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Trip Reports: Alaskans in Bonaire for a wet november (long)
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2004-08-02 to 2005-05-08: Alaskans in Bonaire for a wet november (long)
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Matheson (BonaireTalker - Post #32) on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 8:47 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well, after 11 months of living vicariously through all your reports and reading all the great advice we finally headed off to Bonaire for our first time. What follows is my lame attempt at a trip report from a first timer perspective from a LONG ways away.

PREPARATION
Since the day I first considered getting certified years ago I have wanted to visit Bonaire. Our group of 14 from our local dive shop included every level of experience. Based on all we read on BonaireTalk I was able to convince them to try Bonaire! We were coming all the way from Juneau Alaska and cheap tickets were a must. We were all able to obtain frequent flyer tickets on American via Alaska Airlines so were at their mercy for flights. We chose SandDollar for accommodations based on reviews here. As American Eagle continually changed their schedules I must say that Sabah at Sanddollar reservations was EXTREEMLY easy to work with and accommodating with our continuing rebooking. All in all I believe we had to change our reservations five times and she was always a joy to work with. Highly recommended.

TRAVEL
The only person that could possibly have a move difficult routing to Bonaire than Alaskans may have been Columbus himself. We all left on various flights during snowstorms the first week of November from Juneau to Seattle. Once getting out of the snow we had various routings and overnights through Dallas, Chicago, or Miami that eventually got us all to either San Juan, Aruba or Curacao and then via American Eagle, Divi or Bonaire Excel to Bonaire. With 14 of us on many different flights we both got to Bonaire and returned the day before Thanksgiving with not one late flight or delayed bag between us! We are obviously very lucky. With all the complaints I’ve heard I must say that the travel was relatively painless but LONG.

WEATHER
bazar weather
Remember when I said we were lucky? Well I believe we used it up on the travel. You see, we live in Juneau Alaska. A rainforest if ever there was one. In the fall we typically will have 29 rainy days out of 30 so we sure were looking forward to dry Bonaire. Hah! We arrived in a thunderstorm and it didn’t stop raining for nine days. Well it stopped for a few minutes here and there but with the humidity and high seas from the wind reversals it might as well have rained nonstop. With everything flooded we were unable to visit the park and twice had to backtrack on one way roads at Lake Gottomaer (sp) due to roads being underwater. Once we actually put on the wet suits and booties and led a caravan of stranded divers across the flooded lake road to get back to Rincon. Lots of adventure but not much sun that first week. It was actually quite heartening listening to all the poor local folks apologize for the weather like it was their fault while dealing with their personal flooding issues. For the most part quite wonderful folks with positive outlooks. Finally, the last five days of the trip the wind turned around, the skies cleared, the sea calmed and the air dried and WOW you finally get to see what a wonderful place this is.
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DIVING
Obviously with all the rain the diving conditions probably were not up to typical Bonaire standards. We didn’t let that deter us though and made all the requisite first timer dives. Shore entries were difficult during the frequent wind reversals with lots of cuts and bruises from those foolish enough not to have full wet suits on that first week. Best dives by far were at Klein and BOPEC with the reef seeming much healthier up there. We saw all the usual suspects including our share of turtles, 190
tarpon, eagle rays, a few frog fish and one of us got the seahorses. Vis was a high of 100’ at Klein and a low of 5’ on the swim out to Tori’s reef with an average of 60ish’ I’d say. During the height of the storms the runoff at the harbor caused the entire channel between Klein and the harbor all the way down to Bari reef to turn chocolate brown.
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Two days later it was flushed back to beautiful blue and after several dives on Bari Reef things looked back to normal. Night dives watching the tarpon hunt on Bari were great. One of us took the Tri Mix class from Walt at RecTec and was very happy. He did several dives on the Windjammer. The rest of us just dove above and viewed it from 110’ but still quite impressive.

EATING
In spite of the humidity we ate out a lot for dinner. The kids loved subway and KFC of course for lunch. Zeicht Zeicht, Lost Penguin, Donna & Gorgios, Pasa Bon Pizza (once pumped out), and Mangos were good. Crocantinos, Bongos, Casablanca,
food2
La Luna, and Ribs factory were great and City Café had miserable food and service. By far the best meal and service we had was at Mai Mai our last night. I’d rank it with the best meals we have had anywhere in the world and we have traveled a bunch. With all the rain all the outdoor restaurants came with a lovely new appetizer of “misquote under table”. Everyone had dozens of bites on their legs. Long pants helped but did not deter nor did gobs of repellent. The money we saved on sunscreen due to the rain was all spent on bug dope and Benadryl! Cultimara was a fun experience and the bakery was great.

