I’m a devoted snorkeler and swimmer who has finally found a way to share some of my pictures. I have hung out on Bonaire and Curacao Facebook and Reddit groups, particularly for snorkeling, and now that I’ve been to both a few times, I find myself sharing some of the same thoughts. How much simpler to share in one place! Plus, pictures!

One of the most challenging things about snorkel trips is how reports vary. I think this is–of course–due to our perspective. I’ve only been tropical snorkeling since about 2018 or so, so my perspective is very different from people that have been doing it much longer. There are a number of reliable studies that show clear, marked decline in Caribbean coral, for various environmental and epidemiological reasons. I’ve learned for many people, they go on cruise ship type excursions and are interested in megafauna (turtles) or places with ‘lots of fishes,’ so their reports differ quite a bit from the ones I’m always looking for. I’m a swimmer, freediver, and an amateur biologist and photographer, so I’m always looking for a more diverse experience.

I’ve also travelled to the Florida Keys and St. John, USVI, finding both kind of a bust for snorkeling (although I did run into a pod of manatees heading to a bridge channel, which was freaking amazing!) Interestingly, for two of those three trips, I dealt with Tropical Storms/predicted hurricanes (perhaps another blog post), so I’d be willing to give them another chance. That is one of the joys of Bonaire and Curacao, in that they lie outside the hurricane belt.

I will probably never scuba dive, because after one of my Florida snorkeling trips, I developed a deep vein thrombosis that turned into blood clots in my both my lungs. I recovered just fine and my lungs and heart are healthy, but there are so many physiological stresses that go into diving that I don’t feel like pushing it. Reports that are coming out of Hawai’i about flash pulmonary edema in snorkelers–and that have probably happened in Bonaire and Curacao as well, judging by the occasional articles of divers and snorkelers dying–should remind us that us air-breathing humans can’t take our physiology for granted, particularly when coupled with air travel.

Anyways, I welcome feedback about the site. I was using the ‘slideshow’ format for some of these pictures, but I discovered it wouldn’t work on my mobile version of WordPress, so I’ve moved away from that feature, though I liked it as a way to incorporate a group of pictures under a theme.

As I’ve snorkeled more, I’m getting more comfortable with taking videos to give a full-reef feel, although I am definitely not skilled in video editing. So I’m open to requests there as well.

I’m also open to hearing about your experiences in the areas, or in general. I love learning!