Here it is, the admission, I am a scuba diving addict, and I have no intention of changing! There, with that said, let me tell you about my latest experience of a lifetime, yes there are many.

This time I have ventured with my wife, Karen and 6 new friends, to a desert island in a foreign country where cactus, brush and weeds grow abundantly and the donkeys roam wild.

Bonaire is an island that receives an average rainfall of just below 20 inches per year. But it isn't the desert vegetation or the wild donkeys and dogs that attracts as many as 50000 tourists per year with the primary purpose of diving the beautiful waters surrounding the island.

The main Island has a population of close to 12,000 and is approximately 112 sq. miles, 24 miles long and 7 miles across at its widest point and Klein Bonaire, an uninhabited island off the west coast of the main island is 1500 acres.

Before the flight I run into a good friend of mine, Flemming, who owns a house in Bonaire, and imparts as much Bonaire diving wisdom as I can handle in 30 minutes of waiting for our flight. Flemming is with his family which includes Thomas, whom I've had the pleasure of watching grow up in the dive industry from a young age.

The flight to the island is on Air Jamaica out of Atlanta to Montego Bay. Until recently the only direct flight is KLH out of Amsterdam, but good news! Delta to the rescue. Actually the flight goes by nice and easy through Montego Bay and on to Bonaire. The airport is a tiny little place in comparison to the Atlanta airport, customs is a little stand with two sides and four customs agents. Our group of eight gets through without a hitch.

After check-in we rent our pickup trucks, diving on the island without a jeep or pickup truck would be a waste. Customarily four divers pool their money and rent a pickup truck for the week. Tip: pay for the insurance. If you wreck or someone vandalizes the vehicle you'd be stuck on the island while your insurance company sorts out when and if they are going to pay.

Now lets get to what you really want to hear about. Diving. Bonaire is known as the "Diver's Paradise", it has to be, its on every license plate on every car in the island.

To dive anywhere on the island, all divers must pay the STINAPA (http://www.stinapa.org/) "nature fee". SCUBA divers pay $25 and non-divers pay $10. The "nature fee" covers admission for one year from the date of purchase and allows free admitance into the Washington Slagbaii National Park.

Before being allowed to dive, you must go through an orientation presentation and orientation dive off of the docks. we're staying at Buddy Dive directly across from Klein Bonaire. Buddy Dive (http://www.buddydive.com/) is a great resort, with 6 boats. Most of the boats did one boat one tank dive every morning. We lucked out with doing a one boat two tank dive on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. That gave us the ability to shore dive all day on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

With proper planning and Nitrox, you can do 5 - 6 dives per day, if you're a hard core diver. Bonaire is fairly unique in this benefit since the island has more than 60 marked sites on the island and Klein Bonaire has 20 sites.

The orientation started in the "Pool Bar" at 9am on Sunday morning, which is a huge thatch covered hut next to the north swimming pool. Bart, one of the instructors at Buddy Dive resort, and from the Netherlands.

We all looked at each other when Bart talked about the Black Bird? And told us that touching the girls would make them die? Whoa, what the heck is he talking about? After a bit we realized he was talking about the Corals would die whenyou touched them and the blackboard had all the information about what was happening at the resort.

Time for our orientation dive. Our first trip in the water is amazing, the reef is a very easy swim from the boat dock and expands north and south. The corals are beautiful and the fish are everywhere. We see Trumpet fish, Trunkfish, Christmas Tree Worms, Tiger Groupers and Parrot fish everywhere.

My buddy for the trip, Dave and I decide to do another dive a short time after our orientation dive. Dave has been to Bonaire before so he proves to be a good buddy to have. We descend at dusk which proves to be an excellent time to see the divers resident friend, Charlie, a massive Tarpon (http://www.atlantascuba.net/DesktopModules/SimpleGallery/SlideShowPopup.aspx?PortalID=2&ItemID=115&Border=White&sb=Name&sd=ASC), who comes swooping out of the darkness into the light of your flashlight to get the fish you're "spotlighting" for his dinner.

Charlie follows us everywhere during the night dives. We also see Moray Eels, Octopus, Lobsters, and much more. What a dive, our first with many more to go.

To end the day we go above the dive shop to the Lions Den.

To be continued ...