Growing coral

I mentioned earlier how the coral is growing, but not as colorful as thirty + years ago. Here are a series of primarily coral pictures, just to show what is going on under the waves.

Butterflies

Earlier, I promised some pictures of the butterflies. It is a small area to view, but very nice if you like butterflies (we do).

Bonaire - north side

Bonaire is shaped like a boomerang with the outer edge pointing northeast (to the open Carribean and Atlantic) and the inner edge pointing to adjacent Venezuala. Soo ... you snorkel on the inner, leeward side, and - not so much - on the northern side.

Bonaire's south side

Bonaire has one of the world's most unusual sights: a Cargil "farm" for sea salt. They have taken about 20% of the southern tip of Bonaire and made what look like rice paddies except the flat areas just have sea water in them. As the water evaporates, what is left is salt, which is piled into hills of the white stuff, and loaded onto ships docking at the end of a humongous conveyor belt. Other "southern" sights include the town, a mangrove swamp, a butterfly sanctuary (pics on that in a separate blog), and flamingos.

Schools of fish

Not all fish swim alone - in fact, schools and congregation abound. The blue tangs are interesting - pale blue if the sun shines on them, deep black if the sun is behind them.