Day 43

After staying up until 4am writing my entire research proposal last night, I slept in this morning and had Trix for breakfast.  (They still have the shapes here!  In the US they're now just colored cereal balls.)  It was Grace's birthday and she wanted to go windsurfing at Jibe City, but I couldn't go because I wouldn't be back in time for my dinner with the Zales.  Instead I went snorkeling to get more ideas for my research project, and saw tons more cool stuff today!

These are the orange cup corals that I'm doing my research project on:

The fuzzy ones are feeding with their tentacles! 

These colonies are growing on a dock support.

 Then I found a porcupine puffer fish under a rock!  They're about 18 inches long and super cute!

Who couldn't love this face?

My, what big eyes you have!

 I also found more big scorpionfish.  They're hard to see because their camouflage is so good!  (Click to make them bigger and easier to see.)

The tail is in the top left, eyeball in the bottom right.

See the eyeball smack dab in the middle?

I swam down to the Harbor Marina, which is a little dirty but has TONS of fish.

So many fish!

Queen Parrotfish, feeding on algae on shallow rocks.

Peacock flounder!  (Just a wee one.)

And the best part of my snorkel: the itty-bitty baby porcupine puffer fish right at the end!  I chased him into just a few inches of water to get better pictures, but then he got stuck because his little tail wasn't strong enough to swim against the waves!  I used my camera to very gently push him into deeper water so he could swim away.

This guy was about 5 inches long.

Awww!

Swimming away after his near-beaching experience.

A few hours later I walked down to the Sand Dollar resort to have dinner with the Zales.  My family is renting their condo, and they invited me over for dinner!  When I first arrived I thought they were speaking a foreign language, but it turned out they were just from the Bronx.  We had a lovely chicken dinner followed by delicious cookies, and they showed me their photographs and paintings.  The whole condo is full of their own work, including a huge diving-themed mural on the porch!  After dinner they took me out for ice cream and drove me home.  It was an excellent Saturday night!

And now for a test of something new: a video of the baby porcupine puffer!

Day 42

Today was a pretty good day!  We had class in the morning but all afternoon off, so Trevor and I went diving to mark more coral heads for his research project.  We're now up to 7 out of 10, so almost done!  We also saw a HUGE midnight parrotfish munching on the algae that grows on coral.  (Just imagine a deep blue three foot long fish with huge lips.  They're pretty!)  It was so big that we could actually hear it biting!

Afterwards I went snorkeling down to the marina to find cup corals, which are an invasive coral species and also the subject of my new research project!  I also saw two baby lionfish, a scorpionfish, a porcupine puffer fish (so cute!), and tons more, which surprised me.  But cup corals are very cool!  They grow on piers, metal, and the undersides of rocks.  They're very pretty and they're all over the place, so my project should be easy to get data for!

After sunset Trevor and I went for a night dive to gather preliminary data for his project, which is observing corals feeding.  During the day corals look hard and solid, and they're not bad looking.  But at night they extend their tentacles (which they use to catch tiny particles of food) and they become beautiful!  I brought my camera on the dive, and while I definitely need more practice with night photography, I was able to get a few good ones.

Colpophyllia (boulder brain) coral.  We went just after sunset
so this guy didn't have his tentacles out yet.  :(

It looks like a maze!

This is what the real colors are.  (The flash can ruin the colors.)
Not what you were expecting, right?  

Arrow crabs, like many other things, are much easier
to see at night!  

A little blurry, but these are brittle stars on a coral.
They only come out at night, and don't like lights.

During the day meandrina looks a lot like the boulder brain
coral, but at night it transforms into this hairy mess!

This montastrea cavernosa has some feeding and some
non-feeding polyps.  See the difference?

Tube-dwelling anemones are pretty, but you can only see them
at night.  They hide in tubes in the sand all day and come
out at night to feed!

Now to get to my big Friday night plans--writing a new research proposal!  Woohoo!

Day 41

I have a cold.  I am sniffly, tired, and sore.  It has also been raining for the past two days, and that hasn't helped.  But at least it's warm!

It's been a whole week, so let's start with Friday.  We went on a field trip to Rincon, the oldest town in Bonaire.  We went on a little tour of the town, which was basically an itty-bitty 7-11-sized grocery story and an irrigation ditch around some houses.  We saw the Rincon Cemetery; the cemeteries here are all above-ground because the ground is mostly limestone, which is pretty hard to dig into.

