1000 Steps

1000 Steps is one of the most famous shore dives in Bonaire. That makes it a pretty big deal since Bonaire is supposed to have the best shore diving in the world. As pretty as this was, I did NOT want to do it.

But these yahoos talked me into it. We always make friends on these trips, and this time, we made three sets. I think we met these guys first, but we all hit it off really well. These two guys are friends from way back, and like Amy and I, they try to take a trip together as often as possible.


This is Holger, a German living in Switzerland. Such a nice guy.

Hansjoerg still lives in Germany. He reminds me of someone but I cannot for the love of God figure out who.

Amy getting ready at the top of 1000 Steps.

This is why I did not want to dive here. I am terrified of steps. And ladders. And to do a shore dive here--we had to lug all of our equipment down the steps.

And back up them again. After an hour underwater, this is pretty daunting. That equipment is heavy.

I have no idea why these guys had to wear so much insulation--the water was between 81 and 84 degrees, and they all got cold. Not me, I dove in my swimmer-the most I ever wore extra was a pair of shorts, and this day when I forgot to take off my tank top.
We all wore booties though--look at the beach. It is all bleached out coral, not sand. It sounds like you are walking on crushed glass with some bottlecaps thrown in when you walk in it.
These pictures were taken by Barry. Since he could not dive, he went on a drive on the afternoon we did the 1000 steps--many of the roads on the island are not really roads at all. He had a big time driving our dive truck on the dirt roads through the National Park--like he was in the Baja 100. In a coincidence, he took some shots of 1000 Steps Beach while we happened to there, and he did not know we were there.
You can see the steps to the left of this shot--it shows you just how steep they are. That dive is not for the faint of heart.
This is another angle, where you cannot see the steps. There is a full dive boat out in the distance, just over the reef.

The Germans had already gone to 1000 Steps, and thought it was a great dive, so I gave in and went obviously. They had seen big tarpon and some other good stuff. Evidently, whale shark sightings are not uncommon there, but I do not think we saw one. I did see a flash of something huge and with a white belly in the distance--it was big enough that the light reflected off of it got to me before it was gone, but by the time I got focused on him, he had cornered the reef so I could not identify him. The way he moved though made me think he was not a tarpon, and he definitely was not a ray of any sort.

There are a jillion underwater pics to be posted, and I cannot tell which ones were taken at each place unless it was something special, so I will post them all together and hope for the best!