Lester and I did a dawn dive on our last dive-day, just the two of us (very romantic), and saw a beautiful spotted moray eel, about 5-6 inches in diameter and 4 feet long, curling among the coral heads and holes hunting for food – it was so cool to watch and follow it down the reef to about 55 feet. Then we went back to look for the squid, but instead found an octopus in his den (hole in a rock)! He had apparently finished breakfast (garbage around his den), and probably wished we would just go away and let him sleep. But we hung around for about 10 minutes just watching, and as Lester circled one way around him and I another, his head would come up further out of the hole (above) and each of his eyes would be following one of us – so funny.

On one of our dives during the week I swam with a porcupine fish for about 20 yards (a really funky and cute fish with a very human-like face Lester calls ‘ET’).

Our last boat dive was to a site called Rappel – the most beautiful coral landscape I have seen so far, and my favorite. It is so-named because its discoverers had to throw in their gear from the top of a 50-foot cliff, then rappel down into the water (and then drift out to the next beach). The cliff continues down into the water for about another 12-15 feet, with shallow caves along the wall carved by the sea, then gently angles down and flattens somewhat at only about 25-30 feet. The coral formations are amazing – pinnacles and mounds and ridges of exquisite shapes and types. I am so looking forward to going back there.

Our very last dive of the trip was back off the dock at Buddy Reef – Mel showed us no less than four of the exotic and *very* odd-looking green and yellow frogfish, all of them moving so we could see their cute little fan-feet, and a seahorse, also gracefully swim-hopping from branch to branch. And then we returned to the octopus den again, and *I found* (no easy task) the now-sleeping creature again!, which I will call Rosie because in the daylight we can see that its color is a beautiful rose pink. I hope s/he is there when we return; what a great way to finish our Bonaire dives.

I am now comfortable with diving down deeper to see something, with using my breath control to float up and over a coral head and back down, and just hanging in the water, enjoying the view. I realized that so far, I seem to slightly enjoy the big picture more – the underwater landscape and the formations, while Lester enjoys the fish. But that may change! I also keep saying I don’t want to carry a camera to take pictures, but getting videos might be fun.

So now I am also ADVANCED Open Water certified (and ‘trained’ to 100 feet) – thanks to Mel and Ellie – woohoo!! Yes, I have discovered I love diving (credits to a very patient hubby and a really great instructor); and no, I don’t wish I had done it sooner – I was ready now!

PS – When we got home, Jim and Irena had left me a birthday present, wrapped in some old smiley face wrapping paper, and Irena, in true red-headed wild-woman fashion, had decorated it so aptly!!