Our new day of exploring Bonaire started off with Eira’s alarm waking us up at 6:30am. With excitement and exhaustion my roommates and I started the day with some complimentary breakfast at Buddy Dive. Knowing that we had a busy day of diving ahead of us we decided to fill up our plates with some fresh fruit, freshly baked croissants, and my favorite of all some crispy bacon.
After we finished eating breakfast, we ran up to our rooms to get our diving gear (i.e. our mask, fins, snorkel, BCD, and GoPros) and loaded up the vans with two tanks for each person and some extras just in case. We drove to the northwest side of the island to one of the most famous dive sites in Bonaire, “1000 steps.” Before getting our SCUBA gear ready, we all took a photo at the beginning of the steps as a way to commemorate this amazing dive.
The view was beautiful. We began descending the stairs and something wonderful occurred. We were greeted by a small Green Sea Turtle swimming towards the surface to get some fresh air. It was as if the universe or fate made everything else happened just so we could see this beautiful creature in its natural habitat.
For this dive, each buddy team had to survey the reef for a particular fish species. We observed numerous fish species such as the Porcupine fish, Sand Divers, Peacock Flounder, Honeycomb Cowfish, Bar Jacks, and many more. So many other creatures were observed such as a Batwing Coral Crab, Elkhorn Coral, Brain Coral, Gorgonians, and numerous more.
Once we finished our dive we had to get out of the water through a rocky and coral rubble filled beach. It was hard to get out as there were constant waves washing over us plus once we got out we had to climb up the stairs. Officially there are 71 steps but when you are getting out in full SCUBA gear with a tank on your back, you finally realize why they call it 1000 steps.
Next, we drove a little bit north of the previous dive site to another dive site, “Ol’Blue (Tolo).” We parked by the side of the road, took out our gear and began to assemble it. We started to get in the water and swam a little until a patch of sand was under us. Emily and I were buddies looking for the bluehead wrasse. We observed numerous fish species such as the Red Band Parrotfish, Spotted Drum, Spanish Hogfish, Dusky Damselfish, Spotted Goatfish, Schoolmaster, Bar Jacks, and many more. So many other creatures were observed such as a Banded Coral Shrimp, Staghorn Coral, Reef Urchin, Brain Coral, Gorgonians, and numerous more.
This was the last dive of the day allowing us to be free for the rest of the day. We had some time to shower, get changed, and study for our in-country quiz. My roommates and I went over our notes for the Coral Restoration Foundation meetings and our cave lectures. After the quiz we spent some time in our room catching up on our dive logs and dive tables.
Interested in exploring Bonaire or participating in another SPC Study Abroad program? Click here to learn more!