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Trip Reports: SCUBATREKKERS Trip Report
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2000-07-13 to 2001-05-18: SCUBATREKKERS Trip Report
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bruno Tuscher on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 10:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.
As a taxi driver told us: Bonaire is a great place... but the hardest thing is to get here and away. Our friends who flew ALM did the usual game; sitting at Flamingo airport not knowing when they will be able to leave the island. Most ALM employees at this airport have no clue what they are doing and not very helpful nor very friendly. Eventually our friends made it off the island with a 6 hour delay but since I haven't seen them since I'm not sure if they are still waiting for a connection flight out of Curacao...:-)We departed Bonaire a day later on Saturday with Air Jamaica. The entire day it was raining down cats and dogs and all the locals mentioned that this is very unusual even for the rainy season. ALM - who does the ground work for AJ - took over 2 1/2 hours to check in all the people for this flight. The plane arrived delayed due to the weather, which was luck for the ground staff... they would have never checked in all the pax for this flight in time. Anyway, we missed our LAX connection in Montego Bay and AJ flew us up to Atlanta and from there to LAX the same night. Unfortunately the same bag they have lost on the flight to Bonaire got lost again on the way home...
But who cares about this after you had two incredible weeks of scuba diving on Bonaire? Once again we would like to thank everyone who has helped to make this an unforgettable adventure.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Niki Harris on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 2:20 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks, Bruno, for the great report.
Gee, you mean Air Jamaica is fallible?
I'm taking my chances with them next trip,
reserved 8 months ahead, knowing that it
couldn't be worse than ALM, come what may.
Glad you had a fun vacation.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lorraine Meadows on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 7:51 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DARLENE ELLIS on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 11:16 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Robert Deal on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 12:51 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jan Klos on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 7:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Bruno,
If you could pass on some info re: Air Jamacia out of L.A. My daughter lives in San Diego-- and I can't seem to find the flight schedules. No matter where Ipull it up from i am told that she can't get there from San Diego in 1 day.
Thanks

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bruno Tuscher on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 11:12 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.
Air Jamaica has only a flight on Wednesday & one on Saturday from Montego to Bonaire. But I would rather wait 10 hours on this airport than to fly with ALM! Air Aruba does not operate anymore, which leaves not many choices to get to Paradise!

Oh by the way... my poor friends, who left Bonaire a day ahead of us with ALM had another unbelievable story to tell: First they had to wait over 6 hours (due to plane shortage) at Flamingo Airport for the ALM plane to pick them up. Then they were again stranded for a few hours on Curracao for their connection to Miami . Then they took an unscheduled stop in Kingston, Jamaica - something was wrong with the plane. But the best is yet to come... upon their arrival in Miami they had to witness, how one member of the ALM crew was arrested for smuggling drugs! Can you believe this?!
Air Jamaica is the choice... anytime. Let's wait for Bonaire Air to make a differnce.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 9:02 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Bruno,

It's my understanding that even coach connecting flyers from LA are entitled to use the First Class lounge at Montego Bay - they have drinks, small munchies and a number of comfortable seating areas (although the AC was cranked too high for my tastes last I was there).

As far as the ALM attendant getting nabbed, I read about it a couple of days ago in the St. Maarten Daily Herald (http://www.TheDailyHerald.com) - he was caught with 26lbs of cocaine, and the story said that there may be other related arrests coming (seems kind of stupid to warn these smugglers though).

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Clay Lansdown on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 10:15 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jan,
Due to the early departure of the Air Jamaica flights from their gateway cities - which incidentally gets you to Bonaire around 3:00pm - I don't think you will be able to get your daughter to Bonaire in one day from anywhere except one of the gateway cities.
We are near Boston and have to overnight in Baltimore going and coming back.
The good news is, this gives you some time in the afternoon to pick up some groceries, sunset ceremony beverages, and get settled in for the night.
Beats those 11:00pm to 2:00pm ALM arrivals, but it sure adds some additional cost for the overnight stays.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jan Klos on Sunday, November 19, 2000 - 7:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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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