The Official Trippingpara’s ‘Vision’ary Southern Caribbean Cruise Review

[retiredgram]

Really enjoying your review.  Photos are great.  Keep it coming. Love your story telling commentary.

 

[Sendez1]

Thank you for great info. I’ll be doing that cruise later this year so I will read everything a little at a time. 
thank you!

[Merion_Mom]

On 3/29/2023 at 5:13 PM, trippingpara said:

 

Yes, that furry lump on the tree branch is a sloth...

 

 

 

 

I LOVE SLOTHS.  (that is all)

[JamesEM]

Enjoying your review, photos and commentary.

[trippingpara]

12 hours ago, retiredgram said:

Really enjoying your review.  Photos are great.  Keep it coming. Love your story telling commentary.

 

Thank you so much!  I'll have some more coming up soon.

[trippingpara]

11 hours ago, Sendez1 said:

Thank you for great info. I’ll be doing that cruise later this year so I will read everything a little at a time. 
thank you!

You are very welcome.  Don't hesitate to ask any questions that you may have.  This is a great itinerary, you'll love it!

[trippingpara]

9 hours ago, JamesEM said:

Enjoying your review, photos and commentary.

Thank you very much, I appreciate it!

[trippingpara]

Time Log:

Sunday, 05 March  

Oranjestad, Aruba

 

As I slowly opened my eyes, I glanced around the darkened room.  I could see light creeping in around the blackout curtain on the balcony.  That kooky thing called the Sun was clearly out and about strutting her stuff.  I gently rolled over to see Lady Trip still sleeping next to me.  She was starting to stir slightly but the grip of sleep still held her.  I pressed the light button on my watch. 

 

0900 (that’s 9:00 am for you civilians out there). 

 

Hmm…why didn’t the Evil Rooster from Hell start squawking at me yet?  Did I accidentally murder the poor guy in my sleep?  I know that I can sometimes be bad and smack the little guy around when he starts cawing in the morning.  But I never meant to hurt him.  Panic started to rise in my lone brain cell.  Please God let him be okay…

 

I rolled back over to face the little bedside table and gently lifted Mr. Rooster up and to my relief he brightly came to life.  Whew!  But why didn’t he wake me up?  Is he mad at me?  As I was trying to get my sleepy fingers to work my way to my alarm app, it slowly dawned on me that today was Aruba day.  And a very late docking.  There was no need for a rude alarm wake up.  We were on vacation and entitled to a little extra sleep for once.  Hmm…imagine that!

 

This was something that both CarnieAddict and I missed when we booked this cruise.  We would not arrive into Aruba until evening time.  Okay, who does that??  Why tease us with the beauty of Aruba but only let us out to explore in the evening…on a Sunday!  When most businesses were closed!  That’s just rude!!  CarnieAddict and I are the trip planners in our family.  Our wives, God bless their souls, are the kind of travelers that just like to show up and be told where and when to do things.  Mr. Carnie and I are the complete opposite.  We’re pretty fanatical planners and researchers so we were pretty dumbfounded that we both missed this little fact about our itinerary.

 

Well, there wasn’t much we could do about it now.  As I now sat on the edge of the bed mindlessly caressing Mr. Evil Rooster and trying to contemplate the mystery of our late arrival and how we missed our late arrival time, Lady Trip stretched and declared that she too, was now awake.  She is such a beautiful soul and doesn’t carry any of the complex baggage that goes around in my head.  She gently rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, looked over at me and said, “what’s crack-a-lackin babycakes?”

 

I ask myself daily how did I get so lucky?!  I decided to give up on the mysteries that were plaquing me and opted to just live in the moment and forgo the nonsense rattling around my brain cell.  We quickly did our morning routine and headed up to the Windjammer for breakfast.  We definitely preferred the ease and quickness of the buffet for breakfast.  We had seen quite a few reviews stating that the Windjammer was not set up well and often got crowded and difficult to get around.  Yes, it could get crowded during the prime meal time but I never found it difficult to move around or to quickly get my choice of food.  Finding a table during the main rush was sometimes tricky (we always found one, it just sometimes took some hunting around).  

