Day 69

I have officially and 100% finished my divemaster internship now, and all the paperwork is done!  Woohoo!  I just need to mail it.  But due to the horrible postal system here and a recent robbery, I think I'll wait until I get back to the USA to mail the papers to PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors).

What about a robbery, you ask?  Well, the post office got robbed!  And I got extremely lucky.  I originally tried to mail the papers on Tuesday.  The post office here doesn't sell envelopes, so I went to the stationary store.  I don't carry cash and the store didn't take credit cards, so I couldn't afford to buy the 40-cent envelope.  I decided to come back with cash the next day, which I did.  But after buying the envelope, I got to the post office and it was closed!  Closed on a Wednesday morning!  Strange, but not so strange here.

Defeated, I took the envelope back to the dive shop, since I was already going there to meet a dive buddy.  Once I got there, I heard the news--the post office was closed because someone had robbed it the night before!  The robber, who is believed to be a disgruntled former employee of the post office, took everything.  And by everything, I mean the money, the tills, the desks, the chairs, and the mail.  If I had mailed the paperwork yesterday, everything would be gone!

But Ashton, you say, couldn't you just fill out the paperwork again?  Nope!   The most important part of the paperwork is a super shiny special decal, which is difficult to replace.  The decal is part of the big pack of books all divemaster candidates are required to buy.  The book set costs between $200-$300, depending on where you buy it.  Each candidate needs their own decal, which prevents candidates from sharing books.  No decal, no divemaster certification.  I really got lucky!

So the moral of the story is: if you can avoid it, don't mail things to or from Bonaire.

Other than the post office robbery, nothing too exciting has been happening here.  I'm taking a fish identification class, which runs for two hours every Monday at the CIEE building (where I used to attend, remember?) and that's been educational.  I love fish!  I've also been doing a good amount of diving with various dive buddies, and going on shallow solo photo dives.  (Say that five times fast!)  Life is good, and I'm trying to make the most of my last two weeks here!

Speaking of photo dives, I've got more fish photos to share.  Enjoy!

Lantern bass.

Fireworm!

The makeshift hillbilly macro lens is working out great!

Look at that cute face.

They're so pretty!

What a cool shot!!!  Love love love my hillybilly macro lens!

It's practically glowing with the flash.

What a gorgeous face.

Bluehead wrasse.

Oooh, a shrimp!  (And my finger on the lens!)

It's a sun anemone shrimp!  They're mostly transparent.  (Not a great picture, but hey, you can make it out.)

This is a juvenile longfin damselfish!  So pretty!

Pretty babies!

This is one of my favorites.

Parrotfish time!  Did you know that parrotfish change their gender?  They start as females (juvenile and initial stage) and will transition into males (terminal stage) if none are around.  Aren't you glad humans don't do that?

This is a terminal stage (male) princess parrotfish.

This is a terminal stage (male) queen parrotfish.  Notice how the queen is bigger and the markings on the face are different.

The parrotfish looks like it has teeth, but it's actually one big fused beak.  It's a little scary.

It looks like teeth at first, but look closer and you'll see it's one big beaky thing.

This cutie is a baby puddingwife!

Even as an adult, this fish is really pretty.

This is the slippery dick.  I love that name!

Check out a close-up of the head...

And the gorgeous tail!

I can't believe people get excited about butterflies when the ocean is FULL of colorful things!

A little red fireworm.

This is some type of razorfish.  I think it's a rosy razorfish, but I'm not totally sure!

Sure is pretty though.

They tend to stay in the sand, which is unusual.

A little French angelfish!

I caught two slippery dicks engaged in battle--a kissing battle!  Lots of fish fight like this.  A lucky shot!

I'm also kinda glad that people don't fight like this.  That'd be unsanitary.

Bluehead!  They can be all blue or have yellow at the tail.

Another bluehead, with some juvenile parrotfish in the background.

It's an initial stage (female) princess parrotfish!

Aw, a squat anemone shrimp!

These guys are little butt-shakers.  They're always waving their bottoms around.

And those big alien-like white spots at the front are the eyes!

Update: This is a secretary blenny!  Thanks to the anonymous commenter who gave me the name! 

Christmas tree worm!

Have I mentioned yet how much I love my macro lens?  Look at the detail on the coral and the Christmas tree worm!

Oooooooh!

These guys are called sharpnose puffers.  They're approximately the size of my thumb (pretty small, I have baby hands) and they're very fast.

This is called a coney!  They've got bright blue spots and two big black spots on their lip.

See the black lip spots?  They've also got watermelon seed-shaped eyes.

A schoolmaster!

A harlequin bass!  This guy also has watermelon seed eyes.

Bluehead!

It's a jolthead porgy!

A blurry photo of a barred hamlet.

Just look at the eye.  Neat!

This photo is way bluer than it should be, but this was the best I could do.  It's a scrawled fishfish and I don't see them very often!

See that little thing sticking out of its head?  That means it's alarmed and I should back off.

That's all for today!  We've got a seahorse at my dive shop right now.  He's red, and we've named him Ricky after a certain British dive instructor who turns red in the sun.  I'll try to post photos of little Ricky soon!  :)

Cheers,

Ashton