Day 74

We went camping in the National Park this weekend!  Trevor and I were the only ones who got up early to go to the grocery store, but we got to go to Warehouse, which is the super-awesome Dutch grocery store a few miles away.  A few miles is pretty far when your only form of transportation is walking!  We got hot dogs, buns, marshmallows, and little graham cookies with chocolate coating (because they don't sell graham crackers here).  Then at 13:00 we packed up the Divemobile and headed out!

It takes about thirty minutes to get to the park, and once inside it takes another hour to go about 10 kilometers because the roads are so bad.  The Divemobile has wooden benches for seats, so it was pretty uncomfortable.  We finally got to our destination, Boca Slagbaai (also known as Slagbaai Bay), unloaded, and immediately laid on the beach.  Later that night we collected firewood and started our fire in a premade pit; we couldn't start a fire on the sand because it apparently makes the sand dangerous for sea turtles.  We don't want to kill sea turtles, so we listened!  We pigged out on hot dogs and marshmallows and s'mores, then retired to the beach to watch the sunset and have deep conversations and watch the stars.  Boca Slagbaai is basically in the middle of nowhere and the park is empty after 5, so the only light was from our fire and the sky was absolutely full of stars.  I even saw a few shooting stars!  Around 22:00 (that's 10pm) we were all so tired that we laid down our mats and fell asleep under the stars.

We woke up this morning and made bacon and french toast over the fire--not an easy feat!  (I actually started my day with a s'more and a few roasted marshmallows.  Yum!)  The Divemobile had a flat tire, but we couldn't find the tire-changing gear so the park rangers had to help us.  The boys finally found the gear and got the tire changed, thank goodness!  Some of the others jumped off a cliff into the ocean, but I am not a cliff-jumping fan so I stayed in the water to catch shoes.  We made it back home before noon and spent the rest of the day lazing around, just like every Sunday should be spent.  I'm going to miss the lazy weekends here!

Day 72

Yesterday was an amazing day!  We started out with a tour of the mangroves in Lac Bay, on the east side of Bonaire.  Mangroves and seagrasses, which both grow in Lac Bay, are important habitats for baby fish.  They use the seagrass as a nursery because the grass provides protection from predators, but as they grow larger they need bigger protection, and so they move into the mangroves.  Without the seagrass and mangroves, there are no baby fish, and without baby fish there won't be any big fish, so they're pretty important!  Mangroves also protect the land from erosion and can help protect against storms, which makes them important to humans.

We kayaked through the mangroves with our guide, Hans, who also took us cave exploring.  The mangroves are full of birds, fish, sponges, algae, and upside-down jellyfish!  Upside-down jellyfish lay upside down because they have little animals called zooxanthellae living in their tentacles.  The zooxanthellae get protection from the jellyfish, but they need light to photosynthesize and provide food for the jellies, which is why the jellyfish lay upside down.  The tentacles are the only part that stings, so you can reach under them and flip them over!  I flipped a few jellyfish and had fun petting them.  They were slimy!

After the kayak tour we went for a snorkel in the mangroves.  We had a surprise--tons of box jellyfish!  They were smaller than I expected, hard to spot, and all over the place.  Fortunately nobody got stung, although I hear they aren't as bad here as they are in Australia.  We collected algae samples to identify in the lab, which was... slimy.  The mangroves were full of fish and jellies, and I even got to see a Caribbean spiny lobster.  The lobsters here don't have claws but they are huge.  The body of the one I saw was over a foot long, and with its long antennae was definitely over two feet.

We captured a box jelly and brought him back to the lab!

 At 18:30 (that's 6:30pm for Americans) we boarded a boat for our night dive to see ostracods spawning!  Ostracods are tiny crustaceans that produce bioluminescent light for defense against predation, but here in the Caribbean they also light up for mating!  They rise to the surface and spin around quickly to attract mates.  We boated over to our intended site, Andrea I, but the current was so incredibly strong that we were kicking as hard as we could just to stay in one spot.  We reboarded the boat and tried another site, Petries Pillar, and were happily surprised to find that the current was much less powerful there, so we hopped in and turned off our flashlights to see the show! 

