was about two hours away on the far side of the island and that there was no other food. He assured us that Rincon would be a good place to get food, and told us that Rose's was the best. So we trusted his judgement and went back down to Rincon.
There was this funny sign on the outside of one of the buildings.
Rincon
The church
When we got to Rose's, we were excited when we saw that they served the coldiest beer.
But then we saw this
Which should have been okay, since we were there on a Tuesday and not a Wednesday. Nope. They were closed. Which turned out to be the case for most of Rincon. NOTHING WAS OPEN. It didn't even appear that people were alive in some cases. It was just a sleepy little town with no unlocked establishments at noon on a Tuesday. Places we visited included a restaurant that the owner had abandoned for a short while to do errands (as I was informed by the helpful woman living next door), a place called "Allen Shack" that my mom was convinced was called "Alien Snack", and an open air bar where a man offered to cook us up a bucket of tenderloin with fries, to which my dad responded with, "NO". So eventually we gave up on finding a restaurant and instead headed into a semi-sketch open air market to buy lunch fixings. We got some meat from a deli run by a woman speaking Chinese. There was a HUGE language barrier between us, so we ended up with way more meat than we needed. As we gathered our food, I noticed that there was a door open in the back of the market. I looked outside into the backyard to see that the owners had set out orange halves and jelly, an oriole's favorite snack.
So many Troupial Orioles! It's cool how, even in two very different places, people still find birds fascinating and will provide them with food so that they will feel safe in an area shared by humans, so that they may come back and provide us with insight into their world. The Troupial Orioles gathered around their orange halves in a town filled mostly with goats in the Caribbean is similar to filling the wooden bird-feeder in our backyard in Utah with seed to attract our Scrub Jays.
After our market experience, we decided to eat our lunch on the patio of a shopfront that was, surprise! Closed.
We bought bocabos at the market, tiny little banana-looking things that tasted delicious. They were tangy and sweet, the perfect little fruit. After surprisingly not getting sick from our lunch, we headed out just as the shop owner appeared to open his store. Thanks, sir. We packed up and headed back up to the park, spotting a Great Blue Heron and a Sad Flycatcher (new species for me!) along the way, where there was a small museum before you entered.
We learned when Bonaire was stablished (very good information)
We had seen so many yellow-shouldered parrots, or green loras (as the locals call them).
(from Google)
Ancient instruments aka a cow jaw
The bathroom signs were hilarious
I signed the visitor's log for all of us before we headed into the park. There are two paths through Slagbaai, a long one and a short one for all intensive purposes. We had to take the short one, because after our Rincon adventure getting out so late due to sleeping in, we had arrived somewhat late in the afternoon (2 PM), and the park closed at 5 PM. Thus, short path (I'm sure you're glad I regaled you with the tale of why we had to take the short path). We searched diligently for new birds we hadn't seen before, especially for my two objectives: the Greater Flamingo and the Crested Caracara. There were millions of lizards darting across the roads, sunning themselves on the ground until they felt the vibrations of our car and then went scurrying. We stopped at a beautiful ocean site called Playa Funchi to take pictures and explore.
So beautiful. It was seriously perfection.
I saw a lizard that seemed slower than the others (usually they were incredibly fast), so I crept up on it and then pounced. Unfortunately, I fell just short of the lizard and ended up face-planting in the gravel, gaining another war wound on my right knee. My legs looked like they had the measles, I was so beat up from scuba injuries and mosquito bites.
The second place we stopped at was Put Bronswinkel.
It's a well-known birdwatching spot because there's a constant source of freshwater there, a rarity in the desert. We hiked around for awhile and saw a Jamaican or Yellow Oriole, multiple Yellow Warblers, Common Ground Doves, Grey Kingbirds, a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, and another type of Myiarchus I couldn't identify.
Also we saw King Iguana! We were trespassing in his realm, so we took his picture and then left after half an hour. There were wild parrots EVERYWHERE. For the most part, they were too fast and spastic to be identified if they weren't yellow shouldered parrots, which they were for the most part. We also saw Caribbean Parakeets, slightly smaller green parrots with long tails and bright yellowish brown heads. We also saw a baby goat in the bushes.
As we continued on the road we saw a salt pond and, at the far end, a smudge of pink. Flamingos! I practically ripped the truck door open and leapt into the underbrush, racing down to the salt pond's edge.
They were rather far away, unfortunately. My dad called to me from the truck that there was a closer salt pond down the way, where it was more likely to see flamingos close up. I raced back to the car and we arrived at the cafeteria/cafe thing that the ranger had told us was one to two hours away from the entrance (which, turns out, he was totally right). There was an amazing wetland/salt pond at the back of the cafe and the beautiful ocean in front of it. I immediately made a beeline for the salt pond, watching the flamingos feed. They are so derpy, they dunk their head into the water, take it out, sidestep awkwardly, dunk again, sidestep, etc. One of them didn't even bother bringing his head out of the water, he just dunked his head and then wandered through the murky water like a fool. It was amazing.
