Bonaire 4/18-4/25

Bonaire is a small island about 50 miles North of Venezuela. The interior is dry with cactus and other dessert plants. Lizards, goats, and some donkeys make up the wildlife along with numerous birds including flamingos and pelicans. The main attraction is diving. This was a group trip organized by a local dive shop.
A reef runs around the island with about 60 dive sites on the calm (West) side. There is also a small island with another 25 dive sites surrounding it that is a short boat drive from shore. Diving is also possible on the rough (East) side and a few members of the group took a day trip diving on that side of the island.
We stayed at Buddy Dive Resort which is focused on diving. Along with the 9 boat dives that were part of the package the resort had pickup trucks and a drive through tank pickup station for easy shore diving. I have never been to island that had easy shore diving access as this island did. The resort itself was on the ocean and you could dive right from the resort which we did twice including a night dive.
The best diving was between 30 and 50 feet which made for long dives with good light. The reef has a wide variety of the usual carribean fish with a lot of life. The coral is reasonably healthy with a lot of different types of coral, see fans, etc. The group from Waterfront diving was a great group to dive with. They appreciated and respected the reef and moved slowly along checking everything out. There were three people who were master divers so there was a source of knowledge to learn from.
Beyond the usual parrot fish, angel fish, wrasses, and other carribean fish we saw turtles, tarpons, squid, and barracudas. There were also a number of different varieties of parrot fish including some much larger ones that I think were called midnight parrot fish. There were also many small crabs, cleaner shrimp, nudibranch, and a variety of other worms, baby fish, and other small creatures. We also saw two sea horses which I had never seen before. They were about 4 inches long, one reddish color and the other yellow. We also saw a number of fish change color as we dove. Trigger fish that changed color and added/subtracted spots. Also a purple and blue flounder swimming along that changed to white with gray spots to match a sandy area it settled into.
There is a park at the North end of the island which has some hills, a lot of cactus, lizards, and birds. It has North, East, and West shore exposure so there were some rough seas and jagged coasts to see. You can also dive in the park which we did. The road was rough so it took most of the day to check out the park and go diving there. 30 miles an hour was very fast in the park.
There is also a 4 foot deep large bay that has wind surfing. The wind is a constant 20 knots and with the shallow water and sand bottom it is a great place to wind surf. There is also  kite boarding on the island which looked like a lot of fun.
The temperatures were very predictable and no rain. 87 during the day and 77 at night. The water was 80. Pictures below taken by Christine and Ken.
A lot of fun, good food, with the only down side being that time went by way too fast.

Dive sites we went to for future reference: (15 dives total with names below as close as I can remember)
Wayaka 2 (in park)
La Dania's leap *
Ol' Blue
Andrea 1
Small wall *
Buddy's reef
Something special *
Hilma hooker
Angle city
Just a nice dive
Keepsake
Bonaventure
Mi Dushi
Knife

* exceptional

Salt evaporation ponds in South

Salt slave quarters. VERY small.

Resort looking toward room

Drive up tank station. Unique!

Dive boats and dock

Ken in slave hut

Park - NE coast

Reef from times gone by

Forest of cactus

View from room

Camels Hump - Full Moon

The weather wasn't looking so good at 6AM on this day. Raining hard in the valley and windy. The plan was to go up Camels Hump for the full moon. Through an amazing weather turn around it was clear and sunny by the time 6PM rolled around. The trail was packed snow and in great shape (no ice). Nice views of the sun through the trees and the surrounding mountains glowing in the sun as we started up. We got to the clearing in the dark with a little color left in the West. The moon was up and bright as we walked the short distance to the top. Although windy going to the top the top itself wasn't very windy. It was winter again though so we didn't stay very long. The moon was bright enough on the way down to turn off the lights from time to time. Lots of interesting moon views as the clouds moved back in on the way down. A good way to spend Saturday night! My camera didn't work well in the dark so I could not get a decent picture of the moon.

Pictures from Holly and Julie (finally the moon shot):

Week in review

It is April but decidedly mid winter in the mountains still. One big advantage of this time of year is that the sun doesn't set until 7:30. This allows skiing after work. I took advantage of this x-country skiing on Tuesday and "night" skiing on Wed. I am not a fan of night skiing. Limited trails, dark, and cold. On Wed though they ran the lifts from 4-8. It was light almost the entire time with a sunset at the end. All trails were accessible and it was relatively warm. I like that kind of night skiing!
Friday was the first Spring day I have seen this season. Temperatures in the 50's and above freezing over night so it was good right at 9AM. An amazing day. Spring was short lived however and the next day it was below freezing and snowing. More powder in the mountains!
Pictures below are from after work skiing last week. I did find another area x-country skiing at Bolton with some nice open downhills and un-touched powder. That is the first couple of pictures and then more of the usual pictures from the top.

Waterbury reservoir