Bonaire is such a festive place during the holidays. One sees decorations everywhere. I love Christmas lights in palm trees. It just takes a small shift of perspective to see the beauty of our traditional celebrations in the tropics! It also occurred to me as I was reviewing my photos this morning that the sea creatures seem to be celebrating too! To illustrate, I’ve included a few of my shots from yesterday’s dives. Enjoy!
Bonaire Banded Coral Shrimp
Maybe Dirty Dancing? She reminds me of Jennifer Gray upside down (sans Patrick Swayze’s hand on her back).
Bonaire Lobster
I’m thinking disco here! What do you think?
Bonaire Turtle
How about the Macarena?
Bonaire Caribbean Octopus
And my favorite – the Tango.
What dances do you see my aquatic friends doing here?
LargeSelf 
These are fabulous! Of course I love the dance theme, and the octopus has a good tango corte. The lobster is definitely dressed for the disco and ready to hustle. Awesome collection!!!!
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I thought you might like the dance theme, Frank! Thank you!
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These are breathtaking!!
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Thank you, Mimi! I’m pretty proud of them. I’m getting better at UW photography and having SUCH a good time!
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Wow! Really stunning photographs of some aquatic life! You have done a phenomenal job here and I am thoroughly impressed! Awesome shots! Look forward to more of your work!
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Thank you, Thomas, and welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed my photos. And I love the name of your site!
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I dunno, but now “Rock Lobster” is going to be stuck in my head all day. 😛
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Sorry… 🙂
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Fabulous! Now I want to go to our aquarium in Denver!
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Thanks, Susie! I have actually dived in the Denver Aquarium – for an UW photography class. It was a blast!
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I WANT TO DO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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You would LOOOOVE it, Susie!
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I’m pretty sure that shrimp is twerking…
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I think you’re right, Carrie!
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Wonderful. I’m impressed you can vacation and post such fabulous photos all at the same time.
I could send you a close up of an ant carrying a dead bug on the prairie, but not very impressive.
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Thank you, Cheryl. I don’t usually bring my computer, but I think I will in the future. It’s great feedback to take the shots and then process them right away. I’m finding that my UW photography learning curve has increased a lot on this trip! So why not share some of them? Glad you enjoyed. And a macro of an ant might be very interesting! 🙂
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Such beauty captured so well. Thank you, Cathy.
Russ
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Thank you, Russ! It is so beautiful! And yesterday, we had quite the surprise. As we were heading out in the boat, we came across a large pod of dolphins! I got some video footage on my GoPro. I’ll be sharing a video of that in the near future!
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I am just blown away by these sea creatures! Awesome display of the diversity in living things. The lobster is my favorite. And the turtle sure looks like he is gettin’ down and groovy!
Have a fabulous holiday. Thanks for sharing it with us!
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I’m so glad you enjoyed, Mary! The diversity on the reefs is indescribable. And these shots are just a very small sampling of what one sees here. I’ve gotten some amazing shots of things that one normally doesn’t see on dives. Or maybe we’re just getting better at finding them?
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Wow, incredible photos, Cathy. My favorite is the turtle. I guess it’s doing some kind of solo interpretative dance!
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HaHaHa! I like that, Amy. Yes, the solo interpretative dance is a strong possibility. We have seen so many turtles this week – perhaps because Bonaire has a very active turtle conservation program – a lot of young ones. What I’ve found interesting is that they’re not at all afraid of divers – it’s like they really don’t mind us here. I’ve been able to get quite close for these shots without seemingly disturbing them – although that takes practice too.
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LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!! These are all spectacular Cathy, and have made my night! I adore the turtle shot, as you know… he looks like a baby, so curious and sweet. But I am an enormous fan of the octopus as well. They are so magical. You make me want to run down and sign up for diving, and then book a trip…. with you! Just fabulous! Thanks for sharing your beautiful world. 😀
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Thank you, Dawn. If you’re comfortable in the water, I suspect you’d love diving! Maybe the next time you’re in the Caribbean, you could do a Scuba resort class just to try it out. You spend a couple of hours with a Dive instructor and they teach you the basics and then you go out for a dive – usually around 30 feet or less. And, of course, I’d love to show you around! 🙂
That turtle was a small one – and it was very sweet and not at all shy. I got many shots of him. We have seen turtles on most dives this week which I find very cool! And the octopus was a HUGE bonus. We were heading out to photograph a frog fish on the reef just by the shore where we’re staying and Peter kind of tripped across it. He called me back and I got several great shots of it. It’s pretty unusual to see them out free-swimming during the day – they hunt at night, so this set of shots was also unusual for that reason. He/she is a VERY handsome cephalopod! If you could have seen my face behind the regulator in my mouth, I was grinning from ear to ear! So fun!
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I think I felt as thrilled as you, vicariously!! Just wonderful shots, and I can almost feel the water! They’ve never let me do the resort lessons, due to my asthma… but I’m hoping to take official dive classes, before our trip to Belize in spring… it will depend on some things, but I’ve always wanted to. As a kid, I dreamed of being Jacques Cousteau (adored him!), and LOVE being in the water… snorkeling, suffices, but would love to dive!
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I dreamed of being Jacques Cousteau as well! Never missed one of his PBS specials. It’s such a blessing to be able to dive and I enjoy every second of it! Then to be able to photograph some of the things we see is a real treasure.
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Yes! The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau was always a thrill. I really wanted to BE HIM. Took me years to figure out, that wasn’t actually going to happen. 😉 Ahh, youth.
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Quite the aquatic colorful party you’ve got going on! Way to busta move 🙂
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Thanks, Audra. So amazingly fun!
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[…] Dancing in Bonaire (largeself.com) […]
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The best of all worlds, and dancing in all of them…
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Smile… Thank you, Shimon.
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Wow you have some amazing pics on your blog!! Impressive 🙂
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Thank you so much. And thanks for the follow! I have always wanted to dive in the Maldives!
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Just phenomenal Cathy! The Octopus is just amazing. Another world under the Sea!
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Thanks Kathryn. I’ve only seen an octopus one other time while diving, so this one was quite a treat! And then later in the week we saw another! Bonaire was fantastic!
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It was awesome. I just stared at it !
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