Now the ostracod spawning was neat on the surface, but underwater it was incredible!  They live on the coral and their gametes are also bioluminescent, so during spawning it looks like little bubbles of light are rising from the corals.  The only way I can describe it is this: it's like you're floating in deep black space, surrounded by thousands--maybe millions--of small, slowly-rising stars.  It was absolutely magical.  After a few seconds they lose their glow, but with just a wave of a hand or fin you can stimulate the particles to light up again--I think gives them mechanical energy to turn into chemical light energy.  Bioluminescence is pretty awesome!

Not much else has happened in the past week, so for now I'll leave some flamingo pictures I took last week.

 

Juvenile flamingos are gray!  They don't turn pink
until they become adults.

Two adults, a juvenile, and (possibly) an egret?  Or a heron?

Day 66

The family just left this morning!  The past week has been awesome.  My mom and sister got SCUBA certified, my grandpa and sister got the hang of windsurfing, and I even got my grandma to snorkel!  We saw the whole island, from the southern tip's saliñas to the northern tip's beautiful rocky beaches.  I am so happy that they came all the way out to this little island to see me!  I only wish they could have stayed longer.

Unfortunately my laptop screen was stepped on by housekeeping, so I can't use it at the moment.  There aren't any gateway dealers on the island and it would take too long to ship, so I may be computer-less for the.next five weeks.  So don't expect any pictures for a few days while I get something figured out.  Sorry!  :(

But other than that, everything is peachy in paradise!

Day 57

Carnival was amazing!  The kids' parade was on Friday (which I already posted pictures of) and on Sunday afternoon there was an adult parade in town.  The costumes were incredibly elaborate, as you're about to see.  Every single person of age was also carrying a glass of beer, which I imagine made the three circles around town much more fun!

You might want to click on a few of these pictures for bigger resolutions.  The detail they take with these costumes deserves to be appreciated!

First up is the crazy hat ladies.  These women had on face paint, beautiful shiny dresses, and the most elaborate hats I have ever seen.  These hats even light up at night!

Next up: the weather people.  There were at least 20 of them and they had lightning bolts and rainbows.

Oh hey, that's me!

I think these girls were stars?

This dude was stoked to be in the parade.

This lady gets to be the sun AND the moon!

Next up, the peacock people!  Peacocks are not indigenous or even found anywhere on Bonaire.  Just saying.

And some random ones.

I have no idea what's going on here.  They said they were
Peruvian dancers?  Monsters?  I don't know.

Pegasus?

Iguana man was pretty drunk.

Again, no clue.  But I loved the attention to detail... (the next
photo is kinda NSFW, you've been warned.)

Yep.  That's right.  I, for one, appreciate their attention to detail.

Then this massive barge--er, float--comes by!  There's a secret door in the front with a staircase up to the top.  It also sprayed out water from all sides!

I'm still not sure what the theme was, but I think it might have been 'nature.'  Whatever it was, this float was so cool!  (At light it lit up too!  Magical!)

Again, check out the attention to detail!  And the driver
is dressed up as a snorkeler!

And now for a few photos from Tuesday's night parade.  All these costumes were covered in lights but you can't tell in this pictures because I had to use flash.  Sorry!

Butterflies!

Peacocks!

Um... sea creature!

I went back at midnight because they were supposed to be burning a straw man, which signifies the end of Carnival, but I guess island time ran a little early that night and I missed it.  I got to see some fireworks though, so I guess that was nice.  I was pretty bummed!

Me with a star!

Also, of somewhat less interest, we visited a fish farm on Monday!  Technically it's an "aquaculture facility" that raises a fish called colbia.  It's not common, but it is native to Bonaire, so if a fish escapes into the wild it won't really matter.  (Unlike lionfish, which are eating everything and spreading like wildfire.)  The fish were actually pretty cute, and apparently they taste good!  I wanted to ask for a sample but I didn't think the joke would translate well.  Next time, I suppose.

Colbia!  They're being farmed at the facility in an attempt
to try to reduce fishing on the local reefs.

Our guide, Daniel.

Most of the tanks were empty.  The facility is very new.