ACCOMIDATIONS
We were quite happy with Sanddollar. The condos were spacious. We had studios, 2 bed rooms and a 3 bed room and all were fine. During the torrential rains two of the ground floor units flooded and they relocated us to new bigger units upstairs without hassle. Maid service was spotty but they were quite busy dealing with the flooding so I’ll reserve judgment. The dive operation really was the prime example of diving freedom. Never a question about the number of tanks taken, free Nitrox, efficient boat diving, pleasant folks to deal with and convenient fill stations and gear storage. Tim at the camera center is a guru and my son is in love with all the beautiful lady divemasters. (I didn’t notice anyone but my lovely wife but I’ll take his word for it)

OVERALL
In spite of the weather and bugs I can sure see why everyone loves this place. We will have to come back during the “dry” season but we did have a great time. Our last day we visited as many other resorts as we could and really liked Eden Beach and Divi’s layouts as well as Lions Dive and Buddy’s. Palace and Harbor Village seemed unwelcoming and aloof with a failed attempt at being 4 star resorts but I may have been suffering from Amstel Bright deprivation when we were there early in the morning. So many restaurants and accommodations still to try. Bonaire stay cool and we will be back as soon as we can. Thanks to all BonaireTalk posters for all the great info especially YanaGirl who we were lucky enough to run into last week.

FINALLY
If you have kids and go to Bonaire without having them spend a week with Caren Eckrich at Bonaire Sea & Discover you are making a HUGE mistake. Our 8 and 10 year old boys had a fantastic time with her and never stopped talking about what they learned there.

If I have not bored you to death with this report you can go to http://www.ptialaska.net/~vision/John.htm
and download my massive (33MB) slide show of pictures from the trip. Sorry so big but it was my first time with my underwater camera and I couldn’t resist.
John

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Susan Taft (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #408) on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 9:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

John, what a wonderful and upbeat report! The rains and flooding have been very hard on the locals as you pointed out and I am sure that they all appreciated your positive attitudes about this unusual weather. Hopefully your next trip will be a drier one! Thanks for sharing.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Debbie Babcock (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #534) on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 9:32 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

WOW1 John, That was great! Really felt like I was there with you guys. Looks like you had a great time even though you had rain most of the time. My husband was down there at the same time and it was the most rain Bonaire got in over 60 years! Glad that won't deter you from going back though. Great report.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mare (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #433) on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 11:16 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

John, thanks, I needed that.
Could you hear when I applauded my favorite shots? I hope so. It seems that, despite the weather, you managed to have a wonderful time. (Have you ever noticed that the fishes don't care if it's raining?)
Thanks again for sharing. I enjoyed myself watching almost as much as you enjoyed yourselves on your vacation.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Birk (BonaireTalker - Post #27) on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 10:02 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for the slideshow. We are 60 days out and this gave us all a little pick me up. Also, thanks for the positive attitude. I get sick of people whining about all the little things that "absolutely ruined" their vacations. It is refreshing to find others that pick up lifes lemons and make a big batch of lemonade. Fun is not where you find it, it is where you make it.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kelly Baum (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2057) on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 11:14 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great report, John! You definitely see the glass as half full. Sounds like you made the best of the rain. Your pics are awesome! Great job!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DARLENE ELLIS (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1274) on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 11:17 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

John, It was such a pleasure to read your upbeat trip report concidering the unusual weather you encountered while there. I am glad you could see the diamond through the rough!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bruce Wallace (BonaireTalker - Post #53) on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 6:21 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well done! My favorite pic was the octamapus. I had a trip to Bonaire last year when it rained a lot and still had a blast. Peace.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Karin van Veen (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1632) on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 12:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thank you John, I loved it! It was also good to hear the original Bonairean music. This is from the singers from Rincon, right? I have seen them here in Holland, they are great!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By J.J zambrano mazzei (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #108) on Thursday, December 2, 2004 - 10:25 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

john.....great trip report,nice pictures in unusual weather "rain" I think that you are a candidate to come back the next year !

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Louise Rozario (BonaireTalker - Post #19) on Saturday, December 4, 2004 - 7:59 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Terrific John! Just one week out & excited about a new adventure. Thanks for your enthusiasm. Your home is very very beautiful as well.
Louise

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4394) on Saturday, December 4, 2004 - 7:38 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

That was wonderful, John! Thank you for letting us enjoy your trip along with you and your family. You DEFINITELY have to return to Bonaire when it is not raining...that was, without a doubt, an exception to the rule for weather on Bonaire. Thanks again! Ayo. Carole

 


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