diving in the Dutch Caribbean

In October we went to Bonaire--one of the islands in the Dutch Caribbean--for a week of diving with our friends Clint and Arin. None of us had been there before, but it is a dive destination with some of the most intact coral reef habitat in the Caribbean. The whole tourist industry is also set up for divers. Most people fly to the island on Saturday, dive for six days, and fly out the following Sunday. The rental car companies almost exclusively rent extended cab trucks (mostly the Toyota Hilux - one of Pete's favorite trucks in the world) for transporting wet dive gear around the island. All of the dive sites are marked with yellow rocks, and the dive stores sell packages for six days of unlimited air fills. Many of the dive shops have multiple locations so you can swap tanks easily without having to go back into the center of town, Kralendiyk. 

most of the dive sites were marked
by these yellow rocks

Bonaire lies about 50 miles due north of Venezuela. The island has been inhabited since around 1000 AD first by Arawak Indians from Venezuela and later by the Spanish, Dutch, and British. The official language is Dutch, but most people on the island speak Papiamentu, an interesting mix of Arawak, Spanish, and Portuguese. When the Dutch conquered the island in the 1600s, the Dutch West India Company established a post on the island, starting a long history of slavery in Bonaire. The slaves were mainly used in the salt works and to grow food crops. The slaves were freed in the mid-1800s, but there are still reminders of that history on the island, including the slave huts. The huts are tiny - about 6 x 8 feet in area and just over 4 feet in height so you cannot stand upright inside the hut. There would be twelve to fifteen people assigned to a single hut, making anything but standing or sitting impossible. 

slave huts at Red Slave

The salt works is still in production but uses a conveyor belt to deliver salt to ships rather than slaves. The salt piles and condensing ponds are impressive, colorful sites to see. There are four triangular obelisks on the leeward side of the island in different colors - orange, white, blue, and red - the colors of the Dutch flag. These colors signified to sailors where they should anchor for different grades of salt. The salt condenser ponds cover a large swath of the southern third of the island, but they also support a population of Caribbean flamingoes. 

piles of salt ready to be loaded onto ships

conveyor belt that takes the salt across
the road and to the ships

blue salt obelisk and a ship being loaded with salt

orange salt obelisk

The diving was fantastic. And SO easy. We did sixteen dives in six days and for most of them we were underwater for over an hour. The water was clear and warm (mid-80s), and we felt free as birds in our tropical dive gear. Pete and I do most of our diving for work and in ocean water between 42 and 55 degrees. I wear a drysuit for most of my dives these days with about 20 pounds of weight, and the only exposed skin on my body is around my mouth. We also tend to dive in places where seeing the hand in front of your face can be a challenge. In Bonaire, we would put on our shorty wetsuit, add 8 pounds of weight, and walk into the crystal clear water. It was magical and reminded me of how much I love being underwater.  

The reefs were in quite good shape for the Caribbean, and there was a lot more soft coral than I anticipated. There were a lot of fish too, making for some very colorful dives. Most of the sites were a single reef system that started in about 20 feet and ended in 110-130 feet of water. There was one site that had a double reef - the first ended in about 90 feet of water and then we swam across a sand flat to another reef that dropped off deeper than we wanted to go. In the north of the island, there were some spur and groove reefs that were really different. We swam down the reef face and then as we swam perpendicular to shore, it was kind of like going up and down hills, except it was reef intercepted by sand channels. We saw some critters on that dive that we hadn't seen to the south. We also took a day to do a couple of boat dives on the windward (eastern) side of the island. This was our best chance to see big pelagics, like sharks and rays. We didn't see any sharks, but did spot a couple eagle rays and a remora followed us the whole dive looking for a buddy. There was no shortage of turtles...see saw about a gazillion green sea turtles. One of the sites we dove is one of three places in the world where green sea turtles sleep. Who knew?! At one point on that dive, I counted 18 sea turtles in my field of view. My camera also flooded on that dive, so no photos. At least it was the last day of diving...?

