My wife and I just returned from our third trip to Bonaire and our third stay at Sand Dollar Condo Resort. We had a great time!

We flew American Airlines Nashville-Miami-San Juan-Bonaire and had only minor delays which did not affect our trip significantly. However, our luggage did not arrive with us when we returned to Nashville and was delivered later that night. Better to have it happen on the trip home than the trip to Bonaire.

We like the very relaxed atmosphere at Sand Dollar and especially like having a kitchen to prepare our own meals. Since we are vegetarians, it's just easier; although we did enjoy eating at Crocantino's and Richards. Richard's is always very accommodating to our dietary needs.

Bonaire Dive and Adventure, the on-site dive operation at Sand Dollar, is always very congenial and helpful. They have a great staff and the dive pier is so handy for diving right there at Bari Reef.

We enjoyed the night dives we did at Bari Reef and were fortunate this time to witness the Coral Spawning event on the night of September 24.

We also tried some dive sites we had not done before including 1000 Steps (really only 72), Ol' Blue, Andrea II, Alice in Wonderland, Witch's Hut, Windsock, and Invisibles. We revisited Oil Slick, and Angel City.

There have been a few changes at Sand Dollar since our last visit July 2004. Mangos is now the Barracuda Club, and the pool area has been redone. The Den Laman Restaurant next door to Sand Dollar is open for business and has a beautiful seaside dining atmosphere.

I did take 5 rolls of underwater pictures. I'm not a professional UW photographer, but if any of the turn out I may post a few later.

As always, it's tough to leave Bonaire. Life on Bonaire is slow and relaxing - the way life should be. Unfortunately, most of us have to return to a much faster-paced life and can only look forward to the time when we can again leave the rat-race behind and spend a week or two on Bonaire.

Marvin Lowman

Marvin, glad you had another great trip! Look forward to the pictures Is the little restaruant still on the cement slab where the Green Parrot was, or was that just temporary until they got the Baracuda Club done and pool?

Glad you had another great trip!!

Cyn:

Apparently the little restaurant on the cement slab was a temporary fix while Mango's and the pool area were being redone. The temporary lean-to is still there but nothing goes on. Even the iguanas seem to have taken up residence elsewhere on the property. We saw a few but not nearly as many as last year.

Marvin

Marvin, thanks, I was wondering if it was temporary until they got the pool and restaurant done. I hear it's REALLY hot right now...maybe the iguanas have taken shade to keep cool!

We were on the Island during this week - have been coming down since 1978 and am fascinated with the continuing change. We have a time share at Divi and enjoy the convenient diving both offshore and off the boats. The staff was as good as always. My wife dives with a 50 CF tank and they went to great lengths to make it available for her. The only negative was the seeming reluctance to travel to distant sites - we don't usually request a site leaving that to others who may be first timers (although we really like Rappel)we made a lot of trips to Nearest Point and Something Special - oh, so what, we love it all!

We were originally scheduled on AJ out of Atlanta - was switched over to Delta to SJU and AE to Bonaire. AE is not one of life's greatest experienes, but it worked. Air travel continues to deteiorate - Delta flights to and from Atlanta are 3 1/2 hours over lunch time - meal service in First Class was a bag of peanuts!