The family gets here on Saturday!  My mom and sister are getting SCUBA certified, and maybe even my grandpa too!  I can't wait!!!  :D

Day 52

Last night we went out for dinner to a tapas restaurant!  I got jumbo shrimp tempura and tuba profiteroles.  They were pretty good but I was really in the mood for pizza.  It was nice to get dressed up though!

When I woke up this morning one of my roommates, Grace, was missing.  We have a rule that if someone isn't home by 8am, we have to notify the administration.  Fortunately she wasn't kidnapped; she had spent the night at her friend Alisha's house.  Phew!

Today I spent the morning sunbathing and went windsurfing in the afternoon!  Everyone else went windsurfing last weekend, but I couldn't because I had my dinner date with the Zales, so this was my first time!  The east side of the island is a lot windier, so that's where all the windsurfing is at.  We took a cab to a place called Jibe City, where they only charged us $15/hour because we're considered locals.  We paid our money, got our boards and sails, and got into the water with zero instruction.  And as expected, I was absolutely awful.

I made this face the whole time.

Yep, that's a pro stance right there.  (Grace is on the left.)

I did okay at first, going in one direction... but then I couldn't turn around.  A ton of people passed me--some of them slowed down (probably to laugh at me) but nobody offered me help.  (I miss the Midwest!)  I tried to move my sail like everyone else, but my board just kept getting pushed backwards instead of going in the right direction.  I feel safe saying that I mastered the art of backwards-windsurfing today.  I had to drag the whole rig back on foot, but once I got back Melia helped me go in the right direction.

Finally got it!

The verdict?  Pretty fun, but only if you're with someone who knows what they're doing!

Day 51

Today was exciting!  This weekend is Carnival, which is basically a big party on Bonaire!  On Friday, the first day of Carnival, all the schoolchildren on the island dress up in elaborate costumes and have a parade around Kralendijk.  Each class has their own theme.  Lori and I woke up at 7am to go to the children's parade, which we thought started at 7:30.  Turns out that was the time the children were supposed to meet, so we sat around in Kralendijk until 9:30.  We watched a cruise ship dock and got some baked goods, so it wasn't boring, and the parade was totally worth getting up early for.  The kids were so cute!!!  (Get ready for a lot of pictures!)

Is that eggplant costume cute or what?

This little girl is the Carnival Queen.  (I don't know why.)

I don't know who this kid was...

...but he was a ham.

These kids had a coordinated dance!

I think this class had the best time.

In the afternoon we got to go to a cave!  Our guide, Hans, taught us the basics about caves in a short classroom session.  We learned that there are several ways to make a cave, like when acid rain dissolves limestone, and when lava tunnels harden on the outside.  Lots of things live in caves, like bats, scorpions, and cockroaches.  Hans also taught us how to tell the difference between stalagmites and stalactites with a trick to remember: stalactites hang on TIGHT to the ceiling, while stalagmites MIGHT one day reach the top.  Now you'll never forget!

I've been to a cave in Virginia but this was something totally different.  We climbed down a rickety ladder to get in, and the place was slippery and wet, and extremely hot and humid.  (We came out very sweaty.)  There were big cockroaches all over, and Hans found a 'gigantic' scorpion but it slipped into a hole before the rest of us could see it.  (Thank goodness!)  We saw bats hanging from the stalactites, but they flew away as soon as our lights hit them.  On the ceiling of the cave we could see coral imprints; apparently the limestone had formed over a coral reef skeleton, but the skeletons had already eroded away and so the imprints were all that was left.

Going in...

Coral imprints in the ceiling!

Exploring the caves of Bonaire!

Once we were fairly deep inside the cave, Hans had us sit down and turn off our headlamps, telling us, "Now we will let the bats check us out.  If you hear the clicking, it means they are just a few inches away from your head."  It was pitch black in the cave--there was no difference between eyes open and closed.  I heard a lot of the clicks (their echolocation), and the bats got so close to us that I could feel the air from their wings!  It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced, and I would definitely do it again.  So cool!

That's a pretty deep hole, eh?

Out of the cave and into fresh air.

Our group with Hans, our guide.  Look how sweaty we are!