My husband and I own Munsey’s Bear Camp, a wilderness lodge on Kodiak Island in Alaska. During the summer, we guide visitors on bear-viewing and sportfishing trips in the pristine wilderness of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. I work hard, but I love my job. I spend my summers watching bears, deer, foxes, whales, sea otters, seals, eagles, puffins, and other animals that call the Kodiak Archipelago home. We only take six guests at a time, and I get to know wonderful folks from around the world. Many of our guests fall in love with remote Uyak Bay, where we run our trips, and they return to our lodge every year or every few years. Some have standing reservations year after year, and they have become our good friends.
If you want to travel to Alaska, get off the beaten path and find a remote lodge where you can enjoy the beauty of the forty-ninth state. My usual commute to work is an hour-and-a-half cruise in our boat to the head of Uyak Bay, where Kodiak Brown Bears congregate on salmon streams. On the morning trip, we point out wildlife to our guests and never know what we might see. Sometimes we encounter orcas that race beside our boat, or we see huge fin whales and humpbacks. Other times, we watch bears walking the beach or an eagle perched on a cliff. I sleep well at night after breathing pure, fresh air all day. It’s a great job, and I can’t complain.
Then, there’s winter! Kodiak does not have the extreme temperatures found in Interior Alaska. It rarely dips into the single digits because relatively warm ocean currents pass near the island. Still, it is a wet, volatile maritime climate, and we are often buffeted by one storm after the next. Some low-pressure systems bring snow, others bring rain, and they all bring wind. When the skies finally clear, the temperature drops. We experience limited light in the winter as well. We never have less than six hours of daylight on Kodiak, but the sun sits low on the horizon, and we only see the weak light radiating from it.
By late January, we’ve had our fill of dark, stormy days. It is time to find the sun and heat! While there are many places I would love to visit, by late January on Kodiak, all I can think about is going somewhere warm. Last year, we traveled to Bonaire in the southern Caribbean. Bonaire is one of our favorite winter destinations. The small island lies fifty miles off the coast of Venezuela. It is twenty-four miles long and ranges from three to five miles wide. Bonaire is a desert island, and while the scenery above the water is amazing, we travel there to see the gorgeous underwater vistas.
Coral reefs fringe Bonaire and the neighboring small island of Klein Bonaire, making them the perfect destinations for divers and snorkelers. In 1979, the government designated the entire coastlines of both islands a marine sanctuary to preserve and protect the coral reef and the marine life that depends on it to survive. Biologists have counted more than three hundred and fifty species of fish and sixty species of corals in the Bonaire ecosystem. In 2011, scientists discovered the highly venomous Bonaire banded box jellyfish, a new species of jellyfish near the island. Luckily, these jellies are very rare.
My favorite fish is the French Angelfish. These big, beautiful, large-eyed fish swim close to snorkelers as if welcoming them to their home. Each dive on the Bonaire reef brings new surprises and wonders.
In addition to the beautiful scenery below and above water, Kralendijk, the capital of Bonaire, is a quaint Dutch settlement. English is the national language, but most inhabitants speak Dutch or Dutch and a mixture of other Caribbean dialects. American dollars are the official currency, and the many restaurants provide great food in a variety of cuisines – from Mexican to Greek to French to barbecue. There’s something for everyone.
My husband and I love our home in Alaska, but Bonaire is the perfect winter vacation for us. It offers us warmth and sunshine, and we can jump into the ocean and explore. It is a welcome reprieve from Kodiak in January.
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Robin Barefield is the author of six Alaska Wilderness Novels, an Alaska true-crime book, and a book about the wildlife of Kodiak Island. Her latest novel, The Ultimate Hunt, is now available.
What would you do if someone was hunting you in the Alaska wilderness?
