Bonaire Day 7: The Life Aquatic with Mike Zissou

This was to be our last day of diving. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like diving first thing in the morning so Mike decided to do a solo dive while I snorkeled. Mike slowly descended down to 135 feet in search of the garden eels he'd seen earlier in the week. He found a field of them. Garden eels are small, snakelike creatures that live in the sand. They poke their heads out, swaying in the current to catch food. They are also pretty skittish so whenever he'd get close enough to take a picture, they would disappear into their holes.

Also on the ocean floor, he ran into this blue male Sergeant Major who was most likely guarding a nest of eggs in this tire. He kept attacking Mike and followed him for a long time. He wanted Mike to know that tire was HIS house.

Here are some other general pictures from the bottom of the reef.

Schoolmaster

Purple tube sponge

Trumpetfish

Hawksbill turtle

Banded butterflyfish

Honeycomb cowfish

After the appropriate surface interval, I joined Mike for the very last dive of the trip.

He wanted to go deep again so he descended down to 137 feet while I stayed above at 35 feet. He didn't stay down that far very long because he'd already done a deep dive earlier. After a few minutes in the deep, he ascended and joined me to finish out the dive.

Graysby

Rock beauty

Blackbar soldierfish

Blue tang

French angelfish

Stoplight parrotfish

Foureye butterflyfish

Honeycomb cowfish

Spotted moray eel

After diving, we drove into town to hit the ATM and do a little shopping before dinner.

Cadushy was one of the items we bought to bring back with us. It's a liquer made in Rincon from lime and cactus. It's really nice to sip cold or it can be mixed to make martinis, margaritas, etc.

For dinner we chose a sidewalk table at a restaurant called Mona Lisa. Though famous for their steaks, Mike opted for the wahoo remoulade and I chose the dog snapper in the same remoulade sauce. We also ordered a bottle of pinot grigio.

For the first time on the trip, we actually ordered dessert--a mango cheesecake with almonds and blackberry sorbet.

We ended the evening with drinks and a Cuban cigar (for Mike) at a small bar around the corner called Little Havana.