Bonaire Day 3: The Quest for the Yellow Rock

We decided to sleep a little bit late today but were awakened by the receptionist pounding on the door. Apparently there was an island-wide power outage and she wanted to make sure our emergency standby lights were working. Oh, you mean the one that's busted? Sure. Then we got a lecture about how we should turn off the air conditioning when we're not in the room. Whatever. We're paying for full a/c so after getting hot and sweaty down on the pier I want to come back to a sub-zero room.

We wanted to expand our diving horizons and dive a different reef today. Based on a recommendation from our newfound NY friends, we loaded up the dive gear in the truck and headed north to a site called Tolo. Unfortunately, the wind was coming from the south pretty strong and it had churned up the water to the point of white capping. I was not diving in that! At this point on the coastal road, it becomes one way and requires a drive completely around the island to return to town. By the time we returned, it was lunchtime so we stopped at the condo for a sammy and to come up with Plan B. We decided to head to a site called Windsock, aptly named because of its location at the end of the airport runway. I apparently did a little too much bragging about my navigational skills and what with all the Dutch road names and one way streets, we got lost. It didn't help that some jerk in a truck parked in front of the yellow rock designating the dive site. Finally we made it.

It was after 3 p.m. by the time we were suited up and in the water. Since this was an unfamiliar dive site, we stayed together, maxing out at about 50 feet.

Stoplight Parrotfish initial phase

Graysby

Four-eye Butterflyfish

Striped Parrotfish

Trumpetfish hiding

White-spotted Filefish orange phase

School of Blue Tang

Christmas Tree Worms on coral

Scorpionfish

Purple Tube Sponge

Trumpetfish

Threespot Damselfish Juvenile

Yellowtail Snapper with Brain Coral

Various fish in the shallows

By the time we finished diving, got back to the condo, and got cleaned up, it was time for dinner. We chose a small, Peruvian place called Plazita Limena. We started out with a pisco sour for Mike (a Peruvian specialty) and a sangria with fresh apple chips for me.

Mike ordered the spicy shrimp in a cream sauce with chilies.

I ordered the fish which came in the same sauce but also had shrimp, scallops, and mussels.

This meal ended up being our favorite meal of the trip even though it took about 30 minutes for them to fill our drink orders. We actually tried to go back again on the last night of our trip but the restaurant was closed for vacation.

After dinner, we wanted to try out the one and only casino on the island. It was only about as big as our house but we still managed to lose about $100 in 30 minutes. Oh well...at least the drinks were free.