Trip Report 17 –24…25 Sept 2005
Tod & Jennifer’s 2nd trip to Bonaire & Sorobon


Getting There & Back
Back in Feb I got online and made our reservations to Bonaire. I got us on a flight with Delta from Louisville to Atlanta to Miami, and then switch to American from Miami to SJU to Bon. A few weeks later I drove to Louisville, KY airport to pay for the tickets. So far, so good. On the way back, my foot got a little heavy and one of Louisville’s finest awarded me a $200.00 speeding ticket, so it starts.
After the big count down, the day to leave finally comes. We check in with Delta and they give us boarding passes on the Delta flights to Miami, and take Jen & my dive bags (the advantage of staying at Sorobon, no clothing baggage). Once in Miami the fun starts. We end up running half way around the airport to get to the American Int’l counter to get the rest of the boarding passes, and then back around the terminal to the gate. We end up boarding late because the plane arrived late and it had to be cleaned prior to our departure on it. We arrive in SJU late, but manage to still get onboard the flight to Bon. Once in Bon we go to pick up our dive gear, everybody gets their bags but me. Somehow, they managed to loose my dive bag. So, I fill out the paperwork and the AE attendant says that they will call Sorobon when & if the bag comes in.
Throughout the week 3 calls to the airport were made with negative results on my bag.
Saturday the 24th rolls around and its time to go home. We wakeup at 0430, and go outside to wait for our ride to the AP to make the 0800 Flt. 0700 rolls around and we are still waiting for the ride when our neighbor in #30 comes outside, sees us sitting there, takes pity on us, and takes us to the AP (thank you again).
When we get to the AP we are the last in line. With three people in front of us, we are told that the plane is at is weight limit and we will not be able to board. While the clerk is assisting the three people in front of us, Jen asks another clerk about my baggage, and she is told that my dive bag has been there since Tuesday!!! I’m ecstatic and surprised that I even got it back, but it would have been nice to dive with my own gear.
Anyway, AA say that they will put us up in the Plaza for the day, but it takes until 1130 before we get the paper work needed to go to the Plaza. We will also be picked up the next AM, but they will not furnish us a rental car. I go and get a rental for the day to be returned by 2100 hrs. In the mean time Jen has told the clerk that we don’t need to be picked up and that we have a rental car. OK, do you see a problem here????? When we get to the Plaza we figure out our error and the Plaza calls AA and confirms that we do indeed need a ride in the AM. Problem solved. Now the room that we get stuck in couldn’t have been used for months, because we have to wait for an hour for it to be cleaned. When we go to the room after being told that it is done the maids are just putting the place back together, and its another hour before the luggage gets to the room.
Around 1400 we finally make it to Sorobon and spend a relaxing after noon on the beach and swimming.
Sunday the 25th… we are outside at 0545 waiting to be picked up, it is now 0615 and we are still waiting to be picked up. Jen goes to the office to find out WTF is going on. She is told that we will have to pay to be picked up and that AA will reimburse us (the check is in the mail), that’s not happening so we walk. Once again we are last in line, Jen goes and makes her self know to the ticket agent and gets put in the front of the four people ahead of us, who just happen to be bumped because the plane is over weight now. Once we get out of Bonaire things go a little smoother, but we still arrive an hour later than scheduled at our final destination.
When we get home we find out that our youngest daughter has been throwing up for the past day, and now #2 daughter is starting to get sick!!!

---On to the rest of the ?????” V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N ”?????---

DIVING
We went to the Carib Court Photo Tour Divers and I picked up a mask, snorkel, BCD, and regs (Booties and fins I got from Sorobon). We then went to the Yellow sub for our check out dive. This was Jens first salt water dive, she just finished classes and received her C-Card a few weeks prior.
I never did use anything more that a pair of swim shorts, and on the deep and night dives I wore a t-shirt. Jen only wore her bikini, and on the deep and night dives she had a skin suit to wear. Part of the time we only wore a BCD and a smile!!!! The only time that I even got a chill was during the snorkel to the drop off, once we were down the side of the reef the water temp was warmer.




Dive #1, Andreas
For our first dive we drove up to the Andreas, snorkeled to the south buoy, dropped down and drifted back to the north one. This was also the first dive that we made with our new Oly 7070/PT-027 housing. Unfortunately the housing lens was fogged up the whole dive and we didn’t get any pics, this was also the only dive that we saw a turtle and Jen was able to swim with it. We also saw the normal plethora of fish.

