This was our second trip. The first trip ending the last day of 2003.
My girlfriend and I left Las Vegas on American Airlines at 11:50pm the evening of the 6th. Straight (4 hour)shot to Miami. From Miami to Curacao. All flights on time and all luggage arrived in Curacao. In Curacao, we hooked up with Divi Air. We were booked on the 5:15pm flight to Bonaire. When we checked in with Divi at 3:00pm, we were told they may have room on the 3:30pm departure. We waited by the gate as instructed and low and behold they put us on the earlier flight! We had four full cases of gear and clothes, each weighing about 55lbs. Divi got it all on the plane for us. We actually arrived in Bonaire like two hours earlier than scheduled. What luck so far.
A special thanks goes out here to Wally of BT. It was with his advise I flew the route I did, with the airlines I did. He saved us about $160.00 a ticket and about 12 hours in travel time. Wally, thank you. If you are ever heading to Vegas (Like maybe for the show w/Bart & Ruland), please allow me to buy you dinner. I believe you may still have my e-mail address...feel free to use it.

Our vehicle was included in our package from Eden Beach. They are now using Total Car Rental. Our truck was fine, service good and this time they did not try and charge me extra money like AB Rental did in 2003.

Eden Beach was everything we remembered it to be. It is the most peaceful, friendly place Renee and I have stayed. Last time we had our boys with us , so we rented a two bedroom. This time it was just Renee and I, so we got a taste of what the one bedroom apartments were like. It was great. Full size kitchen, breakfast bar, and plenty of room. The bed sucked, but we were prepared for that. The management was as usual helpful, respectful and generally made us feel welcomed back to the island. We placed an order with the Antillean Wine Company prior to arrival. Eden Beach paid for the order and had it waiting in our refrigerator prior to arrival. The order arrived as requested at the prices quoted. We will use them again. Renee is very particular in the Chardonnay she drinks, (and that's all she drinks) so we e-mailed the AWC the type of taste she likes in her Chardonnay and they made suggestions. Four were hits with Renee. Four out of six isn't bad. Believe me, I'm from Vegas, 4 out of six is great odds. It's funny though, from our list trip we knew we could get Kendall Jackson Chardonnay on the island. that is all Renee drinks. This is why we started looking for wine stores on the island in the first place. AWC does not sell Kendall Jackson. While shopping downtown, at Best Buddies Liquor, low and behold...her liquid gold is sold there now! Anyway...she really had fun!

The bugs ate me alive on my first trip. Again, in an earlier thread, we were able to glean from the BT board to try the Avon skin so soft. It worked! Thanks again to Wally for that little tidbit. We had about two bites a piece this time! And smelled so much better!
The diving was again with the package and through the on-site operator;Wannadive. We consider them the greatest. One of thee main reasons that Eden Beach is so attractive to us...or is it Bongo's...Ah whatever! The crew at Wannadive was wonderful. Full of information, tips, sarcasm, etc. When we were there in 2003, the staff was a bit different with Roger and his gal working the shop with Paul. Only Paul remains from the old crew. Clemon and a girl who was busy w/classes while we were there, now make up the Wannadive beach team. Bob (Ruland) is also in & out all week long. They are the best. I had to dive with Sand Dollar on my last day, and, to me, the difference was night and day. Wannadive is so relaxed and fun, I will be back and dive with them for my 3rd time this coming July, 2006.

We left the island on the morning of the 17th on Divi air. Flight on time, they again hauled all of our luggage. When we arrived in Curacao it was bedlam! There must have been 100 pissed of people at the A.A. counter. Apparently, "Emily" had backed up air transport for several days throughout the Caribbean. When we finally made it to the counter, we very kindly offered our seats to help them move all of these stuck people. They took us up on our offer and promptly whisked us away by taxi to the Curacao Marriott. They paid for our room, transportation and meals. We stayed in Curacao an additional two days and received a very handsome compensation in air travel vouchers for enjoying the island of Curacao. We made so much in travel vouchers, we have already booked next years trip to Bonaire without having to come out of pocket!

My thanks to the board for the many helpful hints, tips. Like bringing duct tape, etc. Thank you Jake for the departure tax tips. You were right on. They did try to charge us full departure tax, even though we were traveling inter-island.

Writing these trip reports is time consuming, but with all the information you guys have provided us... I hope we can be of some help to someone else. Bonaire may not be for every one , but it is for us!

Oh yeah, we dove everyday too..... what a place.

Rich, thanks for your report! I am glad you had a great time.

Your generosity at the airport really paid off:-{)}

Photos?

Nice trip report. My first plan for travel is AA through San Juan to American Eagle but if that is not available for my time frame I plan to go through Curacao and use Divi Divi so thanks for the heads up. I hope that I have a chance to give up my seats too!!

I just realised that I failed to mention the best spot on the entire island to get together for cocktails...Bongo's, in my trip report. Not only is it a great place, I must say that they ran out of my favorite beverage in the middle of my trip. The owner ran into town and quickly brought back two bottles! Now that is service. Margreet, Brigit and Mota have to be the three most beautiful bartenders/woman on the island and they all work at Bongo's!
Also, breakfast was included with our package from Eden Beach. It is also served at Bongo's and is really great. The American breakfast at Bongo's includes:eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, pancakes, fresh fruit, juice and coffee!! We also had lunch there twice as well as a dinner. The cooks are great, as is the food, as is the drinks, as is the eye candy behind the bar. It seems as if every local stops by at sometime during the day/night to have a drink at Bongo's.

Tom, I got a few good turtle shots, give me a quick rundown on how to post them.

Lucky you Rich! Seven of us in our group of 15 were bumped in San Juan on our way TO Bonaire. While we did make the best of it, and enjoyed a night and half day in Old San Juan on AA's dime, we would have preferred it on the way home. We lost our first day of diving, and Emily arrived and bumped our last day of diving, so I only got 12 dives in this year. But we just felt it added to the flavor of our travels......

I think it was retribution for the horrible departure we had on our 2003 trip. It was covered thoroughly in a trip thread back then, but in a nut shell, even though we had obviously already paid in advance for our departure from Bonaire back to the states, we were told at the Bonaire airport that we had to pay to get on the plane. They wouldn't look at any of our receipts. There were four of us. It cost us over 2,000 dollars to leave that airport, which we of course were reimbursed by AA upon arrival back to the states. So, this was the opposite end of that spectrum!

What great report - thank you for taking the time to write it. I'm looking forward to putting my first trip together and will definitely use your report in doing so. Karma - yup!