 

But my only real compliant about the layout was those bloody plant stands and glass half wall that separated the buffet stations and a row of tables along both the port and starboard side.  There were about 15 tables, mostly 2 person tables that were in this area and the plant stands and glass wall forced you to walk all the way past the buffet station and cut through some other tables to be able to enter this row.  I wished that the glass half wall wasn’t there, just the plant stands that would enable you to just cut in-between them to get from the tables to the buffet and vice versa.  At the end of the day, it was just an annoyance, not a real problem.

 

After breakfast we went down to our room and changed into our bathing suits.  It was time to hit the pool.  One of the things that I really liked about the Vision was its large pool.  It was one of the biggest that I have seen on our cruises.  Of course, it is nowhere even remotely close to what will be on the Icon but it was very large for such a small ship.  We played around for quite a while in the pool and enjoying watching the morning session of Zumba lead by Mey (“hey Mey!”), the cruise director.

 

Once we became identical twins to prunes, we decided to climb out, head back to our cabin, clean up and meet the Carnies for lunch in the Windjammer.  We spent the afternoon sitting in the Windjammer enjoying each other’s company and ended up closing the joint down.  That’s a first for us!  We then went back to our cabin to change into our evening clothes for our sunset cruise in Aruba.

  

 

 

Once again we opted to take one of the ship’s excursion (there weren’t too many to pick from since it was an evening only port call.  We had to meet again in the Masquerade Theater and were pretty quickly processed and let off the ship, to wait for our tour guide.  And we waited…and waited…the crowd started to get pretty angry especially as other excursion groups left one by one, even those that left the ship after us. 

 

I have no idea what this excursion was, but it did look fun!

 

Eventually our tour guide said “let’s go!” and we walked over to our boat that was docked about a block away.

 

  

It very quickly became apparent that the boat tour was oversold.  We stood in line waiting to board watching all of the seats be taken.  We were able to find the last 4 seats together and were right under the captain’s helm station with obstructed views.  Not the best place.  But at least we had seats quite a few couples and groups did not have any seats.  There was a lot of grumbling going on amongst the passengers as we felt like we were crammed onboard.

 

However, once we pulled away from the dock and were able to raise the sails, they opened up the front of the catamaran which spread the crowd out a bit.  It was still quite crowded but at least everyone had some elbow room to move around.  As soon as the free bar opened, the grumbling completely ceased.  Free booze does tend to do that to an angry mob!

 

Yep, I had to take a Coast Guard photo!

 

One of my favorite things, putting that throttle down!

 

 

 

 

The boat did a couple lazy oval tracks just offshore as the sun set about an hour later.  Once the sun had dropped below the horizon, we turned and made our way back to the dock.  Overall, the excursion was about 2 hours long and everyone made the best of it.  Some peeps just sat around and enjoyed the ride while others mixed and mingled and enjoyed the party atmosphere.  I think next time, we’ll go on the ketch sailboat that was docked next to us, (Monforte) as it was bigger with less passengers onboard.

 

 

 

When we made it back to the dock, Lady Trip and I headed into town to see if we could find a nice place to grab a late dinner and to try and find our requisite shot glass (we have one from every place we vacation). 

 

 

 

After a few blocks, we were able to find SharQy’s which looked to be a laid-back island beach style of bar/restaurant.  In other words, just our kind of place!  We both opted to try some local food (another thing we always try to do and really miss from Carnival – their MDR always has a couple local dishes on the menu from that day’s port).

 

 

I had the Keshi Yena with a Balashi beer and Lady Trip had the Dushi dushi Pika quesadilla with a Balashi Mango beer.  It was all quite delicious!!  We then made our way to a couple shops, got our shot glass and headed back to the ship to call it a night.

 

 

Please note all photos with the exception of the first 3 were taken with my phone so I do apologize for the graininess (noise) of the photos.

