I understand there used to be a ferry between Bonaire and Curacao. My husband and I have been to Bonaire 2 times already and are looking to come again the first week of September after a week in Curacao. It's much cheaper to fly in and out of Bonaire, so I am trying to find out if this ferry still exists and how to get more info on it.

Welcome to BT Michelle.
Only by air now.

M

You best way to do that is on Divi Divi, a small and wonderful local airlines. Flies during the day between Cur and Bon. Check the archives for articles on it.

Lydia

Hi Michelle & welcome..From what I understand, too many people got seasick (and of course it wasn't very profitable).

Thanks Vince. I thought the problem might be profit. It is really difficult to find inter-island direct flights from different places, so I was hoping that picking an island closer to Bonaire would be easier. It is slightly only because there is just one flight between the 2, but for example to go from Grenada to Bonaire you have to go to Trinidad, then Aruba, then Curacao and Bonaire. Crazy!!

Yes Michelle. Crazy. However, very worth the craziness. There used to be a ferry called the Chugogo that went between Bonaire and Curacao. I thought it was a good adventure. But then again, we only had about five foot seas that day.

This is similar to what we were talking about a few weeks ago with Saba. It's not like sailing around the British Virgin Islands. You're basically out in the open ocean with long stretches for the waves to build and your running right straight into them.My recollection is that at least 3 companies in the past 5 or 6 years have tried it on Bonaire and failed. I think all the boats where 75 to 100 feet. Got to fly Michelle
Mickey

We did use Chogogo from Curacao to Bonaire and back a week later. The trip to Bonaire was a little exiting with a large group of locals going to Bonaire for a day trip. The locals all had Chogogo caps and tee shirts. Because of the large waves the ferry had to go slowly as the length of the ferry was too short and it fitted in between the wave crests.

We sat on the seats on the roof and at first the locals were whooping with excitment as the spray went over the roof, 15 minutes later it started to go quiet, after half an hour the bucket hugging began. The journey should have taken around 1hour 40mins, I think it was more like 3hours.

We past close to Klein Curacao which looked very interesting if we ever go back to Curacao.

I felt very sorry for the Curacao day trippers as they arrived late and then had a limited bus trip around Bonaire before returning to go home on the Ferry. At least going back they were going with the waves rather then against.

When we went back a week later there was wind reversal and we had a mirror flat sea.

One of the problems with the Ferry was that it took such a beating from the waves which caused numerous breakdowns. I think the final insult was that when it was taken out service it was moved to an unknown destination without the governments permission.

Guess it should have been called the Chumgogo! I thing the the Dutch Antilles 30 minute flight will be just fine. I think I'll be glad that's the only choice now!