Squid & Jelly's Great Adventure

Plot twist: some of Bonaire's best views aren't always in the water!

Chris and Su took a short drive south to find big white salt mountains and pink pans that fade into turquoise waters. Salt pier is packed with so many views to take in and you can even bring some of it back home with you! Don't miss this location on your Bonaire bucket list.

Click here to find out more about our exclusive tours at Treasure By The Sea: www.treasurebytheseabonaire.com/exclusivetours

🥥 The Great Coconut Water Heist of Bahía Honda 🥥

While anchored ⚓️ in beautiful Bahía Honda, we met local legend Edwin and his wife Rosalin. They trade fruits and vegetables for things that are hard to get out here - clothing, olive oil, salt, toilet paper, gasoline, and other essentials.

The good news? They have more coconuts than we have storage space. 😆

Now, if you know Su, you know she’s slightly addicted to coconut water. We’ve been buying it at PriceSmart, but with Coiba ahead of us, she was facing the terrifying prospect of having to ration her daily coconut fix. 😱

So naturally, she went straight to the source.

Edwin gave us a crash course in Coconut University:

🥥 Yellow coconuts (“pipa”) = sweetest water
🥥 Green coconuts = plenty of water, just less sweet
🥥 Brown coconuts = less water, but the meat gets firm and thick

Using a pole with a piece of rebar attached, he pulled coconuts from the trees like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Next, he grabbed a machete.

WHACK.

WHACK.

WHACK.

Fresh coconut water.

About 10 seconds.

No drama.

No blood loss.

No emergency room visit.

Naturally, Chris and Su thought, “We can do that.”

Easy, right?

Well… then Chris and Su tried. 😂

What took Edwin seconds took us considerably longer and involved far more staring at coconuts, discussing coconuts, repositioning coconuts, and questioning our life choices.

Let’s just say if coconut opening were an Olympic sport, Edwin would take gold, silver, and bronze while we’d still be standing there trying to figure out which end to hit.

It took about SEVEN coconuts to produce roughly 2 liters of coconut water. At Su’s consumption rate of about half a liter a day, that’s only four days’ worth of “emergency hydration.”

Seeing the severity of the situation, Edwin took pity on us and sent us off with 12 more coconuts. 🥥🥥🥥

The local parrots also benefited from our lack of machete skills, happily enjoying the leftover soft coconut meat. 🦜

Moral of the story: If civilization collapses, find someone like Edwin. If you find yourself relying on Chris and Su to open coconuts for survival… you may want a backup plan. 🤣

🌴🐠 Coiba National Park continues to amaze us! 🐠🌴

In this video, we explore three incredible snorkel sites within the Isla Rancheria anchorage: 📍 Don Juan Rocks, 📍 Isla Rancheria West, and 📍 Isla Rancheria East. Each location had its own personality, from schools of fish sheltering beneath rocky ledges to colorful reef life spread across the coral-covered shallows. 🪸🐟

Coming from Bonaire, we're pretty familiar with Caribbean fish, but the Tropical Eastern Pacific is an entirely different world. 🌎 After our snorkel, we found ourselves flipping through fish identification books trying to figure out what we'd seen. 📚🤔 Some species weren't in our Tropical Pacific Fish ID guide, and even ChatGPT couldn't confidently identify a few of them. 🤖😅 Thankfully, our friend Jason took one look and knew exactly what they were! 👏🐠

The stars of the day were two White Tip Reef Sharks. 🦈🦈 These sharks are much more slender and streamlined than the reef sharks we're used to seeing, which somehow makes them feel a little less intimidating. At least that's what we told ourselves. 😆

One of them gave me quite a surprise. 😳 I was completely focused on filming a beautiful Yellow Guineafowl Puffer 🐡 when a White Tip Reef Shark suddenly cruised through the frame and photobombed the entire video. 🎥🦈 It was a good reminder that when you're staring through a camera lens underwater, you should probably keep checking what's happening around you! 👀😅

The swim back to the dinghy was long enough that Chris and I occasionally looked over our shoulders to make sure we weren't accidentally the most interesting thing in the water. 🏊‍♂️🏊‍♀️😂🦈

Between the sharks, puffers, schools of unfamiliar fish, crystal-clear water, and healthy reefs, this was one of our favorite snorkeling days in Panama so far. 💙🐠🪸🌊

If you've snorkeled Coiba before, let us know your most memorable sighting! 👇 Have you encountered White Tip Reef Sharks, sea turtles, rays, or something even more unexpected? 🐢🦈🐠

🌴 Isla Rancheria
🪨 Don Juan Rocks
🦈 White Tip Reef Sharks
🐡 Yellow Guineafowl Puffer
🐠 Tropical Eastern Pacific Reef Fish
📍 Coiba National Park, Panama 🇵🇦

Leaving Panama City by boat ⛵️ is always a bit of an adventure.

Just outside the canal entrance, the ocean is filled with massive ships 🚢 waiting their turn to transit to the Atlantic. They seem to be everywhere. Tankers, container ships, bulk carriers… an entire floating city of steel. As a small sailboat, you carefully weave your way through them, constantly watching radar and AIS, keeping your head on a swivel, and making sure you stay well clear of these giants.

Once we finally passed through the maze of ships, the water opened up and the calm returned. The peaceful ocean just beyond felt like a deep exhale.

Panama has been such a special place for us. The diversity, the incredible food, the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, the endless blue skies, calm waters, and the stunning mountain views ⛰️ that seem to appear out of nowhere. It’s a place that keeps pulling you back. 🇵🇦

Suzette Wallace Chris B Wallace