By Bruno Tuscher on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 10:34 pm: |
Oh my god, we are back in LA! We have just spent 2 fabulous weeks on Bonaire. We flew Air Jamaica but unfortunately were not as lucky as most of you guys. First of all they lost our divegear and another bag with clothes on the way to Bonaire. Lucky us, we were staying at the Belmar Resort (the very best!!!) and they offered in conjunction with Toucan Diving free dive gear rental until our own gear showed up again. Thanks very much for this great service. By the way... the rental gear was in perfect shape. Air Jamaica delivered our bag (after some pressure on our side) 3 days later. We are so happy that we made the right choice to stay at the Belmar. Jan & Wilma are very nice and made us feel like at home. We rented a Superior Classic 2 bedroom complete with kitchen. No doubt, very luxurious and indeed a home away from home! They also have a great pier from which we did lots dives. The reef is very nice especially for night dives and the convenience to just walk up to your room after a cool dive is awesome. Also there is a big rinse tank for your gear and every apartment has a dive locker to hang up your gear. Also very valuable is Toucan Diving's little shop at the Belmar. Irene was very helpful and there were always plenty of scuba tanks 24 hours a day. That's what we call Diving Freedom!!! I guess I don't have to mention that we all enjoyed the diving on Bonaire tremendously. Very healthy reefs, lot's of fish and others little critters. Not too many large fish encounters. Some good looking baracudas, some huge tarpons and some nice sized groupers. Of course, we were also searching for the famous sea horses but could not find any. We did only shore diving and we believe if yo don't dive Klein Bonaire you do not need a boat to access the best dives Bonaire has to offer. Bonaire is definetely a divers paradise but if you are looking for nightlife this is the wrong island. We all enjoyed the quite evenings under the stars. Most of the time we were cooking our own food at the apartment. Food is not exactly cheap on Bonaire and the price for the beer at the supermarket is creepy... Twice we went out for dinner and being Swiss myself we had to try the new Swiss Chalet restaurant. Great food indeed and the hosts Susy and Noldi are nice people. Just Susy's calculator doesn't seem to work to good. But her Fruitcakes are top top delicious. The other place we tried was Rum Runners at Cap. Don's. Also not bad and it was fun to watch all the night divers lights zoom around the water below the restaurant.
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By Niki Harris on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 2:20 am: |
Thanks, Bruno, for the great report.
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By Lorraine Meadows on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 7:51 am: |
Your trip report was great, Bruno, as for the air connectios, "the luck of the draw" Maybe the new Bonaire Airline I read about in the Bonaire Reporter,coming next year, will help matters. Anything more on this?
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By DARLENE ELLIS on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 11:16 am: |
Thanks for the great trip report. I am really glad that you had such a wonderful time and sorry to hear about your luggage.My carry on always has a bathing suit, coverup, mask, snorkel, film and under water camera. What else could you need in Bonaire!! :) Your detailed report made me get all excited about my upcoming February 2nd trip!!!! I am hoping with the approaching holidays that the time will just fly by.
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By Robert Deal on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 12:51 pm: |
Great report. 10 weeks to go for us (who's counting?) and it really whets the appetite!Hope we have better luck with AirJamaica...out of Baltimore, for us. We'll see...
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By Jan Klos on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 7:30 pm: |
Bruno,
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By Bruno Tuscher on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 11:12 pm: |
We have booked the entire arrangement (flight, accomodation, unlimited shore diving, rental pick up truck called dive mobile) through the Belmar. Our flight left LAX at 10:50pm to Montego Bay. So Jan... your daughter should be able to make that connection from San Diego. In Montego Bay we've had to wait 5 hours for our connection to Bonaire. Considering this little airport in the early morning hours it was quite a long wait. So bring lots of dive magazines or other literature to keep you busy.
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By Jake Richter - NetTech on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 9:02 am: |
Bruno,
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By Clay Lansdown on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 10:15 am: |
Jan,
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By Jan Klos on Sunday, November 19, 2000 - 7:01 pm: |
Thanks for all the feedback-- hopefully as more us citizens (not too many) find Bonaire- there will be more airlines to choose from and not be as limited as we are now.
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