Trip Report – January 20-February 3
Sorry if this rambles on, all over the place, but I am still in island mode.
We left BWI (Baltimore) on Air Jamaica more or less on time Saturday morning, and arrived in Montego Bay in just under 3 hours---good flight, nice service, a bit early in the day for Red Stripe, but we made an exception. The flight out from MoBay to Bonaire was delayed less than an hour, as the incoming flight from Chicago had been delayed and the plane was being serviced. End result was a 4:30 arrival in Bonaire, all luggage intact, immigration and customs with the usual friendliness, and with plenty of time to stop by Joke’s market to buy Polar on the way to the Divi. (Yes, we prefer Polar to Amstel…I was weaned on it.)
The manager, Stevo Schwartz, was greeting the incoming guests at the Divi front desk---the changes he has overseen there are tremendous…the place is looking really better than in years, and it was a great pleasure to be back. Ramona was so pleased with everything new she gave him a big hug. Kudos to Stevo for being an absolute dynamo and infusing the staff with a lot of spirit. The hotel side of the property is looking great, the landscaping is very pretty, the hotel rooms are completely renovated and show it. Work continues, but was not obtrusive during our stay. There are still many projects to be completed, but it is certainly a quantum change from last year. Unfortunately, Stevo was away during much of our stay, attending the DEMA show, so we did not get much opportunity to talk about future plans and schedules. Work focus is shifting now to the area of the Calabas Restaurant and the timeshare units (Lorraine and Carole, take note) Timeshares are getting new appliances, furnishings, painting, etc. Our unit had new fridge, stove, toaster, coffee maker, blender (Margarita time!)----also, new kitchenware, dishes, cookware and new curtains and bed spreads. They are trying to work around owner arrivals, and everything works on island time, also. But a lot is happening and it is good to see. I have tried to catch some of it on the photos in the Bonaire Jan/2001 album at http://photos.yahoo.com/rjdeal_22182. There are various other photos of the vacation there as well, so you have to put up with those.
We got to visit Michael Gaynor and Linda Richter on the first weekend. Jake was off island, but we did manage to get together with both he and Linda for lunch at the end of our second week, at a new place, De Islander---Indian food: very good! It was really great to put faces and real people together with names, and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting everyone. My regret is that somehow (even on Bonaire) time slips away and we didn’t get to follow up on meeting Michael, or to have a second chance to get together with Jake and Linda. I hope that can happen on our next trip. Talking to Michael about the island is fascinating, and he generously gave us a copy of the island guide that he had helped bring together; and Jake and Linda are as warm in person as they are on line.
We were lucky to have wonderful weather and great diving during our entire stay. We did have an occasional rainshower, but most of these were in the early hours of the dawn, with the sun shining by 7:00…and not enough standing water around to allow for the mosquitoes. Diving out in front of Divi was great (it usually is, to my mind) as there were a couple of turtles to be found there on several occasions, Hawksbills of about 18 in. Another special treat was a large school of tarpon which had taken up residence at about 75 ft depth, between the sunken lifeboat and the moorings of the Woodwind. These were the big guys, 4ft plus, just hanging motionless in the water. We found them there day after day. On one dive, I had maxed out trying to photograph a group of four under the Woodwind mooring and was returning to shore when I ran into eleven more easing through the water toward me. I pushed the limits just to hang around with them. It was phenomenal. I only hope that the photos captured what my eye and mind were seeing. (It will be a while before I can review and post any underwater photos.) Diving the northern part of the island was equally good, with my special favorites as always being Rappel and La Dania’s Leap. On most days, I was just doing a single-tank boat dive and then diving from the Divi dock in the afternoon (loved hanging out with the tarpon). Sometimes I would do an early two-tank boat and just loaf the rest of the day, snorkeling with Jessica, who is really getting to be a regular water bug. This allowed Ramona some downtime so she could just relax and read. Divi had a full house of divers during the two weeks---according to Serge (the dive manager), it had been like this for a while with several large visiting groups. Even so, the boats were not overcrowded, with the most being 20 divers on a boat. Since the boats are roomy, 20 is quite manageable. Serge was running one boat for a private group the first week, but was still putting an 8:30 two-tank and a 9:30 single-tank on the board for everyone else to sign on to, and running two different single-tank boats in the afternoon at 2:00 or 2:30. It gave us a lot of flexibility. (Serge is a great guy who is doing a real good job at keeping the diving running smoothly with so many different demands! In the second week there were two large groups, one Canadian and another US, and then the rest of us.) We also had a great first-time treat for one of our crowd. Kristi had accompanied our friend Jim to Bonaire for the first time (Jim’s 8th visit or so). She had never dived before, but had finished the resort course with Geertje at the Divi. So we take her on her first boat dive, to Small Wall (of all places), and while on her first dive, in the company of Geertje and two other resort students, the four of them have a close encounter with a manta ray! A six-foot manta that comes right toward them, circles twice above them, then swims away…the ultimate beginner’s luck. This is while the rest of us are all visiting the reefcam. The woman is charmed, by the way: on her next dives over the following days, she encountered a turtle and on one dive found a sea horse which she spotted before the dive master did. In conclusion, diving was great, good visibility generally, and we are beginning to see a lot of new growth one year post-Lenny, especially in the staghorn corals in the shallows. Great variety in the fish life, and in large numbers. We also encountered several large schools of boga when diving Divi Tree on Klein, had them swirling all around us---just tremendous. Had frequent turtle sightings, more than I recall in the past; and several frogfish and sea horse encounters (Three sea horses on one dive at Bonadventure). I love those small critter encounters!

Thank you so much Robert. I enjoyed every word. I am also staying at the Divi, and am looking forward to seeing all the changes since my last visit. Tell me, do they still have all the wooden carvings with people's names and where they are from? Kathi and I had one there, and I was just wondering.