I made my first trip to Bonaire this year with two friends, Jen and Lisa, for windsurfing and diving. We're all novice divers, I'm an intermediate windsurfer and Lisa is a beginning windsurfer.
Our trip did not start well. Our flight on American from Austin to Dallas was cancelled (mechanical problems), but luckily there was another one ten minutes later so we made it to Dallas in time to catch our San Juan connection. Unfortunately, that flight was also cancelled due to mechanical problems. There was another San Juan flight that day, but not one that would have let us catch our Bonaire connection. Not wanting to spend the night in Dallas we convinced American to fly us to Chicago that day and put us on the next day's Air Jamaica flight. They did do that, put us up in a hotel, gave us meal vouchers, and also let us delay our return flight one day so they weren't all bad (although I would have preferred their airplanes worked properly), and Patty Cressy at bonbook handled all the rescheduling at Bonaire, which was nice. In the end, we got to Bonaire on Wednesday rather than Tuesday, but we arrived before 4PM rather than around 9PM, which was nice. Unfortunately, our luggage would not show up until several days later.
Well, after that inauspicious beginning, our trip could not have gone better. We stayed at Eden Beach. That was a lot nicer than I expected. The rooms were nice, all air conditioned, and in pretty good shape. We had one problem, with the toilet in master bedroom breaking (water would not stop running), but they fixed it pretty quickly. Also the doors were squeaky, and there were noises at night (doors/windows rattling due to wind), but that was about the extent of the problems. We found out when we left we could have rented a TV or stereo for the week but we didn't miss it.
The best part of Eden Beach was the beach, Wannadive, and Bongos Beach Bar. The guys at Wannadive (Bart, Meno, Rouland, Erwin - I probably spelled them all wrong though, and I never managed to pronounce Rouland's name properly) were all really nice and pretty funny. We did mostly shore dives but also did a few boat dives with them. Jen will never forget the seahorse Meno showed her :-) They also did not charge us for renting the equipment that we had in our delayed luggage, which was even nicer.
Bongos was a great place to relax. I don't usually like bars, even beach ones, and I never go to them in Austin, but I spent a lot of time at Bongos. We went there between dives/windsurfing, had drinks and appetizers there at sunset, and hung out there after dinner until closing. Hank and Marlous did not know what to make of us at first (especially Jen) but were really friendly after they got used to us - say hi to them for us if you go there. The food was pretty good to - I had the mixed grill once or twice a day as a snack. The chefs, Jesus and Ferio (sp) make it differently but it was good either way. The guacamole there is really good too, though it's not like American guacamole (yellowish rather than green, we had to ask what it was). They're also opening a restaurant there in the next month or so, which will be nice.
Bongos also hosts the Jibe City videos that Josie at Scubavision makes once or twice a week. A lot of people came from Jibe City to watch the video, which is basically the shots of the tourists, the amazing local kids, and some general Bonaire footage mixed together with music. It made for a nice vacation video - much better than the footage that came out of my camera. I bought a MiniDV version from her to use in my own production, but had to pay extra for it (she usually just sells VHS). I found out later that she and Hendrik actually have a production company that does nature films as well as scuba and windsurf video shoots. Next time I go down I'll have them videotape us windsurfing and diving instead of trying to do it myself, they did a much better job with the windsurfing video I saw.
Aside from the Eden Beach area, we windsurfed at Jibe City, did some shore dives and boat dives. The windsurfing sucked, I was on 7.0 and 7.5s (someone told me Peter had said it was because a cold front was holding the trade winds away from the island) but I didn't mind much because it was so beautiful out there - great beach and turquoise water filled with colorful sails. Also it was nice watching good windsurfers - the local kids were doing incredible things even in the (relatively) light winds. The diving was nice too, although I don't have much to compare it too. I even liked the water at Eden Beach - the Wannadive guys called it Eden Rubble and told us there was nothing there because the hurricane had wrecked everything, but there was still lots of sealife. I saw lots of fish, two lobsters, and a couple of eels while snorkeling, and Bart pointed out a seahorse on our review dive, so it's not as if the area is sterile, it just doesn't have the big reef formations.
In town, we got groceries at Cultimara, but didn't use most of them since we ate out most of the time. Lunch was usually at City Grill; we also did Zeezicht once, but the girls didn't like it for some reason (I thought it was fine). For dinner we went to It Rains Fishes, Richards', Donna and Giorgios, and the Lion's Den (in Lion's Dive resort). I think the last one was the best, we ate there three times, but that may just have been because they had lobster. It Rains Fishes had a nice carpaccio, and all the restaurants were good, but I don't think the level of cooking was up to what we had in the Caymans.
The other store I remember is Atlantis. I bought a couple of pendants (typical tourist stuff I think, but really beautiful - a gold flamingo with a pink pearl body and a gold seahorse with diamond pave inlay) there from Dominique, who was pretty helpful and had some interesting stories to tell about her travels.
There were a lot of negatives to our trip - the airline problems, light wind at Jibe City, the everpresent mosquitos, crime (we talked to someone staying at Lighthouse condos who had a laptop, digital cameras, etc. stolen from their downstairs while they slept). But on the way back, and in the days since, we've all agreed that it was the best vacation we've ever had. This is the first time we've felt sad leaving a place. It's never pleasant to go back to work, but usually we're sort of happy to go home. We've been feeling sad since we got home though. The island itself is so beautiful, and we met so many nice people there, both locals and tourists, that we're planning on making it an annual trip.
P.S.
Things I wish I had known:
- You can sail at Jibe City before it opens at 9:30.
- You need an airport departure ticket ($20 per person) and can get it before your departure.
- You don't have to brake for iguanas, they go really fast once they realize you're not going to stop for them.
- Don't trust the airlines getting luggage to you. This was the first time I've had luggage delayed more than a couple of hours, next time I'll pack a carry-on with clothes, toiletries, harness, mask/snorkel/fins, and other stuff I need immediately.
- Get one of those four door pickups if you dive. I got a 4-wheel drive vehicle with automatic and a/c from National (Grand Vitara) because I wanted to go up into the park, but we never made it there and it was a pain fitting the gear in back. I'd go without the a/c to get a four door pickup. (I'd go without the auto if I could drive a stick).
Things I did know from reading this and other forums:
- Get there early for the AA morning flight. The morning I left there were several people that were not allowed on the plane because they showed up late (not even really late, it would have been plenty of time in the US). |
By Jim Chou on Friday, March 15, 2002 - 3:30 pm: 