The cemetery.  Pretty cheerful-looking, eh?

On the Rincon church is a mural of St. Bernard,
who (fun history fact!) started the crusades in the 1100's.

We stopped for a drink break at the church.  The limeade
here is SO GOOD!!!

A typical Rincon street.

A typical Rincon house.  (I love the colors!)

We also visited a new distillery called Cadushy that makes alcohol from the Kadushi cactus, which is abundant here on Bonaire.  In the old days Kadushi cacti were often used to make soups, but people lost interest in it because it takes so long to make.  According to the Dutch couple who started the business, they got the idea from the tourist towns in Holland, which all make and sell their own special alcohol as souvenirs.  They realized that Bonaire didn't have its own special alcohol and decided to make their own.  They're doing very well, and even let us sample their signature flavor!

The owner of Cadushy shows us how they make their alcohol.

This wee bottle sells for $12.50, but it's pretty delicious.

They're also working on a 'Christmas flavor,' which smells
(and presumably tastes) just like a pine tree.  (Yuck!)

Leah is a fan of the cactus alcohol.

And so am I!

We also had a traditional Bonairean dinner at someone's house, which was goat stew, salted fish, rice, funchi (similar to polenta) and plantains.  For dessert, little kids served us cookies!  

Traditional Bonairean dinner, right here.  The glasses in the
edges of the photo have nail polish dots on the bottom; when
we asked, they told us it was in case people borrowed the
glasses, so they'd know to return them.  

We then went to a storytelling event under the full moon.  We were told that there would be translators there for us, and that the local people were excited to hear American stories and myths.  We were lied to.  They asked only one of us to tell a story, and the Papiamentu version (from what I could understand) didn't have much in common with the original story.  There was also no translator, so we sat for two hours listening to stories we couldn't understand.  I was also a little surprised by the terrible phone etiquette there; adults were answering their phones and having full conversations while people were telling stories, without leaving the circle.  It would definitely have been considered rude by American standards.  We ended up leaving halfway through, thank goodness!

The weekend was uneventful.  I went to bed early on Friday night and woke up to broken glass all outside my door, but that was the height of excitement.  We'll skip Monday for a moment, but Tuesday and Wednesday were mostly uneventful.  Today I got a new research project that I'm very excited about: looking at the habitat of the invasive cup coral on Bonaire!  I had to ditch my peacock flounder project because it wasn't working, and I was going to have to do a study on video sampling techniques--which didn't even require diving.  I was absolutely dreading that, so my advisor really came through for me on this one!  Plus I get to dive and snorkel at new sites, which was what I really wanted to do!  Yay!

On Monday things picked up.  We had a lab dive to look for lionfish, but I had no clue what was going on and never saw any lionfish.  That night we went for a night dive because there was supposed to be a super-cool bioluminescent spawning event, but we didn't see anything.  I got separated from my buddy and that freaked me out a bit, so I went for a run after the dive to relax.  Unfortunately I was really hungry so I ended up walking, and as I was walking a man started talking to me.

This is actually an eye-opening story, especially for me, because I've always felt very safe on this island.  The man told me that he'd seen me running a lot and wanted to introduce himself, so we sat on a bench and started talking.  He seemed pretty normal at first, until he started asking me to be his girlfriend.  I pulled the "I'm not looking for a relationship right now" card but he kept trying to convince me that he'd be a great boyfriend.  Things were getting sketchy, so I stood up and told him I needed to get home.  He grabbed me into a bear hug and started trying to kiss me, still talking about what a great boyfriend he'd be.  I pushed him off and sprinted all the way home.

I'd like to point out here that I'm actually a lot more cautious than most people give me credit for.  I made sure to keep an easy-to-flee position while sitting, no leg crossing or sitting too close.  I was in a well-lit place where people were walking by sporadically.  I normally don't run at night, and if I do I take my 3-inch spring-assisted knife.  (Incidentally, I left it at home that night.  Won't happen again!)  I didn't get a kidnapper vibe from this guy, it seemed more like he was really desperate.  I've heard Natalie Holloway jokes and creepy men calling "Heeeey, preety white girl," but this was the first time anyone got close to me.  All the same, I'm definitely going to be more careful from now on!

