We went looking for seahorses.

Seahorses are traditionally tricky to find. In the marine guidebook, it says they are ‘uncommon but may be locally abundant’. Hmm. And they are so inconspicuous. They often hide in the corals and grasses.

Apparently they are becoming more common though – since lockdown began. People are saying they’re seeing more seahorses, as tourist numbers are down. In Bonaire, numbers are really down. It’s usually full of divers visiting from the States. This place is perfect for easy, independent-based shore diving. And Bonaire is full of rental properties and pick up trucks. Just not many tourists.

There have been increased sightings of many marine species in Bonaire. Particularly seahorses. I don’t know what it is with seahorses. Hippocampi. If you see one, you feel like you won the diving lottery.

We’d heard of a site which is traditionally ‘the place’ to see seahorses in Bonaire. It is on the west side of Klein Bonaire – as far as you can go before the next stop is Columbia. Arriving there on Edna was frankly giving me Australia vibes. Not another boat in site. Wild white beach. Crystal clear waters.

This dive site is called Mi Dushi. It says so on the tall yellow buoy, written in black. Mi Dushi means ‘my sweetheart’ in Bonaire’s language, Papiamientu. Papiamientu is mysterious in origin, but the language is widely considered to be Portuguese-derived Creole, from the west coast of Africa. To be honest, I was already in love with Mi Dushi before we started.

We left the girls onboard. Late nights at the end of summer, the girls aren’t exactly in early bird mode. Ha! Wait till school starts. We finished Games of Thrones a couple of nights ago. Our watch is over. Sorry – couldn’t resist. This blog wasn’t intended to be about GOT and how it ended. Our opinions are already a year late. But still (the last people on Earth who didn’t watch it need to close their eyes right now) – replacing the iron throne for a wheelchair? And calling him Bran the Broken? I can’t tell if it’s ableist or excellent.

I didn’t hate it, to be honest. It seemed a little interesting too how, in the end, the advisors all sat round shooting the shit around the table like they were in a writer’s room. Like the writers couldn’t resist but create their own image in the Game of Thrones. Typical. Writers are so full of themselves!

We didn’t find any seahorses during our dive at Mi Dushi. Among the swathes of pristine soft coral and waving gorgonians (Any excuse to say gorgonian). They were too good for us to find. The last time we saw a seahorse – a big orange one, was in Barbados. Clinging to a piece of scrap metal. Jack has a theory that if there was an old tire lying around, we would have found it there. He thinks seahorses are secret trash addicts. I’m not sure we’ll prove him wrong.

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