Our last day of boat diving involved a single dive in the afternoon, and this gave us time to visit the Washington Slagbaai National Park in the morning. We got up at our usual time of 6:30 AM and were having breakfast shortly before 7 AM. Todd joined me for breakfast, as did my parents. We enjoyed a nice meal, and after breakfast we got into the truck and we left the resort shortly after 8 AM. We took the shortest path to reach the park, which took us back on the highway we used to get from Rincón to Kralendijk the previous evening. We arrived at the entrance to the park at 8:35 AM. Entering the park required showing that we had paid the STINAPA Nature Fee, and this required us showing both the issued QR code and a form of ID. Once we had checked in we got a couple of maps which showed the highlights of the park.
Reviewing the options we chose to start by going for a hike on the Lagadishi Walking Trail, which is a 4.35 km loop which takes you past landmarks on a path to the Atlantic ocean. On the trail we saw many small lizards, a couple of old wells which have since dried up, an old wall built from coral, had to walk on coral, saw a blowhole and saw numerous flamingos from a distance. There is a great view over Playa Chikitu, a lovely sand beach which turtles use to nest during mating season. The walk took us about 1h 35 mins to complete, including stops we made to take photos.
After returning from the trail it was shortly after 10 AM, and we quickly walked through the visitor centre and saw some of the history of the island and the animals which live in the park. After this we got back into the truck and began the drive through the park. There are 2 different options - the “short drive” which is estimated to take 1.5 hours to complete, and the “long drive” which is estimated to take 2.5 hours to complete. We chose to take the “short drive”. The conditions of the road in the park were quite poor - the road was just dirt, and had many rocks and potholes to navigate around. This was probably the worst road I’ve driven on, including my time on the Dempster Highway in the Canadian Arctic. Most of the drive was done between 15 and 20 km/hour, and there were many points in time where the truck didn’t leave first gear. The short drive took us through cacti forests, gave us views of Mount Brandaris (the highest peak in Bonaire), a stop at Playa Funchi, past the Wayaka beaches and the Salina Slagbaai where we observed many flamingos.
The road did allow us to see some beautiful views, but overall I don’t think that the drive was worth it. We completed the trip around 12:45 PM - it took us almost 2 hours to complete. After leaving the park we returned to the resort, and made it back at 1:15 PM.
We had a quick lunch and were on the dock at 1:45 with our gear for our last boat dive. We were on the Every Buddy, and since everyone was present at 2 PM we departed a bit early. This time we did a dive at a site on Bonaire that is only reachable by boat, named Bon Bini na Kas. I enjoyed the dive! Todd found an eel resting inside a purple coral tube, and I found an eel in brain coral. There was a barracuda which came close partway through the dive, and I covered my wedding ring to ensure it wasn’t attracted to the shiny metal. There was also a pipefish I saw at the end of the dive. The second half of the dive saw a lot of very healthy stag coral, which we hadn’t seen around Klein Bonaire. There was also an interesting coral formation at around 40m of depth which looked a lot like a satellite dish sunk into the ocean. I also saw a couple of fire worms, and an anemone. We spent about 65 mins in the water, and my air consumption was on point. Just before entering the water I saw that my camera case wasn’t sealed properly, and investigating further I saw that the O-ring on the back hatch had come loose and wouldn’t seal. Thankfully I didn’t get the phone wet, but unfortunately I didn’t take the camera with me. Going to look into other more dependable options as the case hadn’t been flawless. Overall an enjoyable dive. We were back shortly after 4 PM, and we relaxed on the beach and read a bit before getting cleaned up for dinner.
We had a 6:30 PM dinner reservation at Pizza Mare, an Italian restaurant close to our resort. We decided against driving since it was a short walk from the resort. We ordered shortly after arriving, however since the Superbowl was happening this evening they were quite busy with takeout orders, and so it took a bit for our food to arrive. We started eating at 7:20 PM, and unfortunately Todd’s pizza was delivered a bit after the rest of the meal because they had dropped his and had to remake it. Dad and I were originally going to order the same pizza, so we each ordered different pizzas and shared, while Todd had a Hawaiian pizza, and Mom had a gluten free pasta. Overall we enjoyed the pizza, and the portion sizes were large enough that we were able to take some leftover pizza back as a snack for lunch the next day
We walked home and had a quiet evening before going to bed at 9:30 PM.