Day 34

Today was amazing!  We took down two of the 'adventure dives' needed to fulfill the PADI Advanced Open Water certification.  At 9am we started off the day with the deep dive to 100 feet.  (Right now we're only certified to go to 60 feet.)  The dive was on a shipwreck called the Hilma Hooker.  On the way down some of the other students saw two dolphins!  (Sadly, I missed them.)

The story of the Hilma Hooker is apparently a bit of a local legend.  The ship came to Bonaire in the early 1980's, but when it got to port all the crewmembers were acting suspiciously.  The port authorities searched the boat and found 25,000 pounds of marijuana.  They wanted to sink the ship to create a shipwreck diving site, but the Dutch government wanted the ship as evidence, so for a few months it sat untouched and rusting.  Then--and this is where the story shifts from fact to legend--one night a tiny boat was seen speeding up to the ship and quickly speeding away, followed shortly by several explosions and the inevitable sinking of the Hilma Hooker.  Rumor has it that Captain Don, the man who reputedly began the tourist diving business here in Bonaire, had some dynamite lying around, got sick of the eyesore, and decided to take matters into his own hands.  (Captain Don has a great white beard and a peg leg, if that tells you anything about him.)  The wreck landed perfectly between two reefs and starts at 40 feet deep, making it accessible to all divers.

The Hilma Hooker was my first wreck dive and my first deep dive, so I thought it was pretty darn great.  There were tons of sponges and corals growing on the wreck, and so many fish everywhere.  We couldn't go inside (because we're not certified for overhead environments, plus it is super scary to go inside things underwater) but we were able to go under the sides and in a tiny bit.  I actually got a little scared once I was 'in' the ship, but I want to do wreck diving in Michigan so I guess I'll have to get over it.

We also had our night dive tonight.  It was my first night dive and it was awesome!  I saw tons of sea stars, a sea cucumber, a big orange anemone, and coral polyps!  I had no idea coral was so cool at night.  During the day they're pretty and all, but at night they let loose their polyps, which are wavy and awesome!

I didn't take any pictures, but here's what I was able to find on the internet:

Brittle Star, from Wikipedia.  (The ones I found were pink!)

Brain Coral polyps, by Scubaben @ Flickr.
They are so cute and wavy!
They let the polyps out to catch food; this is how they eat!

Sea Cucumber, by NOAA.
They feel exactly how they look like they'd feel: weird.

Tomorrow is another field trip!  I wish all school was like this.  :)

Day 30

The past few days have been exhausting!  (In a good way.)  On Thursday we spent the day at the Bonaire National Park, which is very large and very bumpy.  We drove in the open-air Dive Mobile, and miraculously managed to not lose anyone.  We started out with a hike around some ancient coral, and ruined some shoes by stepping on cacti.  We played around the 'blowhole,' a hole in a rock where water shoots up and sprays you.  We then drove around for over an hour looking for Slagbaai Lagoon, which was sandy but had nothing to see but waves--plus it was so rough that some people lost their snorkel gear on the way out!

The blowhole!

Getting splashed by the blowhole.

Pretty... but I don't want to swim in it.

Still pretty!

Ground cactus.

A mini-lake close to the ocean.

That's me, way out there!

The Dive Mobile made it all day with no problems--which is pretty amazing considering the condition of the roads here--but she finally died a few miles from home.  The engine overheated, and the car was steaming and making some weird noises.  Fortunately we had chips and a mini radio, so we ate and practiced for karaoke night while we waited for the rescue van.

"Hmm, what seems to be the problem here?"  My guess is the smoke.

Karaoke time! 

On Friday we had another field trip, this time to the Mangazine di Rei, the King's Museum.  I learned how to make a cactus fence and a maraca.  They even gave me my very own cactus fruit to make a maraca with!  I'm very excited.  We also played traditional Bonairean instruments.  That night was Leah's 21st birthday celebration, so we stayed out pretty late and slept in on Saturday.  Saturday was a wasted day of working on our research proposals. 

Hummingbird!

This is how you make a cactus fence.

Playing traditional instruments.  (We sucked.)

