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Trip Reports: Trip Report Bonaire - ABC Island Tour Part I (loooooong.)
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2000-07-13 to 2001-05-18: Trip Report Bonaire - ABC Island Tour Part I (loooooong.)
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Amy Martin on Wednesday, September 13, 2000 - 11:44 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

After spending a week in Curacao we made our move to Bonaire via ALM. Our trip to Curacao was via Miami on American, who did a great job of getting US there on time, however my luggage was delayed by 1.5 days. Thank goodness I had the intuition to pack my carry-on with extra shorts, skivvies and (HURRAY!) my bathing suit!! That's EXACTLY what carry-ons are for, and I had a wonderful first day in the water!!

ALM, I have to say, got us to Bonaire EARLY, intact and complete with our luggage. Only the person who checked us in acted like they hated their job...as I would if I had to work in an airport. We were delighted after being nervous from all of the negative postings about them.

We got a taxi to the Plaza, which unless you are looking for a continous party atmoshpere, I would not recommend. I have to give a disclaimer that we are not negative people by nature, and usually going-with-the-flow is par for course on ANY trip, but our experience with the Plaza was not the best. We had requested a room facing the sea with a balcony, and when we arrived our original room was not ready, so they booked us into a room with two queen beds, no air-conditioning and a door which was not attached properly leaving a half inch crack through which every mosquito on Bonaire came to visit. As it happened, we had rain showers everyday (which we love, by the way-cools things off!!) so the mosquitos were hoppin'. Our room did have the sea view, but there were too many mosquitos outside to really enjoy it. Our room, although fairly tidy had squished mosquito carcasses all over the walls - due in part to the fact that the cleaning personnel leave the doors wide open as they clean and then they try to kill the bugs before they leave. We actually turned this into a game in the end - who can kill the most mosquitos (I won, by the way...or maybe my fiance is the real winner since I was the one hopping all over the room every evening while he relaxed...hmmmm, smart guy). Anyway, every evening there was VERY loud music from the beach bar, which by the way was so loud that we could hear it all the way down the road at Richard's. When we made a complaint and requested a different room, the young people who are employed by the Plaza were defensive instead of helpful and empathetic. They were unable to accomodate us in another room, and although we were among several who called regarding the music volume, it continued until after 11:00PM. So...we decided to suck it up, try to laugh it off and stay underwater most of the time. Again, I think if you are looking for peace and contemplation, stay somewhere else. If you want a party, go Plaza.

OK! I'm off my soapbox now! The food at the Banana Tree is excellent and my Dutchie partner really enjoyed having croquettes on the menu. So, on that first afternoon, we snarfed some lunch, laid out our itnerary for a too short 4 day stay, scheduled some activities and took an afternoon swim in the rain (GREAT!).

Our first full day, we enjoyed the massive breakfast bar at the Plaza (I have to admit that the food there is all very good) and met with a group of maybe ten other people at the Toucan dive shop for our orientation. BTW - having been on the other islands and seeing the way that they just throw as many people into the water as possible without even briefing them about how coral feed and survive, I was delighted with the orientation. It should be required of every reef system everywhere. After the chat, we suited up for our orientation dive at the Eighteenth Palm, better known as the Plaza Resort beach. Although there isn't alot to see before the drop-off, the sight of the reef once you get to it is incredible!! Hard and soft corals, angels of all kinds, trumpet fish, trunks, drums...I can't even list them all!! I went immediately to the dive shop afterwards and bought a copy of the Reef Lover's Guide and I can't wait until my photos get back to ID everything. After our dive, we went up to the Banana Tree for, you guessed it, croquette (A mistake when you are planning a dive because having to burp down there is not nice). In the afternoon, we scheduled a boat dive with Toucan divers to Klein Bonaire - a site called Forest on the very NW tip of island. After experiencing this dive, I regretted not taking everyone's advice and just doing the shore dives. We were very happy with the DM that took us out in the morning, but the behavior of our DM's on the boat in the afternoon basically led us to cancel our second scheduled boat dive. To begin with, these two seemed more interested in making each other laugh, than in anyone on the boat. The diving DM, said that the dive would be for one hour at 60' and that we should be sure not to go towards the tip of the island or risk being swept away in a strong current and then he took to the water. No time for questions. My fiance and I are newbies and still a little slow to equalize, etc. Our DM never asked us our skill level and we never got the opportunity to tell him. When we finally got in and down to around 30', imagine our surprise to find our DM and the other hot dogs on our boat disappearing into the dark. They were just gone. So we said OK, we'll just tool around the reef at around 55' in the same direction as the group and maybe we'd meet them. We never did, and as we got low on air, we headed back and wound up passing by the boat, almost to the tip of the island and its current. We went down again and swam against the current to get to the boat, and aside from taking our fins from us, our Captain/DM did not say one single word to us while we waited for the rest of the group (who by the way went to 80', not 60'). Needless to say, those DM's got no tips, and as I said we canceled our second boat dive. But, I'm on my soapbox again, aren't I? Apologies, but I do want to say, the shore diving is really excellent in Bonaire and there are so many choices...lesson learned, go shore...and if you do go with a boat, and you are new, be sure they know it. After a lovely shower and a relaxing evening, we had dinner at the Caribbean Point in the Plaza. It was Caribbean night and the buffet was plentiful and the dancers were terrific. Take mosquito spray to that one though - its an open-air cafe.

To be continued...

 


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