Bari Reef and Alice in Wonderland (Bonaire Day 1)

We couldn't quite remember if we were meeting Benji at 8 or 8:30, so we were up and ready at 8, and then saw that his trailer doesn't "open" until 8:30. So we puttered around until 8:30, when Benji showed up. We chatted about our intentions for the week (a couple of tech dives at the Windjammer and Red Slave, and other than that, some "recreational" doubles diving until we got sick of the schlepping doubles). We went over to Bonaire Dive & Adventure to get our marine park passes, and then got an abbreviated (compared to what I remember from last time) briefing. Then we did our "checkout" dive out back. We did a long dive -- 140 minutes, I think.

Rob was shooting macro, so of course we saw a turtle. But there were plenty of cute little fishies too. We looked for the seahorse at its old residence, but couldn't find it. When we got out of the water, it was just in time to meet the car rental person who was dropping off our truck. Then we headed into town for lunch. We went to Papagayo, which is where the Lost Penguin used to be. I had a tasty pineapple, ham, and cheese toasted baguette. Rob got a giant fish sandwich. After a stop at Cultimara and a little resting in the room, we headed south to dive at Alice in Wonderland.

While setting up gear before leaving, I had a catastrophic flip flop failure, followed by a temper tantrum. We were going to stop in town for some flip flop shopping before the dive, but then realized we had no cash. So we just went diving. When we got to the site, Rob offered to walk me into the water and then get geared up since it was rubbly and slippery. I acted offended and then accepted his offer, which was a good idea. The second reef was further away than I remembered; it couldn't be seen until we left the first reef. But we quickly saw it. We stopped to visit the garden eels who were of course not interested in being photographed. We spent most of our deep time on the outer reef. It goes down deeper on the outside than I remembered. Then we headed back to the first reef and up it. We saw some eels on this dive. I was in search of blue shrimp on anemones, but those anemones are always hidden in cracks it seems.

We went to Casablanca for dinner. Rob was pleased to find that the mixed grill for two still comes with its own table.