We spent two weeks on Bonaire in October 2003, staying in "the House" (Unit #10) at Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn.

Scroll down for photos.

Here are the "Good Guys" from this year's trip:

• Pascual was our "official" taxi driver for the duration. Took us to shore dive sites, responded to an emergency call at the supermarket when we bought too much to carry, took us to the airport to pick up Linda's folks, out to eat, etc. The few dollars spent with him was MUCH less expensive than renting a car.

• I violated the basic rule - SET IT UP AND TEST IT BEFORE YOU GO. I had a new housing and hadn't used the strobe with it. Tim Peters of Fish-Eye Photo went far and beyond what would be expected to help me get things going. When my strobe failed (first time in 20 years of UW photo - I bounced it on the tile floor on the on/off switch) he was there with a rental, so I didn't miss a dive! Paul at Light and Motion responded within a very few minutes to an international fax with a reply fax (also international) to correct an operator error with the Tetra housing! Not mentioned in either the Tetra manual or the Olympus manual is that the Olympus 3030 will ONLY operate an external strobe (like the Nikonos) in the MANUAL mode - I was trying to use shutter priority. This fax arrived after the morning boat dive on Friday, setting me up to use the strobe all weekend, which might not otherwise happened. Tim found out the issue with the MANUAL setting and Paul confirmed it, plus faxing two pages of Tetra tips from the Light and Motion web site. I should have printed them and taken them with me, but, thanks to Paul, I had them.

• Communications Systems Bonaire (Gabriel Saleh, Sales Manager), Kaya Grandi 34A, (phone 717-2828) came to our rescue by having his very efficient technician move photos from the camera cards to CD to free up storage space on the camera cards. The technician even stayed overtime to make the transfer, rather than having us come back two days later!

• Restaurants of note this trip:

• The Rendez-Vous has been purchased by two folks from Holland. While it has been remodeled, the fine food continues in a much more pleasant atmosphere. Their $20 three course dinner was satisfying and beautifully presented.

• A local watering hole on Kaya Abraham between the Carib Inn and downtown has been turned into an Argentinean grill, called Casablanca. They serve a "mixed grill for two" for $32 which left us with enough leftovers for several lunches.

• The Divi has remodeled the Calabas and only serves a buffet breakfast there. While the surroundings are nice, the service was poor, the food was mediocre and the price ($27 for two) was outrageous! I guess I just don't take well to having to elbow my way through three employees shooting the breeze in front of the cashier to pay that kind of money for breakfast!

We met many new friends there - most of them come to the Carib Inn once or twice a year! It really feels like home!

Underwater

Here are some of the best images from this trip. All were taken with an Olympus C-3030 digital camera in a Light & Motion Tetra 3030 housing. Most used a Nikonos SB105 strobe. Photos by Bruce, unless otherwise noted.

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Arrowhead crab	Banded Butterfly Fish	Orange Sponge on the Reef Slope	Brain Coral and Purple Tube Sponge
Bruce above an orange sponge Photo by Linda	Coral Banded Shrimp	Our Dive master, Linda, and sponge	French Angelfish
Orange Frogfish	Linda & Frogfish	Linda & Orange Sponge	Linda & Raining Fishes
Linda's Silhouette & sponge	Snowflake Moray Eel	Peacock Flounder	Pedersen Shrimp in Anemone
Linda gets a Manicure	Purple Tube Sponges	Seahorse - not a great photo but the only one this year!	Sponge designs
Goatfish make the reef fun		Salt Pier Night Dive Orange Cup Corals	Salt Pier Night Dive Flamingo Tongue
Salt Pier Night Dive Snowflake Moray Eel		Salt Pier Night Dive Red Crabs	Salt Pier Night Dive Brittle Stars, Crabs & Cup Coral
SURFACE PHOTOS
A boat moored near town pier	This old fort has guarded Kralendijk for YEARS!	Kralendijk waterfront	Divi Trees frame the sunset
Sunset from the Divi	Sailboat at sunset	Two boats at sunset	Sunset over the Divi pier
A change of planes in San Juan provides a chance for photos
El Moro fortress at the mouth of San Juan harbor	Rifle turret in El Moro	The view from the turret	Imposing walls
One of the windows in El Moro shows a sailboat entering the harbor	Gun emplacement at El Moro	Main Stairway El Moro