Here are some examples of the coral, hard and soft varieties.

two different kinds of brain coral

star coral

pillar coral

whip coral on a deep reef wall

soft coral galore - sea rods & sea plumes

and more soft coral!

solitary disk coral

The sponges were amazing! They were everywhere, seemingly taking over the coral in some cases, and came in every shape and color.

azure vase sponge

 chimney sponge

stove-pipe sponge

branching vase sponge

 orange elephant ear sponge (with grouper)

elephant ear sponge

 vase sponge

 red encrusting sponge

 tube sponge with cup corals

encrusting sponges unite!

There were quite a few critters that were less obvious than the sponges and coral. What do you see here?

From top to bottom - peacock flounder, spotted scorpionfish (not for touching!), and the common octopus. Pete managed to spot a clingfish on one of our dives, but the photo is not great. These tiny fish - about an inch in length - live inside the fire coral. Touching any coral can kill it, but you especially do not want to touch fire coral because it has stinging cells on it's surface that make your skin feel like it is burning, hence it's name. It feels like stinging nettle but stronger. We were very careful to not brush the fire coral while searching for the little fish.

There were loads of obvious critters too. Our favorite by far and away were the two manta rays that cruised by us on two separate dives. The squid and cuttlefish were pretty neat too. 

The lionfish is an invasive...Pete and Clint had lionfish burgers.

club anemone

conger eels in the sand flats

moray eel (at least six feet long!)

Pete with his favorites, the goat fish

Caribbean reef squid

green sea turtle

trumpetfish colored to match and staying very
close to it's friend, the spanish hogfish

lots and lots of brown chromis

lizard fish

banded coral shrimp

cuttlefish

green bristle worm

feather worms on brain coral

the lovely manta ray with two remora hitchhikers

When you breathe air out of a bottle while scuba diving, nitrogen gas accumulates in your body tissue. If you ascend to the surface too quickly, or say, fly to 30,000 feet soon after diving, you risk the nitrogen gas forming bubbles and causing decompression sickness, or "the bends." That would be bad, so nearly all divers wait at least 24 hours from their last dive before getting on a plane. We followed this protocol, which meant we had a land day in Bonaire. There are not a lot of attractions on land because the island is a desert. But the lack of vegetation allows you to see the history of the island up close and personal. 

The island rose out of the sea as a result of underwater volcanoes around 120 million years ago. Over time, the island has been steadily pushed upwards by the same volcanic activity and coral that was underwater soon finds itself on dry land. As a result, the geology of the island is layer upon layer of fossilized coral reef. These two distinct fossilized coral layers here are from around one million (top, darker layer) and 200,000 years ago (bottom, lighter layer), respectively.  

shell fossils

light keepers house built on the old reef

dead coral has many uses on
the island, including this walkway
at Slagbaai National Park.

Because the island is made of old coral reefs, the interior is porous and can be eroded by water that seeps through the surface. That means caves! The caves are not advertised at all, but our host pointed us in the general direction of a couple. It is a little amazing we found them at all because the directions were a bit like this: "park on the side of the road by the white house with the blue roof and find the goat trail. Walk down and wind around and there will be a hole in the ground and a ladder going down." One of the caves had big pools of water so we could swim to different parts of the cave. The caves don't get a lot of traffic so the stalactites and stalagmites were intact and beautiful.  

There are a few charismatic land critters. Land iguanas were common in the northern parts of the island where the climate is a bit dryer. Unfortunately, people feed them and they have become pests in some places. 

Beggars at the feast! If you look closely, there
are five blue whiptail lizards and one iguana
(two more iguanas behind me) waiting for us
to give them food. When we did not oblige they
become more insistent - one even ran up my back!

A bit of an oddity on the island are the free-roaming donkeys. They were used during slave times to move good to ships and grow crops. When the slave trade ended, no one wanted to care for the donkeys so they were turned loose to fend for themselves. That didn't work out too well for most of the donkeys, so a donkey sanctuary was established on the island. We didn't visit the sanctuary, but did get to see a few of the "wild" donkeys roaming the island.

free-range donkey

All in all, a great trip with good people. Thank you, Bonaire, for rekindling my love of being underwater!

Villages along the Canal du Midi

The towns along the Canal du Midi are mainly small, quiet villages that sprung up after the canal was constructed. Others located near the canal have been there for thousands of years. Here are a few of our favorites.

