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Trip Reports: Our 2 weeks at Belmar Feb 12-26
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2004-08-02 to 2005-05-08: Our 2 weeks at Belmar Feb 12-26
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Vince DePietro (BonaireTalker - Post #74) on Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - 12:41 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Was wonderful!! This was our 10th trip to Bonaire (first being in 1985) so this time we traveled sans camera. We found Belmar to be very accomodative to our needs & the staff there is great. My only negative critique of the resort was that they should have dive tanks available on the dock (I'm one of those people who hates carrying scuba tanks). Others staying there apparently didn't mind this minor inconvenience, so to each his own..

With respect to mosquitos, this was NOT the problem I anticipated in reading past postings.. I suspect this was due to the extreme proliferation of dragon flies during the day & the bats at night feasting on the little buggers.. I guess nature's own way of correcting for excesses. At any rate, the dragon flies & the bats were a good thing. Used a little skin so soft & never had a problem.

On diving, this was the only trip where we did all shore diving.. No problems & dove the usual sites..Favorites up north were Karpata (of course), Oil Slick & Andrea 2.. Down South was the lake, Angel City & Aquarious.. It's nice not to have to worry about when the dive boat leaves..Typically we made 2 dives per day with a long 3-4 hour surface interval between them & several night dives..Nice & relaxing!!
I experienced a leaking problem in my spare air.. Bruce Bowker at CAribe Inn was able to get it repaired within several hours for a nominal charge! Recommend him highly.
Also, on the subject of diving, we managed to avoid the scourge of swimmer's ear (otitis externa) by dropping by the Botika in town & purchasing several bottles of their homebrew remedy (which I believe was 12% vinegar in some sort of oil based liquid) & using this prophylactically during our stay.. I'd certainly recommend same to anyone who's ever had this problem.

The rental vehicle was through Hertz with no problems & they gladly accepted my AMEX card.. No problems at all with crime & I liked that it came with a small lock on the spare tire making a chain unnecessary. No problems at any of the dive sites (although I did see some broken safety glass at the lake one day which I thought was unusual for a southern dive site).

This trip was different in that we came very close to purchasing a condo which was being constructed..Unfortunately I could not get over what I considered to be major engineering flaws in the basic design which could not be corrected. So perhaps at some other time. There seems to be a lot of ongoing construction on the island.

Unfortunately, the real negative of the trip was the journey home by Air Jamaica. Boy, they've really gone downhill..Over the past several years I've been a big fan of there's but they really need to get their act together!! We arrived in Montego Bay for what was to be a 1 hour layover. This kept getting delayed & delayed..The plane did not take off till a bit after 1:00 AM, a delay of more than 8 hours. Suffice it to say there were many unhappy & agitated passengers. I for one however was happy to get my butt off of Jamaica!!

The restaurants were great & must say we never had a bad meal out. Managed to make the BT dinner at Gibi's who was able to pull off the meal by candlelight since the power was out..So...until next year I'll just have to be content with reading trip reports.....

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Stoltzfus (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #530) on Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - 1:12 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Nice report...

Thanks for the mosquito update. It gives me assurance that my Avon Bug Guard (Skin- so -soft) should do the trick as in the past.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Cousino (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1432) on Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - 7:20 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Vince, Thanks for the report.

I agree, after many trips where some of the diving was done by boat, my last trip was shore dives only. It is nice being able to totally forget about keeping a timetable.

I flew A.J. in October. I honestly was not impressed, with the planes or the staff.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Vince DePietro (BonaireTalker - Post #75) on Thursday, March 3, 2005 - 6:17 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom..Just to clarify, I really didn't have any problems with the staff at AJ. During the final stages of our 8 hour delay, (when it was past midnight) they were being verbally abused by some of the passengers & I must say they ALL kept their cool. I certainly admired them for that because from my personal observations,there were some real jackasses on the plane!

I don't think I would have been able to do it. They were on the front lines dealing with angry frustrated passengers due to circumstances completely outside of their control. So notwithstanding my own personal misfortune at what was coming down, I did feel a bit sorry for them.

 


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