On Sunday we went on a boat dive on Klein Bonaire!  (That's the little island.)  I saw an eagle ray and a FREAKING HUGE green moray eel.  The eel was at least 10 feet long, and it's head was as big around as a basketball.  Seriously, it could have eaten one of us.  Maybe even two of us.  HUGE.  I didn't feel very good afterwards, though.  

On the boat!

Ready to go!

Today we went on a not-very-exciting dive to collect water samples.  It was kind of a dumpy site.  But I saw a rusty old fancy fork and it made me think of The Little Mermaid.  :)

Day 25

Today was relaxing!  We don't have class on Tuesdays, but we're supposed to do research all day for our independent research projects.  But since we haven't actually started those yet, all we had today was a 45-minute meeting with our advisors.  Woohoo!  I did do some 'research' by going snorkeling in search of peacock flounders (my research subject) and found two pretty quickly.  They are so cute and fun to chase!  And with fins I can easily keep up with them.  :)

Yesterday was supposed to be our deep dive, which is a requirement to become an Advanced Open-Water diver.  The deep dive is to a shipwreck, which is really cool!  Unfortunately our diving professor came down with Dengue Fever, which is carried by mosquitoes.  It lasts for about 10 days and gives you a fever and bone pain.  What's really sad is that she had the flu last week!  So then the other folks wanted to go wakeboarding and tried to rent a boat, but when the boat-guy showed up and saw they were students he said they couldn't take the boat!  I guess the medical students here have a bad rap.

Grace (my roommate) and I decided to go for a dive, and were a bit surprised to see everyone just sitting around by the dock.  Lori, my other roommate, decided to join us, so the three of us went for a lovely little dive!  It was our very first dive without an instructor around.  Nobody died or got injured, so I guess we did good.  It might sound stupid but I feel much more confident about my diving abilities now that I've gone without 'supervision.'  My ears have also been equalizing much better, almost no problems at all!  Yay!

Fish are hard to keep up with while diving, so most of my pictures are of coral.  But coral is pretty too!

Hi!  Let me show you around!

French Angelfish!

Ohmygosh LIONFISH!  (They're very poisonous!)

Sea anemone!

Eusmilia!  (That's the coral's scientific name.  Sounds like 'smile!')

Eusmilia with a purple sponge!

My roommate, Grace! 

Colpophyllia!  (Brain Coral!  It's HUUUUGE!)

...this is the same French Angelfish.  But he's pretty!

On Monday we took a trip around the island to cleanup a beach and visit the landfill, the 'sewage plant,' and the new sewage plant.  The beach we cleaned up was depressing, because there were bottlecaps EVERYWHERE.  We filled up a lot of trash bags.  The current 'sewage plant' is actually just bogland in the middle of the island, where they dump the island's sewage.  It didn't smell as bad as I imagined, I've definitely been in more toxic outhouses.  The new sewage plant took 12 years to get approved and is so outdated that it's been outlawed in Europe, but it's definitely a step up from the bogs.  It should be up and running within a few months!  The landfill is actually just a dump, which is where we threw the trash bags from the clean-up.

I have the landfill pictures on another camera, which I have lost the cord to.  But don't worry, you aren't missing out on much.  Here are some pictures of daily life in the CIEE residence hall:

Uhhh, am I supposed to eat that?

A nice man named Gibi makes us food every day.  Sometimes it's good.  Most of the time... not so much.  I think I'm losing weight...  I miss my Nanny!

As for that stuff on the plate... I honestly have no idea what it's supposed to be.  My dinner was "chicken gordon blue," according to the food sheet.  A few days a week my lunch is 'cheese sandwich,' which is exactly what it sounds like: a white sub-loaf with melted american cheese.  Healthy!

I am SO not eating this.  (But check out those tan lines!  :D)

 Kyle has back pain that he treats with pressure cups!  But he needs someone else to put them on for him, so it's a fun house event.  We like to play with the suction cups.  :)

How the suction cups SHOULD be applied.

Fortunately this did not leave hickey marks.

Malia was not so lucky.  She's got some big red hickey marks. 

"Doooon't stop belieeeevin'!"

"Hold on to that feeeeeeelin'!"

 We've got a field trip to the national park tomorrow, so expect more pictures!  :)