 

Next up: Bonaire!!

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, trippingpara said:

Once again we opted to take one of the ship’s excursion (there weren’t too many to pick from since it was an evening only port call.  We had to meet again in the Masquerade Theater and were pretty quickly processed and let off the ship, to wait for our tour guide.  And we waited…and waited…the crowd started to get pretty angry especially as other excursion groups left one by one, even those that left the ship after us. 

 

I have no idea what this excursion was, but it did look fun!

 

It is fun! Kukoo Kunuku Bus tour and bar hop. :https://www.kukookunuku.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwrJ-hBhB7EiwAuyBVXb6gJuZZZnMz2bDXDRWYAoRjXz8m85FfPGuIrurAtopB2Pcuul3w2RoCi7MQAvD_BwE

Edited April 1, 2023 by Coralc

[trippingpara]

2 hours ago, Coralc said:

It is fun! Kukoo Kunuku Bus tour and bar hop. :https://www.kukookunuku.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwrJ-hBhB7EiwAuyBVXb6gJuZZZnMz2bDXDRWYAoRjXz8m85FfPGuIrurAtopB2Pcuul3w2RoCi7MQAvD_BwE

That looks right up our alley!!

[trippingpara]

Time Log:

Monday, 06 March  

Kralendijk, Bonaire

 

Ahhh, there we go.  The soothing sounds of Mr. Evil Rooster from Hell cawing away waaaay too early in the morning!  Lady Trip and I jumped out of bed, did our morning routine, ran down for some breakfast at the Windjammer and then met the Carnies to get off the boat.  Today’s adventure: renting a golf cart and exploring the island on our own.

 

It’s important to note here that the Carnies openly admit that they get lost in a wet paper bag so it was up to me to navigate everyone around the island.  No worries!  It’s an island for crying out loud.  Just drive in a big circle and BAM!, you’ve made it back to your starting point!  Okay, so it’s not that easy, but that’s what an adventure is for!

 

The first test of one’s navigation skills was being able to find the golf carts!  Bonaire Cruisers has a tent right at the end of the vendor tents that are lined up right as you get off the ship.  But that is only to verify if you have a reservation or not and to provide some basic information for those that do not have one.  The lady working the booth gave me some basic directions on how to walk over to where the carts are actually located.  Turns out, they were about ¼ mile away which isn’t really far at all but it was much further than we expected with a few turns and several busy roads to cross.

 

We did find their place pretty easily enough, and quickly checked in, signed the appropriate documents, gave our first born child and off we were!  The golf carts were in really good shape and within a couple minutes, you had the controls and handling down.  The only potential problem for some peeps is the fact that you are driving on the same roads that all of the cars, trucks, semi’s, etc., are driving on…in a golf cart!  Needless to say, as long as you were courteous and pulled over to let traffic pass you, it was no problem at all.  Some of the roads that we encountered were pretty narrow so pulling over involved pulling off the road entirely while some roads actually had pull-offs every mile or so.

 

We pulled out of their garage and started to make our way north through the city.  Eventually, we made our way out of Kralendijk and into the rural north end of the island. 

 

 

 

Lady Trip being...well, Lady Trip!

 

After a couple quick minor stops for photos, our first real stop was at the famous 1,000 Steps for some snorkeling.

 

 

Thankfully, there were not 1,000 steps down to the water, but there was a fairly large staircase down to the rocky beach and it was a bit janky since it was made out of natural stones so you had to be careful climbing up or down the stairs.  Being a scuba diver and knowing how much all of that equipment weighs, I was pretty impressed watching several divers climb up those stairs carrying all of their gear.

 

 

Speaking of diving, well, snorkeling actually, this was my first time in open water since I got Covid a couple years ago.  Unfortunately, I have Longhaulers Covid which means I continue to experience a variety of issues and one of them is I can sometimes struggle to breath which causes me to essentially yawn forcing me to take in a large amount of air.  An involuntary yawn is not very good for divers or snorkelers.  You tend to want to keep a respirator in your mouth while your face is in the water!  So I purchased one of those full face masks to see if that would help with my issues.