Among the flamingos, there were also Tri-colored Herons, Reddish Egrets, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Black-Necked Stilts, Least Terns, Royal Terns, and Brown Pelicans. It was a shmorgasborg of wetland birdwatching. I was in heaven. I wished I'd brought a) binoculars (which I totally forgot) and b) my nice camera (which was left at home due to possible theft). My parents called me to the cafe, where they were having a drink, and I bought myself a Snapple, enjoying it while I watched the birds and the ocean.
I had no idea.
People were cliff jumping and I regretted leaving my swimsuit at home.
After I finished my Snapple, we got back into the truck. I had seen my first objective, now I wanted to see the second: a Crested Caracara. I was on double-lookout. However, it was pretty hard to scan the entire forest from the pickup truck. So we pick-up truck surfed. THAT'S RIGHT. My brother and I PICK-UP TRUCK SURFED. It. Was. So. Much. Fun. It was super dangerous and illegal in so many ways. That is, if we had been in another country (with more enforced laws). We held onto the bar located at the top of the truck cab and stood in the bed, shrieking with glee. Dad would go super quickly around corners and up hills (not down because otherwise the scuba tanks would have rolled into us and broken our ankles). It was so fucking fun. I can't even explain how much glee and mirth and other words meaning fun I had. At one point, I got whipped in the face with a branch of a low-hanging tree that I forgot to duck under since I was looking for birds, leaving a red welt on my neck for the next few days. Even if I didn't see a Caracara, I would have been satisfied because of how much fun I'd had pick-up truck surfing and seeing the flamingos and just exploring the park. We stopped off at another birdwatching spot with the intent of searching for a Caracara, since we still hadn't seen one.
At this point, we were sort of being stalked by the park ranger Morgan Freeman we'd seen earlier. I think it's because he wanted to make sure we made it out of the park (since it was almost closing time). It was still sort of unnerving, though. We unfortunately didn't see a Caracara there, but as we continued down the road I saw a figure perched atop a cactus in the distance. I leapt out of the car and peered at it closely. IT WAS A CARACARAAAAAA!!!
(from Google)
I ran to Morgan Freeman's truck to ask him if he had binoculars I could borrow, but he didn't. As if he'd read my mind, though, he replied, "Yes, that is a Caracara". My face split into an excited grin and I sprinted back to our truck, leapt into the bed, and stared at the Caracara. He was so boss, he was just perched on the very top of a cactus that was swaying in the wind, providing a very unstable roost. He kept his balance though, like a camp counselor. Dad told me I have a superpower of seeing what I want to see, which proved to be effective for the rest of the trip. We pick-up truck surfed out of the park, losing our stalker park ranger Morgan Freeman when he stopped to help some guys with a dead engine. When we emerged from the park, we got back into the cab and drove home.
Once we got home, we decided we wanted to go on an evening dive before darkness fell. We decided to go to Cliff again, but instead of start at the hellish rocky entry, we went south to a small beach to start at the beginning of the wall (a special dive spot because it's a wall full of coral and sponges instead of a slope). This time I saw a lot of lionfish, especially babies, though I'm not sure if it's because I knew where to look for them now or if suddenly they were just out and about. One of the baby lionfish got into a territory fight with a damselfish, where the damselfish sort of smacked into it carefully (because it didn't want to get stung by its poisonous spines) and the lionfish settled on the outside of his little coral cave. We also saw a green moray eel, a lot of big pelagic fish, more banded shrimp, and tons of beautiful coral. Our dive was about forty minutes, much better than our previous times, and as we ascended we could see the sunset radiating down through the water's surface. It was a gorgeous purple and pink cloudy sunset that seemed so picturesque over the water. I swam backwards back to shore just to watch the sun as it sunk below the silhouettes of the boats in the distance. When we got home, we rinsed and put away our gear, ate a delicious dinner of pasta, and then watched a new trashy show called Dance Moms (much like Toddlers and Tiaras) before bed.
The next day was another full diving day. I road in the back of the truck to Dive Friends, where we picked up new tanks of air before heading off to our morning location, the Hilma Hooker.
You heard me. The Hilma Hooker. The Hilma Hooker was a seemingly innocent ship that was actually discovered to have a fake bulkhead in 1984 containing 25,000 lbs of marijuana. She then sank into the ocean when she was detained for several months as evidence. It was deeper than any dive we'd ever done before, the highest point laying at 70 ft (10 ft deeper than beginner divers are supposed to go).