Dive #2, Sweet Dreams
I thought that this was a really nice dive with a lot of coral formations and fish. Unfortunately the housing lens fogged up again even after putting some store bought defogger on it, but after about 20 min it started to clear up and I managed to get some pics.




Dive #3, 4, 5, 6 Yellow Submarine
These were the advanced O/W class dives. I did not take any pics on these. We did enjoy seeing the garden eels on the deep dive, and all of the spotted and green moray eels on the night dives.
However, on the wreck dive I did get some pics.

Dive #7 Hilma Hooker
For this dive we did a multi-level dive and extended out bottom time a bit. The Hooker was an awesome sight as we swam up on her and she came into view, so much so, that Jen had to stop and catch her breath.




Once we got to the bottom the instructor guided us into the cargo holds and then through a few passages, into the wheelhouse and around to the stern. Here we made an ascent and swam over the top of the ship to the bow.





Where we found the cutest little sea horse, thankfully, Jen was wanting to see one so bad. Finally we had to make our ascent for the 15’ safety stop.




Dive #8 (if you can call it that) Sorobon
The dive here was just as much fun as the snorkeling is. I think that we were able to see more critters that on snorkel though.








Dive #9 Yellow Submarine (Night) Last Dive
This was our second night dive of the stay, we were going to see the coral spawning and shoot the eels that we say on the training dives. We didn’t see the coral spawning, but we did get a few pics of the eels (I just love Eels).




Granted we didn’t hit a lot of the dive sites, but just diving the few that we did, at different times made up for it. Overall I think it was a good dive trip. Just don’t mention AE and ruin it!!!!

ACCOMODATIONS
What can I say but….AHHHHHHHHH Sorobon………
……….UNSPOILED, UNHURRIED, UNCLOTHED, UNFORGETTABLE………
Total relaxation. Great food, thanks to Ludwick.








And a fond farewell



Until next time…………

Tod, Good report and glad you had a good time on our special Island. To bad about your return flight problems but things worked out. What pictures you did get were good, by the way there are no Stone Fish in the Caribbean, only found in the Pacific. The picture is a Scorpion Fish..
Thanks for sharing your experiance with us. We will be on the Island Oct. 15th for 15 days.. Can't wait... Ron

Thank you for the correction on the Fish. My daughter pointed that out to me too, as she was standing there with the fish ID card, double checking me. Leave it to the kids!!!!!!

Tod,

Looking at pictures of Sorobon it looks like Sorobon has added a new pier going out in the bay. Is that the case?

They just put it in the week prior to our arrival.

Great report! best pics. huge cuda. how's the raft by the sorobon reef? joe

Hi Joe,
When we first got there both rafts were out in the water. Dolf (the owner) removed the old one and then moved the new raft to the(right) about where the old one used to sit. A few days later they moved it a few more yards. The first step is a big one getting onto the raft, but it sits nice and high. They also added a new dock too.

Addition to the trip report that was overlooked.

The sail boarders were a major pain. Jen was standing in the water by the new dock, and a sailboarder came by and missed her by only inches. Another one had his board sitting on the near raft and was messing around with it too.

The next day they almost hit a 9 y/o little girl as she was playing off the end of the old dock.

A few days latter two "fishermen" went walking right through the beach area but only one was casting. I don't even think that they had any bait on the line from what I could see.

Hey Tod, glad you had a great time. That is what it is all about. As far as the surf boarders go, there are issues as to the damage to the shallow bay and damage to snake eels, and others, but as long they don't have cameras and walk fast enough to avoid a vacationer's beating, then it's time for the mangagement to hire another attack dog.

Tell me the differance as goes the chef. What has changed? Very important was the restaurant to us, so that we did not have to cook or go to other off-site chow facilities (clothed). How was the trade wind? What unit? Neighbors? Housekeeping?

Sick kids or not, keep going. Geez o' Pete's. If ya don't go now, you never will.

Hope to see you there some day. For the report, we'll buy chow and drinks. joe and dawn.

Wonderful photos!
My wife and I are off to Sorobon on October 12th, and plan to spend a lot of time exploring the reef system up toward the mouth of Lac Bay. Looks like you both had a great time, despite the connection snafu's

Great pics Tod!

Joe,
We stayed in # 29. It was pretty nice but the breeze through it was not much. I think that one facing the other direction would be better. The last time we stayed in #17, and it had better circulation. In 29 we had to keep the fans going all the time for circulation. All of the rooms have A/C but we didn't want to use it.