 

Holy snickey, it worked!!  Once I got the mask fitted properly, it worked like a charm.  The only issue I ran into was when I would look down back towards my feet, the “chin” of my mask would hit my chest and would break the seal at the top of forehead letting some water in.  When you’re wearing a standard dive mask, looking downward like that is not an issue but with a full-face mask it is.  Okay, note to self, stop looking that far downward.  There, issue fixed!

 

 

 

The snorkeling there was pretty good, but Lady Carnie did run into some jellyfish and unfortunately got stung.  Twice.  She was in some pain for a bit but thankfully, the pain went away after about an hour.  They weren’t very big so the sting was not too powerful, but please be careful if you plan on snorkeling in these waters.   

 

We spent about an hour here before we headed back on the road.  A little bit further down the road, we came across an old abandoned aloe factory called Landuis Karpata.  Lady Trip and I love to explore abandoned properties so I automatically pulled over into the small parking lot (everyone else in the parking lot were divers preparing their gear for a nearby dive spot) so we had the place to ourselves.  We spent about 15 minutes exploring the area before heading back out on the road.

 

 

 

Even their garbage cans are cute on Bonaire!

 

Our next stop was Lake Goto or Goto Meer in Dutch.  We pulled over into a lookout point overlooking Goto Zout-en Flamingomeer (nature preserve at Goto Lake).  It was quite a beautiful area.  We could see flamingos but they were quite a distance from us.

 

Those pink dots out there are flamingos.

 

Goofing around at the overlook site.

 

From here we headed deeper into the nature preserve and was able to drive right along with water’s edge (please do NOT go into the water here!). 

 

 

We did eventually get to make our way closer to the flamingos.

 

 

The road now started to turn east towards Rincón, the other town on Bonaire.  As we entered the town, I caught sight of the sign “Cadushy Distillery.”  You had me at ‘distillery’!  I slammed on the brakes (as much as one can “slam” on a golf cart’s brakes) and pulled over to the side of the road.  I don’t even think the golf cart had stopped moving before I was off and running!  It was a really neat little place with free samples and some outstanding drinks!  I ended up buying a bottle of their single barrel aged whiskey which was soooo smooth!  We didn’t spend too much time here (a little over 30 minutes) as there was still a lot to see.  I was so excited that I didn't even take a single photograph here!  Thankfully, Lady Trip had my back and she took a couple.

 

 

 

 

They made a wide range of spirits here ranging from rum, vodka and whiskey to an array of liqueurs for each island of the Dutch Caribbean islands and one for the Kingdom of The Netherlands.

 

We jumped back into the golf carts and started to head south back towards Kralendijk to start the southern loop of the island.  It was a pretty decent drive across the northeastern side of the island seeing plenty of wild donkeys and tons of little lizards.  As we started to near the outskirts of Kralendijk, we turned off and started to climb into the hills surrounding the town.  We were searching for Seru Largu (means “large hill”), a monument built by members of the Catholic Church to commemorate the turn of the century in 2000.  We had a pretty impressive view of Bonaire from here and could even see the salt piles at the southern tip of the island.

 

 

As you can see, we eventually found it!  I think I'm going to break this port call up into two posts, so I will stop here.  Next up the southern loop of Bonaire!  A donkey sanctuary, former slave huts and more!

 

[trippingpara]

Time Log:

Monday, 06 March  

Kralendijk, Bonaire

 

(Cont...)

 

After grabbing a few pics, we headed down the hillside back into Kralendijk.  By this time, we were well off the beaten path and had given up on the written driving directions that Bonaire Cruisers had given us.  I knew that the Cruiser’s home base was near the ship and right next to a large soccer stadium so it wasn’t too hard to find.  Once we made it back to their main facility, we were able to pick the instructions back up.

