Bonaire, the “B” in the Dutch Antilles group known as the ABC islands, is about 50 miles north of Venezuela. The diving here is among the absolute BEST in the Caribbean, with pristine reefs and wonderful visibility, as there are no rivers to muddy the waters and it is out of the hurricane belt. To keep it that way, the entire island’s ocean boundary is a protected marine park. In fact, the city in which we port today, Kralendijk (KRAW-len-dyke), actually means “coral reef.”
The salt pans reveal Bonaire’s geological history. At one time, much of the land was submerged. As the sea level dropped, saltwater pools were trapped in the low-lying valleys. When the waters dried up, the salt remained, and the earliest settlers harvested this essential commodity in the days before refrigeration, Today it’s Bonaire’s #1 export. White cone shapes are often seen along the distant horizon – these are the stockpiles created from the mining of the salt.
And the animal population far outnumbers the human population here – lizards, goats, mules, and several populations of indigenous bats. But the island is most famous for its native flamingo population. (See the salt mountains in the background?) Flamingoes thrive in the coastal wetlands – as many as 10,000 of the brilliant pink creatures are easiest to spot in the salt flats on the southern part of the island, early in the morning. The graceful (nervous) animals are fond of brine shrimp and fly larvae that thrive in the brackish ecosystem, mostly in the first half of the year.
Today I got together with a bunch of friends to go snorkeling see some of this incredible coral reef. That’s Ben, Heather, and Kelsey, sitting on the pier waiting for Mark, Darren, and Christine to join us.
From the western coast of the island, at the port of Kralendijk, we all piled into a minibus that took us to Lac Bay on the eastern coast, to a little beach called Sorobon. What we didn’t know until we got there was that the Wind & Surf Resort we were headed to was right next door to a naturalist resort! I had to be careful using my camera on the beach to avoid the naked kayakers and nude windsurfers.
This is the view from the beach! I’ve been in the Caribbean long enough now (10 months!) to be bored of blue water. But the water here is beyond blue --- it’s CLEAR! The sand is completely white, and settled. There are hardly any winds or riverways to stir up the sediment, so even when the water is waist-high, you can see straight through to your toes! Even the sky looks bluer next to this water! The dark spots you see out there are bushes of seagrass, and that winding gap through the middle is the beginning of the path that we take to get out to the coral reef.
It’s about a half-mile walk straight out to this raft on the edge of the coral reef. You can see how far we are from the beach. The water is shallow enough to walk the entire way, then you sit on the raft and put on your fins and your snorkel mask, lay down in the water and start paddling and exploring!
I am AMAZED at how many fish there are out here! They don’t seem to be bothered by us at all. Right here under the raft, right away, there are hundreds of thousands of these little silver fish, apparently feasting on the plankton that grows on the bottom of the raft. Unfortunately for them, there are also a couple of larger fish feasting on them!
There were so many things to take pictures of, my friend Ben completely missed this school of black and blue fish that swam right past his legs at just a slow, leisurely pace. 
The coral reefs harbor the plankton that the fish eat, so this place is really like a huge restaurant where all the world’s celebrity fish drop in for a bite! There’s so many different kinds, it’s a bit of sensory overload!
This coral was so cool swishing in the waves, but even cooler was what was hiding under it, in that dark crevice…
… this puffer fish! Look on his top-side, you can see all of his little spines laying down. We kept trying to scare him to get him to puff up, but he was content to just sit under the coral and stare back at us. 
I love the way this coral looks like it’s reaching out its arms to the heavens.
Ben called this a “trunkfish.” I saw three or four of them, always swimming by themselves. At first they sort of look like puffer fish, so I kept chasing them, but I never could get a good picture of one from the front…
This black angelfish looked huge from the side, but from the front it was thin as a pancake!
The edges and spots on these two fish are electric blue – it seems almost fictional! God is so creative!
A beautiful combination of pink with yellow edges.
All shades of blue with yellow triangles on the tails.
These fish are seriously RAINBOW colored! Check out the one coming out of the coral with blue lips and eyelids, red and orange face, and green body trimmed with yellow – God spilled the paint on this one!
A school of “Dorys” go looking for Nemo!
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