The first few days the trade wind was blowing at about 10 - 15 mph and it kept the mosquitoes down while you were on the beach and out in the open. But they were really bad in the "Sugarbird" in the evenings for happy hour and supper. We had to put bug spray on every night we went to eat. The last half of the week the wind dropped to almost nothing, and while on the beach the little nats were a pain in the AM but in the afternoon they weren't too bad. Also I didn't figure it out till late in the stay, but the bedroom had an ant problem too, and they had a buffet on me. I thought it was "skeeter" bites at first. When we left I had a little over 100 bites on me!!!!



As far as the neighbors go, they were really nice, and were there the last time that we stayed at Sorobon. There were about 10 - 13 couples staying there throughout the week. This made the wait for the meals a little long since the cook didn't have any help in the kitchen.

We never did go out to eat the whole time, the meals that Ludwick(sp) cooked were worth the wait.
We actually made it a point to be back from a dive in time to eat there.

The maids kept everything really clean and neat, they usually got to our room around 10am.


Here are some more pics at Sorobons reef....

Thanks for the pictures Tod. The one looking at the Unit makes me feel like I'm standing in the water. Same with the reef pictures. Sure are nice pics of Sorobon. Can't wait to go back.

Keith, when we dove the mouth of Lac Cai there was a pretty strong current. I say this because I don't know how close to the mouth of the Bay you can snorkel without thinking about getting pushed out to sea. We went pretty far along the reef snorkeling, but I don't think we went that far. I don't remember reading anything cautionary on this Board, but it may be worth an inquiry. joe

Keith,
The last pic that I posted above was about mid-way across the bay by a small channel through the reef. We were getting shoved around a little but not too bad. You just have to plan ahead a little as far as the route you are going to take so as not to get pushed into the coral.

Thanks--we will proceed with caution...I bet a lot depends on the wind that day. We do hope to get a little windsurfing in as well!

Tod--what camera outfit are you using?

Great report and pics!

Todd-Love your report- funny that you didn'tlike 29- we were in 27 and loved it- but Mike didn't like all the 'instructions' coming from the windsurfing teachers so we are going to be in 15 the next time.- just to try facing the other way. I guess we were lucky with the bugs- only noticed the skeeters while we were on the veranda at the sugarbird (what do you call that space in front of the office?)I think that they come up off the ground- its so dank and damp under all that wood. People ARE nice at Sorobon- that's what made my husband and I go AANR- only the nicest people go the 'un' route!

Tod, great picture's and report. Thanks for sharing!

Keith.
I was using our new Oly 7070 with a PT-027 housing. Unfortunately we weren't able to get the strobe/arm combo before we left for the vacation. I think it would have made a world of difference in the pictures if I would have had that. We initially were going to rent a strobe from Photo tours, but in the mix up with my luggage I think we forgot all about it. I received a lot of negative comments/advise ref the camera, where they were opting for the Oly 5060 or the 5050, but over all I think that it did a pretty good job. I am however new to UW photography......

Tami,
Our first trip we were in #17, and there was a constant breeze through it. In #29 we had to keep the ceiling fan and the 2 floor fans on all the time. We never did hear anything from the windsurfers, we saw them enough though. It didn't help that the security guard kept closing our outside door at night. He took his job seriously and did a good job of it too. One evening while we were at the bar, we heard our alarm on the truck going off. Jen(being the Police Officer) went out there to see what was up, and the security guard opened the door to roll up the windows for us. Jen tried to tell him that we wanted the windows down to prevent them from being broken by some kids wanting to steal the exlax on the seat!!!!! But he wouldn't have any of it, we ended up with our windows rolled up.

Eileen & Lisa
Thank you for the nice comments.

Tod & Tami,

Favorite topic; gotta chime in.
My thoughts about the breezes is that they come into the units better in the unit closest the water, in whatever two-unit combo you're in. Say for instance, the neighbor unit, 30, may have gotten better breezes. I think we were in 25, and wished we had been in 26 or 24. Both occupants in the other units went on about how nice the breeze was round the clock, while we didn't get any. Got plenty outside the unit, which is where we were when we weren't sleeping or showering.

I am surprised Tami that you heard the surfboarders all the way opposite the surfboard site. We never heard them at all, while those in units 1 and others did complain a bit about that. joe

Thanks for the photography info--I have been considering an Olympus 7070 and glad to hear that you had a good experience. We will be staying in #17 next week, so I hope that the trade winds hold up!
Although your pictures were a bit dark--I think you have a good eye for composition. Looking forward to seeing more pictures and eventually adding a few of my own to the board.

I just added a link to a Photodex slide show of our dives in the diving (go figure) section if anyone is interested. I will be adding another on of our surface intervals.

Let me know what you think.