 

We now headed down Kaya International (the main street) towards the airport.  Once we passed the airport, we were now officially on the south end of the island.  This part was easy as you could just stay on this road and it looped you all the way around the southern end and right back into Kralendijk again.  But this is us we’re talking about so of course, we had to turn off of the main strip a few blocks south of the airport to go see the famous Donkey Sanctuary.  Donkeys roam wild in Bonaire but many of them get hurt by cars or become a serious nuisance to residents and they must be taken away.  Thankfully, due to this sanctuary, those injured or nuisance donkeys have a place to go and have a healthy, donkey-like life.

 

 

There are over 800 donkeys in this massive facility.  You pull your vehicle in and purchase tickets at the visitor’s center.  A staff member will then walk out with you and raise the gate for you to drive in.  It’s a self-guided tour where you slowly (key word is slowly) drive through the park.  Many donkeys will come up to you to be petted.  Don’t put your hands near their mouth as they can bite and please do not feed them!  They are well taken care of there.  It was very interesting and we spent about 40 minutes driving through the park and stopping occasionally to pet and photograph the gentle creatures.

 

 

(Look Ma, I'm King of the Mountain!)

 

 

 

 

I found Eeyore!!

 

 

Road block!  Thankfully, having a golf cart made it a bit easier to maneuver around these occasional road blocks.

 

You can visit the Donkey Sanctuary at either the beginning or end of the southern loop since it’s located on a road that cuts across connecting both ends of the loop.  But it is better marked from the western end of the loop versus the eastern end.  So, we did it at the beginning of the loop.  As we pulled out, we doubled back to where we started just south of the airport and got back onto Kaya International.

 

You had to drive through a good amount of urban buildup before you were outside of the town into beach and salt country.  But soon enough, you had beautiful vistas of the ocean to your right and salt flats to your left.  It was amazing to see the pink water where the pink salt was next to the blue water of the white salt.  There was a ton of foam pulled up on the edges.  At first we thought it was salt but then we noticed that it was moving.  As the wind blows across the shallow water, it rubs on the salt at the bottom creating foam.

 

 

 

As we passed the giant salt pier (where they dump the processed salt into the holds of cargo ships), we got lucky and were able to see them processing the salt from a drained pan.  It was really neat to see it.  They move it around just like one would process top soil.  The salt flats take up almost the entire southern end of the island so it is a pretty constant view off to your left.

 

 

Not too far past the salt pier, you will come across several very small bright white huts built right on the beach.  Unfortunately, these were old slave huts for the Dutch to help process the salt in the 1800s.  Its hard to believe that two men would sleep in those huts together and store their salt mining gear with them (pick axes, shovels, etc.).  These huts were just for sleeping as the slaves would work throughout the day. 

 

(This gives you an idea of how small these huts are)

 

 

 

A little further down the road after the kiteboarding beach, you will come across more identical huts but are yellow instead.  There were also red and blue huts as well but only the white and yellow huts have been maintained for historical and educational purposes.  The color of the huts designated which salt pan you were assigned to.

 

 

(There was a lone flamingo hanging out in one of the last salt flats)

 

You will also see a large obelisk next to the yellow huts.  This tall monument served as a beacon for ships telling them where to anchor to filled up with the correct type of salt they had purchased.  Salt was a highly sought after mineral in the early sailing years.

 

 

As you rounded the southern tip of Bonaire, you come across the ruins of an old stone house and the tall Willemstoren lighthouse.  Once you pass the lighthouse, you are now on the eastern side of the southern tip and are now heading north back towards Kralendijk.  There is not as much to see on this part of the drive and you will notice that the seas are much rougher over here as this is the windward part of the island.

 

 

 

As the southern loop ends you now have a choice, you can either head northwest to the Donkey Sanctuary and then back to the western start of the loop near the airport, or stay north through the mangroves and Sorobon Beach and Lac Cai Beach.  We opted to continue north to see the mangroves.  Unfortunately, the water levels were very low so not as many flamingos were out, but we did see some, just not the huge flocks we were hoping for.