Béziers, the southwestern-most point we ventured to on the canal, was settled around 575 BC. Like many towns built by the Romans, the old part of the city sits on a hill, providing the best defense against intruders. We rode our bikes the few miles from the canal to the old town to see the sites.

the central square in Béziers (they have a summer bull fighting festival)

colorful street covering through the old town

Our farthest venture from the canal was an hour away by bicycle to the medieval town of Minerve. Minerve was named one of the loveliest medieval towns in France, so we had to check it out. The town sits at the top of a gorge, which made for a very warm, uphill bike ride, but it was worth it. The stone streets, buildings, and walls, and the arched stone bridge over the gorge were beautiful and harkened back to a different time. Like many of the old cities were visited, there were dark days in this town’s history. In the 1200s the town was sieged because numerous Cathars, who were deemed a rogue group of Christians, had taken refuge in the town (they fled Béziers during a similar siege). A trebuchet sits across the gorge from the town as a reminder of their history.

 bridge across the gorge leading to Minerve
(only residents are allowed to drive across)

town hall

walls of the city above the gorge

Our most anticipated medieval village came near the end of our trip - Caracassonne. This was a long awaited destination for the history, as well as the opportunity to check off Pete’s main travel goal by purchasing the board game Carcassonne in Carcassonne. Sadly, all the shops were sold out and the game maker had stopped printing the original version. We did have the digital version of the game, so we did get to play Carcassonne in Carcassonne but Pete was disappointed. We had a very sad story to tell our local game shop when we returned home.

The fortified part of Carcassonne was built by the Romans around 100 BC, but the area has been occupied since Neolithic times, around 3500 BC. The fortress was really impressive and the defense structures were interesting to learn about. Barbicans, murder holes, and hoardings, oh my! We got to see the city at night and during the day, which provided us really different views of the city. We also got to walk the fortress walls. Much of the city was restored in the mid-1800s, but there were parts of the original Roman walls that we could see from the new walls.

the fortified city of Carcassonne

one of the entrances to the city

 Roman tower along the wall. The towers were mainly used
as defensive posts, but one was also used as a torture
chamber during the Catholic Inquisition in the
1200s to rid France of heretics, mainly the Cathars. 

To get into the inner city (the keep), you had to get through two more
walls. If intruders got through this first rounded wall, they found
themselves in the barbican, an open space that would soon be filled
with arrows flying from the archers's posts surrounding the area. 

If the intruders made it through the barbican, they had to cross this bridge
(originally a drawbridge) to breach the final wall of the inner city. Upon 
breaking down the door, intruders would find themselves at the mercy of
whatever defenders threw down the murder hole (a hole on the second story
that opened just after the door opening) - usually spikes, and rocks.

The wooden structures between towers are called hoardings and could be
put in place quickly if the city came under attack. The outside of the
hoardings would sometimes be covered with animal furs that had been
soaked in water so flaming arrows could not start the hoardings on fire.

Stone cannon ball used to protect the outer walls

Pete practicing his archer's stance

Roman tower along the wall. These Roman towers are distinctive
because of the red brick, roof shape, and terra cotta roof tiles.

The roof tiles from the more modern towers were made of slate.

The church within the walls was interesting because it was a mix of
Roman and Gothic styles. The blocky, unadorned section on the left in
this photo is the remnant of the Roman church and the ornate tower on
the right side of the photo is the Gothic flare. The light in the two
sections of the church were really different...much darker in the
Roman section where there were few windows.

We tended to tie up for the night outside towns where it was quieter and we had more of a space to ourselves. Occasionally, though, we needed to recharge the water tank and the batteries of our electronics so we stayed in towns along the canal a couple of times. The places we landed were really lovely. One of the towns was Le Somail. This town had an antique bookstore that was really fun to browse around, as well as a floating market/bakery on the canal where you could reserve your baguettes the night before (we should have done that - they sold out fast).

Pete browsing inside the antique bookshop

preorder box for bread at the floating market

floating market boat

In Ventenac en Minervois, we found a particularly picturesque place to tie up for a short stopover and visited our first wine cave, or tasting room. The Minervois region is known for rosé wines, which were great in the hot weather. The wine caves sell bottles of wine, but they also sell wine in bulk...for stupidly low prices. We paid €1.50 per liter for totally decent wine, which is nearly the price of water. And they dispensed it with a gas pump nozzle.

