One of the amazing advantages of diving in Bonaire is the unbelievable independence the handy shore diving provides. You just pick up your tanks from the dive shop early in the day and stop along the main road at any of the well-marked sites. It permitted us to make 13 dives in four and a half days, not a record-breaking pace but an ambitious one at our age.

It also allowed us make dives late in the afternoon, returning to shore as the reef's nocturnal creatures -- like sea urchins, eels and coral polyps -- were emerging. Here, tinny soft coral polyps emerge in the shallows of Alice in Wonderland.