 

 

 

The drive from there back to the ship was pretty easy as the road takes you within a few blocks of the ship which dominates the skyline and before you know it, the stadium appears to your left.  A couple turns and Bob’s your uncle as they say.  Returning the golf cart was super easy.  A member of their team will tell you where to park and then you go back to the counter to get your deposit back.  Easy peasy.

 

 

 

We walked back to the ship and I opted to do some quick shopping for our requisite shot glass and some Cubano cigars.  We were pretty beat after this long day of touring, so we headed back to the ship, ate a quick dinner at the Windjammers and called it a night.  Not exactly, the wild partiers of our earlier years!

 

 

Next up:  Curacao

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by trippingpara

[clochette]

just found your trip report and loving it, I am doing the same excursion in Colon Panama, so nice to hear about it.  

[retiredgram]

Loving all your photos. Looks like you had an amazing cruise.

 

[grossnmoe]

Love the review!  Great job and I love all the details you have included. 

[perfect match]

Love your golf cart tour! I would have needed more time in the water, though! I’d most likely be snorkeling 🤿. I have been diving while visiting Bonaire and although I did not have to climb up or down those stairs carrying dive gear 😱 getting into and back out of the water on the slippery, rocky shoreline with a bit of chop on the water surface in dive gear was more than enough for me. That said, the dives I have done there were beautiful! 🐠 🐡 🐙 🐟 

[trippingpara]

17 hours ago, clochette said:

just found your trip report and loving it, I am doing the same excursion in Colon Panama, so nice to hear about it.  

Thank you so much, glad you like it!  Please let me know if you have any questions about that excursion or anything else I can assist with.  Cheers!

[trippingpara]

8 hours ago, perfect match said:

Love your golf cart tour! I would have needed more time in the water, though! I’d most likely be snorkeling 🤿. I have been diving while visiting Bonaire and although I did not have to climb up or down those stairs carrying dive gear 😱 getting into and back out of the water on the slippery, rocky shoreline with a bit of chop on the water surface in dive gear was more than enough for me. That said, the dives I have done there were beautiful! 🐠 🐡 🐙 🐟 

I definitely would have liked more time in the water too, but we were on a fairly tight schedule in order to be able to see the entire island.  Diving in Bonaire is definitely high on my list but I needed to see if I could get back into the water with my Covid Longhaulers.  Thankfully, the full masks allow me to breathe even when I involuntarily gasp for air, so I just got the OTS Guardian full face diving mask.  Now, I need to go through a refresher course and a quick certification on the full face mask (how to done and clear it under water, how to equalize with it, etc.,) and then I can book my return trip to Bonaire!

 

I did see several of those divers I photographed struggling to get up those rocks too.  The ones that got up the easiest I noticed all had reef shoes on instead of the traditional wetsuit booties.  I'll need to remember that.

[clochette]

1 hour ago, trippingpara said:

Thank you so much, glad you like it!  Please let me know if you have any questions about that excursion or anything else I can assist with.  Cheers!

thank you so much, did you have time for lunch, looking around on your own or always part of the group?

 

[trippingpara]

3 hours ago, clochette said:

thank you so much, did you have time for lunch, looking around on your own or always part of the group?

 

We were given a small boxed lunch to eat while we were driving around.  It was given to us pretty early in the day.  We were only given a couple free times on our own; once at a small shopping area (where I posted the photo of the Balboa beer as well as the photos of the skyline across the water) and then at the canal locks.  We were given about 45 minutes at the shopping stop and about an hour at the canal locks.  I do believe there was some food options at the first stop (where I got the beer) but we didn't grab anything as we weren't hungry at the time.

[RJ257]

12 hours ago, trippingpara said:

I definitely would have liked more time in the water too, but we were on a fairly tight schedule in order to be able to see the entire island.  Diving in Bonaire is definitely high on my list but I needed to see if I could get back into the water with my Covid Longhaulers.  Thankfully, the full masks allow me to breathe even when I involuntarily gasp for air, so I just got the OTS Guardian full face diving mask.  Now, I need to go through a refresher course and a quick certification on the full face mask (how to done and clear it under water, how to equalize with it, etc.,) and then I can book my return trip to Bonaire!