Le Moissaigaise looking lovely

the wine cave and wine museum

dispensing our jug of rosé

We stumbled upon a couple of town festivities during our trip. Columbiers was the site of the first one. We parked the boat about a mile from town, which seemed farther away than boats were tied up the previous day. We soon learned why; they had emptied the harbor of all boats for the poem reading-opera singing-piano playing-fireworks and light show that was scheduled for the evening. It sounded like a combination of things too good to miss!

Columbiers before the festival...

...and during!

Our second festival encounter was in Villesequelande. When we tied up and biked toward the small town, we expected to find a sleepy little village. Instead, we were greeted by a medieval fair, complete with villagers in costumes, archery practice, medieval crafts, and beer in souvenir cups.

a plethora of jester slippers

medieval costume photo booth

bar tender in full garb

We also managed to hit market day in many towns along the way. The markets were great...both from a provisioning standpoint and as a way to see the local culture. In Carcassonne, for example, market day was on Saturday and as soon as the market opened, people from the town were streaming in from every direction. The markets were also well stocked in most places with fruits and vegetables, bread of every variety, cheese, olives, cured meats, nuts...what more could we want?!

snails

so much delicious cheese!

bags of fresh spices

produce galore

bread of all shapes and sizes

sausages for days...

our typical post-market lunch

This wraps up our travels in France. Stay tuned for more travel adventures...

solidarity at the beach

I wasn't able to participate in any of the marches yesterday, but i did get my heaping dose of hope and optimism by spending part of the day with my aquarium kiddos. Yesterday we joined the Return of the Natives group (https://csumb.edu/ron) to plant native vegetation on sand dunes in Monterey. We have done a number of revegetation efforts with Return of the Natives over the years, but this was our first dune planting. So fun! Our group of forty students, five teen leaders, and seven adults helped plant over 500 plants yesterday! We also had amazingly big waves and live music to keep us entertained. And no rain. A great day!

learning proper planting techniques

big waves in the background - no lower
dune plantings for today...

the planting crew. All the black dots are new plants!

we put a windbreak made of straw in front
of all the new plants so they wouldn't get
blasted during the storm this weekend.

our live entertainment
(see this post for our entertainment at the last planting)

the gulls were opting for walls instead of the tumultuous beach

racing and art in Monterey

We went to Monterey today for two very different purposes. The first: Pete's coworker invited him to ride along during a track day at Laguna Seca Raceway. Pete had been to the raceway for motorcycle races but had not been on the track itself. The Raceway opens the track for racing enthusiasts multiple times a year and Pete's coworker has been going for many years. We arrived just after 9 am and after signing a passenger waiver, they were onto the track at 9:20 for twenty minutes of racing around the 2+ mile track. As a bystander it was difficult to tell how fast they were going, but Pete assures me they were going very fast. Controlled fast. 

getting ready to enter the track

coming down the straightaway

Our second stop for the day was at the relatively new collection of Salvador Dalí works at the Museum of Monterey. Dalí lived on the Monterey Peninsula in the 1940s and was a huge presence in the local art scene. The museum holds the only Dalí collection on the U.S. West Coast and it is the largest Dalí collection in the U.S. We didn't know what to expect, but we were blown away by the extent of the collection and the breadth of Dalí's art. Many of the works on display were collections from books he illustrated or illustrations of people's work as a celebration of their accomplishments. There is a really interesting collection based on Dante's Inferno, as well as another collection based on plays written by the Marquis de Sade. The "typical" Dalí surrealist paintings were certainly part of the museum's collection, but there were many of his earlier works that came before he made his name as a surrealist painter. If you are in the Monterey area, you should definitely visit. Here are a few photos of the paintings to give you a sense of the diversity of the collection.

Biblia Sacra - an early collection of paintings
based on stories from the bible

100 prints from the Divine Comedy,
based on Dante's Inferno

minotaur sculpture accompanying the Divine Comedy prints

from Les Songes Drolatiques de Pantagruel

 this one is in the "Ten Recipes for Immortality" collection.
The accompanying text described how to obtain
immortality by eating a squirrel. So simple! 

"The Sistine Madonna." This one was created in part by Dalí shooting ink from a gun at a piece of limestone.

Go check it out!