Bonaire (3) – Night Snorkeling

Night snorkeling is surely not everyone’s favorite tea. On TripAdvisor, its rating is like 4.5. I completely understood why some people don’t like it. You see, swimming in the dark feels disoriented, especially after some waves :). But it is cool and our group all loved it. It is such a unique experience you must feel curious about; seeing those beautiful ocean creatures moving in the dark water is a wonder and brings you amazing excitement.

Jim and Kenny brothers were again our guides from Amazing Bonaire. They met our group (around 10 people?) at the Isidel Beach Park. I chatted with a few people and found one is working at my graduate school, and the other lives in the NC triangle area where I just visited in summer. I enjoy such connections especially abroad. I remembered that one time at the Puerto Rico Fortress, I met a top Industry research group director and his family. Woo 🙂

We started after sunset. As you swam into the ocean, you still saw a bit redness on the horizon. The sea is especially charming at this hour and it gets a bit darker every minute. The water is warm and the waves are gently murmuring like a lover’s cradle in the twilight. As it turns into the complete dark, we used flashlight and followed our guides to navigate around. When I dived down and got lost, I just swam towards a light. At some point, I was following a guy in our group who was also lost :). On our way back, we found a ray peacefully lying down on the bottom of the ocean (later in the museum, I learned “oh it was a Southern ray”). Such a surprise detour!

Our lights attracted a kind of fish called Tarpon. They are very big like a small child in length and have scary-looking red eyes in the dark. They swam around you close and used your lights to hunt. I saw them swimming fast after a small silver fish and then heard a sound of “pu”—– it’s the time the tarpon ate the prey. There are so many Tarpons in the area. I almost get a feeling of swimming around a circle of mermaids :).

During exploration, I also found a sea cucumber, cuttle fish/squid, giant sea urchin, and many fish. In the rock area, I saw two lobsters, with amazing white and brown patterns, and also a beautiful silver eel moving around the rock and drawing beautiful curves.

At some point, the guides asked us to stop in the middle of the ocean and turned off the flashlight. It’s a moment experience of floating in the darkness. Then our guides taught us to clap our hands in the water. It’s such a magic. We saw those shiny glitters arising around our hands!! These tiny sparks are smaller than fireflies and they flash goldness. These creatures are called dinoflagellates. Have you heard the bioluminescent bay? We have done a night Kayak trip in Puerto Rico and have seen through the glass bottom of our boat and oars the bioluminescent lights. Here, they were dancing around our fingers!

At some point, the guides said “now we were back and hope you enjoyed the trip”. I was like “ah, really?” I was completely confused the whole time where I was 🙂 It must be like this in space?! Then my son told me, “mommy, do you know, your fins are fluorescence“ Wow, the first time I know. The trip is always full of discoveries and any discoveries are just facinating!