 

I did see several of those divers I photographed struggling to get up those rocks too.  The ones that got up the easiest I noticed all had reef shoes on instead of the traditional wetsuit booties.  I'll need to remember that.

Yes I saw you had bare feet at 1000 Steps! Yikes! I have hundreds of dives on Bonaire only 15-20% shore dives but I always had to have the shoes to get in the water. Great trip report.

[perfect match]

20 hours ago, trippingpara said:

I definitely would have liked more time in the water too, but we were on a fairly tight schedule in order to be able to see the entire island.  Diving in Bonaire is definitely high on my list but I needed to see if I could get back into the water with my Covid Longhaulers.  Thankfully, the full masks allow me to breathe even when I involuntarily gasp for air, so I just got the OTS Guardian full face diving mask.  Now, I need to go through a refresher course and a quick certification on the full face mask (how to done and clear it under water, how to equalize with it, etc.,) and then I can book my return trip to Bonaire!

 

I did see several of those divers I photographed struggling to get up those rocks too.  The ones that got up the easiest I noticed all had reef shoes on instead of the traditional wetsuit booties.  I'll need to remember that.

Hope your new mask works for you in dealing with your Covid Longhaulers. I think you’re being smart to take the time to familiarize yourself with using it before you go diving with it, especially with your Longhaulers symptoms added in.

 

My DH had a very mild case of Covid last summer and has continued with Longhaulers, mainly loss of taste and smell with a few others thrown in as well. He’s hoping his symptoms go away soon. 
 

I was wearing reef shoes on my Bonaire dives, unfortunately not very good reef shoes. They did not help at all on the slippery rocks. I also managed to get a lot of little shell fragments and coarse sand inside of them that left me picking those shell fragments and sand out of my feet for days following my dives. I ended up wishing I’d worn my regular dive booties instead of the cheap water shoes. 

[trippingpara]

15 hours ago, RJ257 said:

Yes I saw you had bare feet at 1000 Steps! Yikes! I have hundreds of dives on Bonaire only 15-20% shore dives but I always had to have the shoes to get in the water. Great trip report.

I was definitely wishing that I had my diving booties with me. Man, that coral hurt to walk on!!

[trippingpara]

6 hours ago, perfect match said:

Hope your new mask works for you in dealing with your Covid Longhaulers. I think you’re being smart to take the time to familiarize yourself with using it before you go diving with it, especially with your Longhaulers symptoms added in.

 

My DH had a very mild case of Covid last summer and has continued with Longhaulers, mainly loss of taste and smell with a few others thrown in as well. He’s hoping his symptoms go away soon. 
 

I was wearing reef shoes on my Bonaire dives, unfortunately not very good reef shoes. They did not help at all on the slippery rocks. I also managed to get a lot of little shell fragments and coarse sand inside of them that left me picking those shell fragments and sand out of my feet for days following my dives. I ended up wishing I’d worn my regular dive booties instead of the cheap water shoes. 

For once I'm trying to be smart.  It's a pretty rare act for me!  I had a big scare several years ago diving so I take it very seriously now (not that I didn't before but I'm exceptionally cautious now).  I've had to don and clear my mask a few times before under water so I'm well aware that these full face masks are quite a bit different.  And not to mention the clearing your sinuses are done quite a bit differently and that's a fairly important thing to do.  Not looking to rupture my sinuses!  I figured it's best to let some experts teach me the proper way to do it instead of my traditional, "I'll figure it out" approach.

 

I hope your DH's Longhaulers goes away soon.  Some of my friends have had theirs slowly fade away over time.  I've been praying mine will too but my doctors are telling me to not get too hopeful.  I've just sorta accepted that this is my new normal.

[LindyWebb]

The beaches in Aruba are amazing - you did miss out with that late docking!