Entering the water
This was the first dive we did where we swam out to a spot and then descended to a depth from the surface, rather than slowly descend down a sloping bottom. This was a bit of a problem for my ears, which had more issues with the quick descent. Once I had managed to equalized, however, the wreck was so much fun to explore! The ship had tipped over onto its side, so its hull provided a sheltered cove for multiple large fish, such as giant parrotfish and tarpons. The second we descended I saw a barracuda leering at me from the reef as my dad and brother made a beeline for the top of the wreck. I tried to alert them, but ultimately failed. The hull of the boat was covered in multi-colored mosses and sponges and we saw groupers, more lionfish, and a lot of different kinds of angelfish, though mostly french angelfish. We circled the wreck once and then explored the reef a little bit, where we saw more barracudas. They weren't as big as I thought they would be, but their shiny eyes and oversized bottom jaws combined still made for a creepy stare. We surfaced from our Hilma Hooker dive after forty FIVE minutes! We then traveled down to a site called Windsock.
Windsock was a beautiful site, one of my favorites for sure. There were tide-pools filled with tiny snails near the water's edge, all a myriad of subtle colors and pearly finishes.
I also found a crab skeleton.
We snorkeled for awhile, where Mom and Dad saw baby squid (I'm so jealous) before eating our packed lunches. While we ate, a blackbird begged for us to feed him. I threw him part of a pear, but he didn't want it. Then Mom threw a bite of apple at a Laughing Gull, who picked it up and then spat it out, disgusted that we'd try to feed him fruit. We then prepared to dive again. This time, Gabe decided to stay on shore and hang out with Mom while Dad and I went on the dive. Our dive manual told us that we should look for piles of broken shells on the bottom, which might lead us to an octopus den, so I hoped that we would see one. We dove for fifty minutes (I was getting gooood) and saw so many great things! We saw a Spotted Scorpionfish, which disguises itself to look like an algae-covered rock.
We also saw tons of eels, a Flying Granlund, and another Golden Arrow Crab that we held again. We had, unfortunately, not seen an octopus or a den as we began to ascend from the reef. I was about to cut my losses and surface when I randomly decided I was going to look back and see where my Dad was. I saw him pointing excitedly toward the ocean floor, flailing and overall just freaking out. I looked down to see an octopus. AN OCTOPUS. I immediately swam over and stared at it in wonder. He was spread out across the floor, but suddenly jetted toward a rock, immediately changing into a white color tinged with light blue. When he reached his destination rock, he curled into it and camouflaged himself with a mottled yellow and brown coloring. I hovered over him, absolutely enthralled by the first wild, active octopus I'd ever seen, until he got annoyed with me and jetted away, pausing to spray a small, furling cloud of ink at me before escaping from my obsessive stare. I was inked! We emerged from our dive feeling awesome about our finds, and Dad further confirmed my superpower of seeing what I want to see. Before we left, I wrote my name in the sand.
We then went downtown to shop.
One of two shady medical school locations on the island.
We found many a gem at the souvenir stores we visited
The loveliest octopus I've ever seen
Jellies!
"Just Add Water"
The best gum I've ever seen in my life.
Gabe and I explored a couple of more stores, where I found myself a shirt (that says Bonaire on the front and "Dive all day, party all night on the back"), a hand-painted shot glass with a godawful flamingo on it, and a bunch of postcards. During our explorations, we found this terrifying lady.
Gabe told me to get closer to her, which I begrudgingly did
We ate dinner at a restaurant called Paradise Moon, where I ate like a starved, ravenous wolf. The waiter was obnoxious and gave me a lot of shit, probably because he thought it was funny (which it was, AFTER I'd eaten and didn't feel like killing someone). To finish off our surf and turf meal, we got a slice of peanut butter pie to share, where the waiter refused to give me my spoon because I'd asked for one. Oh, okay. Then we had a tug-of-war over the spoon. For realsies. Finally, I got to eat the pie. Gabe and Dad went off on a night dive, but I was pretty cold from our earlier dives, so instead I explored downtown a little with mom at night.
A flamingo made of inlaid stones in the street
One of the bars on a dock over the ocean had bright lights situated on its sides, which I thought might attract plankton and thus rays, so we checked it out. It turned out that there were no rays, but instead there were a lot of tiny fish and jellyfish, which some researchers were collecting for an experiment.
We then went home and I checked my email before getting in the pool to discover that I'd GOTTEN A JOB! (more on that later) We celebrated by drinking vodka in the pool and then watching Chelsea Lately before writing in our dive logs and going to bed.
Gabe doing his "homework".
End part two of Bonaire adventures. Recounting my experience makes me realize how much we dove, it was amazing and exhausting. Today has been a day of realizing how scared and excited I am for my new job and for what my life has in store for me next. My great grandmother died today, the last of my great grandparents, which made me realize how much I cherish the fact that I'm alive. I spent the day working, hanging out with Maddie and Grace, writing this blog post (living it big), and watching Southpark and 20/20 with my mom. I'll finish up the night with painting, to make this day a little more productive.
Goodnight!
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