Our visit to Bonaire in October 2015 was a great opportunity for 22 easy dives exploring the fringing coral reef.

Each day we were granted a few fantastic surprises... graceful spotted eagle rays, relaxed sea turtles, grumpy frogfish, curious squid, hungry eels.

Some creatures were only easy to spot with close inspection, but once you knew what to look for, they seemed to turn up everywhere!

After a great trip in 2015, we decided it was time to head back to Bonaire. For our second visit in July 2019, we stayed at the Divi Flamingo Dive Resort and were rewarded with an abundance of variety including two encounters with Caribbean Reef Squid, one octopus hanging out at the dock, porcupine fish and trunk fish and a variety of eels. We went for a morning dive with East Coast Diving to check out Turtle City, which was chock full of turtles as advertised. With a short 4 minute ride through the surf, it was well worth the extra effort to go out and see what I estimate was at least 30 green sea turtles in one morning.

We visited Palau in February of 2015 on the beautiful Palau Siren. The famous Blue Corner did not disappoint, with squadrons of 50 or more sharks gliding through the ever-present current. At German Channel, the manta rays graced us with several fly-bys.

We embarked on a 7 day trip aboard the Spirit of Freedom in the fall of 2013. Sailing from Cairns to Lizard Island in the Coral Sea we explored the Ribbon Reefs and returned by way of Osprey Reef and Cod Hole. GBR was fantastically diverse with colorful bommies, reefs and walls.

Underwater photography.

Had a lovely time visiting the sharks of Isla del Cocos on the Undersea Hunter for Christmas 2015.

The weather was good albeit the water was unseasonably warm due to El Niño which unfortunately drove the illustrious Hammerheads to deeper waters. Surprisingly, we encountered quite a few massive Tiger Sharks, plus some Galapagos Sharks and Blacktips, along with what seemed like an few thousand white tip sharks. Like the white tips, there was a healthy moray eel presence too.

We were fortunate to have an amazing encounter with a school of spotted eagle rays who circled around us several times on what was the best single dive of my life. In addition to the marine life, the scenery was dramatic and beautiful but very different from the typical coral reef.