The view underwater

Now into the last day and the diving is finished. We managed 17 dives while here in different sites.
To answer an email I will try to describe a bit about the underwater scenery.
The east side or leeward side of Bonaire is where most of the diving takes place. It is sheltered from the quite strong prevailing winds so in general the diving is easier. Some dives are accessible by boat only, for example all the ones on Klein Bonaire, a small uninhabited island just of the mainland, and some are shore dives with differing methods of access. Bonaire has no real sandy beaches but mainly either coral or rock. That means some are easy to walk into even if there are waves and others very hard scrambling over rocks, coral and suchlike in the wave and surge action. A couple are a leap of a few feet from a rock ledge into the water to gain entry. All easy on your own but wearing all the scuba gear not so and even harder getting out.
You then swim out often on the surface over a rocky or coral bottom to the drop of. The coral strewn bottom may be a few feet wide to some 50 or more metres and the bottom is usually about 5 metres deep and made op of lots of dead coral broken up by wave action and looks whiteish. Some new heads of coral start forming and some fish are seen. The drop of is where it normally starts getting deeper and in most cases it is obvious as it suddenly drops down to perhaps 130 metres deep, sometimes very steeply. This area is where all the spectacular coral life is along with most of the fish and creatures you see.
We would only normaolly dive in the range to say 20 metres deep (65 feet) for safety occasionally down to 30 metres (100 feet) but that brings in compulsory sfaety stops on the ascent to get rid of any nitrogen that had been absorbed into your body.
Nearer the surface the corals and fish look really colourful but the deeper you go the more the colour is filtered by the water. The red light goes first then the yellows leaving everything looking blue. If you introduce a light source say a torch the colours are still there and can be seen. This is even more noticable at night when the only light is your hand held torches and lights. The colours then are so bright. It also shows up on photographs in that the flash is used all the time. If the thing you are photographing is close it uses the flash for light and so the colours come through if not it is blue.
The coral comes in all shapes and sizes from minute to huge towering clumps and columns all teeming in fish life. The coral is of course all living colonies of small creatures. Occasionally the coral forms a vertical wall and these are great to explore looking in all the nooks & crannies and holes for small creatures like small crabs and shrimps to larger ones like moray eels.
In a few places the drop of finishes in a sandy bottom at perhaps 20 metres and there you can find rays, sting rays and other creatures. Look carefully about and if you are lucky you will find turtles.