stubsadventures

Bonaire is an island slightly north of Venezuela and is known for being a divers paradise. I once read that Bonaire was one of Jacques Cousteau’s favorite places to dive. That was all I needed to hear. I worked with a dive adventure company, Caradonna Dive Adventures and they hooked the whole thing up.  The Netherland Antilles are made up of three islands (the ABC Islands), Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. Of the three Bonaire is the quietest.

My first four days were spent diving. While I was there, I got my advanced certification so that in itself required a bunch of dives. I had an awesome dive master and was really glad I had opted for a private guide. The diving was unlike anything I had ever done. They all shuttered to hear that it was the first time I had ever dove in warm water. Until that time, all my diving had either been in the Atlantic off Nova Scotia or lakes. I can see how people get used to diving in the warm water, it felt like a treat to skin dive compared to wearing the full stiff wetsuits you do in the cold water. In the four days of diving, I never spoke to another Canadian. I was the only one skin diving and they all thought I was nuts.

My mission in Bonaire was to lay eyes on a seahorse but I was surprised how many other things I found that were big highlights, seeing the wreck the Hilma Hooker and her huge anchor resting on the bottom, the octopus and squid and just massive schools of fish. On my deep dive, I hit my deepest dive to that date, 119ft.  I was pumped.

As much as I love diving I love all kinds of outdoor adventures, so I arranged a guide for two days to show me the back roads of Bonaire. Hans couldn’t have been more perfect. We went caving in two different systems, on dry, and one wet that we snorkelled through. In the wet cave, we stopped and sat on a ledge, turned our lights off and tiny see through shrimps nibble on your legs.

We toured one of the most interesting national parks I have ever seen. While in the park, we hiked to the highest point on the island, which was a fantastic hike. Hans was pumped because he says very few people actually went all the way to the top and he was excited that I was up for the challenge. The view was totally worth the climb. After that, we went kayaking through some mangroves on another part of the island. The tiny channels were fun to navigate and filled with thousands of baby fish. At one point, we got out and snorkelled up a few of them and it was hard to keep the smile off my face.

An unexpected surprise about my time there was that it was during Carnival! Even though after the days of diving I was pretty tired, you can never turn down partying to amazing live music. There were two parades, one during the day and then the same parade at night at the end of the festival, but all the costumes have lights on them! I was really pumped that I was there for all of it, I met some amazing people from all over the world and shared more than a few Polar (the main beer there).

Stubs.