March 15, 2017
Tuesday morning was buzzing with excitement. It was our first official open water dive as certified divers off of the buddy dive grounds Once we arrived at our first destination, Wind Sock, everyone was looking forward to seeing some fish. Gearing up was a long and strenuous process. Since it was our first dive that we had to plan, we didn’t know what to expect. Our time in the water let us see a different aspect of life we’ve never seen before that close. Swimming in the deep, we saw different types of fish, from a parrot fish to a blue tang. Seeing schools of different fish and how they are all interacting with each other was amazing. Getting out of the water and putting our stuff away took some time. On our next dive adventure we went to a site called Alice in Wonderland. We got in the water and saw a beautiful reef. I saw a beautiful school of bar jack fish. It is interesting to enter a world where you don’t live; seeing all the living creatures interacting with each other is a very cool experience. The next morning we drove to a site named oil slick. I was a little nervous to get in to the water this time. You had a choice between doing the Giants tried over a rock Cliff, or walking down a steep ladder into the water. Once I was in the water I calm down and was looking forward to seeing the sea life. I enjoyed this dive because it showed a different part of the island. We went straight to the next dive at Toto. While waiting to send, my dive buddy and I saw a barracuda looking around the top of the reef. This by far has been my favorite dive. There were so many schools of fish swimming all around us. The fish didn’t even bother to notice us. They swim around us, above us, and under us. It was a good experience. One that I will never forget.
Later that night we went to a presentation on the history of the salt trade and slavery on Bonaire. It was a very interesting talk. The presenter was very passionate about his research, which made it even better. He was an archaeologist from Holland who works at the local museum in Bonaire, and he brought artifacts that have been found near the old slave huts where the slaves slept when they were working the salt pans. And I found his artifacts very interesting to see a part of actual history.
After those first few days of scuba diving, we figured out how exhausting it is, but how it is so worth it.
P.S. Connectivity for downloading photos has been challenging for the group, so you will just have to wait until the Bonaire ECS to see all their amazing photos!
