This guy just looked right at me.
©Jean Janssen

We have to stay out of the water for 24 hours after completing our final dive before we fly, so this is our last day of diving.  Two wonderful dives today to 18 Palms and Country Garden.  It was sprinkling when we arrived at the pier.  We are in a smaller boat today, no cover over the gear.  Just about the time we boarded the boat and were putting our gear together, it started raining really hard.  It is not like we are not going to get wet, but at this point we are wearing our dry clothes, the ones we use after the dive to warm up.

posing scorpionfish
©Jean Janssen

18 Palms is on the south side of the island, near the airport.  It is a great site for seeing rays, although we didn’t spot one.  I saw several scorpionfish including one that seem to want to pose for me, very unusual.  Lots of schools of fish at this site and some wonderful coral.  The sky cleared just as we arrived at the dive site.

wonderful purple color at the tips
©Jean Janssen

Our next site was Country Garden at the north end of the island.  Longer boat ride for this one.  The sea was rocking and rolling on this end of the island, which made our entry and exit challenging.  Another turtle for my final dive and I saw wonderful schools of fish, very representative of Bonaire  diving.  A large school of blue tangs swam right through me at one point.

blue tangs in a variety of shades
©Jean Janssen

There were lots of nudibranch and something that looked like a daddy long-legs which may have been a brittle star.

After we got out, the sky was very clear and we had to deal with one of the other problems with having a smaller boat with   no cover- too much sun.  My “dry” clothes were wet from the earlier rain, but I got sunburned from the exposure after the dive, a no win situation.  It was a bad burn and gave me an excuse to go back to the grocery store in the afternoon.

A full size basket only if you rent it
©Jean Janssen

We cleaned our gear first and the soaked a few of the items in “sink the stink” before drying and packing everything for home.  We have tomorrow to let things fully dry out.  I went to the market for water and aloe vera for my skin.  I found out you can get one of the full size grocery carts by inserting money, which is returned at the end.  Apparently, people have now started to take the basket carts.  I saw Housekeeping  removing a basket cart from one of the rooms at our resort.

©Jean Janssen

There are always special treats to be had at the Dutch supermarket.  I skipped the disco sticks.  (I just couldn’t buy them after that Lady Gaga song).  We winged it on the ice cream (deciding by picture only) and got one with pears and nuts that was wonderful.  Let me recommend Peren Droomijs, perensorbet & slagroomijs, met karamelsaus & stukjes amandel by Hertog.  Bet you couldn’t figure it out without the picture either.

We ended the day on our porch enjoying the purple sunset and eating up the food we had bought or brought from home.  Only one more day in paradise.