Carol and I just returned from trip to Bonaire.Getting there was easy on AA. Huntsville to Dallas to San Juan to Bonaire. Customs was a breeze. Coming home was same experience. Everyone was very helpful. In our case we could have arrived at 5:30 for the 6:00 flight as the airport was pretty much empty.

We stayed at Buddy Dive with the Drive and
Dive package. The room was clean and neat and as advertised. Being a spoiled American I would prefer A/C in all rooms but in the bedroom was ok.
The staff of the hotel and diveshop was most helpful in all matters from diving to local questions. The breakfast was great.

For meals we started with Maikey's? Snack at Jakes recommendation. It was tough to find the first time but worth the effort. City Cafe or Cafeteria was very good. Perhaps I am not a good critic as everywhere we ate we found the food and service to be great. Mona Lisa's,Luigi's, Richard's, De Tuin, Bobbyjan's TakeOut, Compadres and Dock of the Bay at Buddy Dive were all great. The ice cream at Presca's in Rincon was as great as we had read as well. (excuse my spelling).
Diving and other Activities: I must confess that I went to Bonaire to dive 4-5 dives a day and come out to eat only. After arriving we found the island so interesting that we spent lots of time doing things above the water. We drove ourselves just to explore and get a feel for the island. We did the cave exploration/snorkel with Henk. It was very interesting and he told us much about the island we hadn't heard or read before.
In general the visibility though good was not great probably due to stronger wind and surf than usual. Buddy's house reef was nice. We found the dives to all be similar.....beautiful, unspoiled and crowded with sealife. The terrain at Karpata was interesting with the valleys.
We had Hendrick from the photo shop video a dive with us. We learned alot from him and have already watched the tape 3 times. I recommend this very highly. No dive sites were crowded...usually just us. For those wishing to shore dive I recommend "Bonaire Diving Made Easy"
by Jessie Armacost. The information was still accurate and gave newbies to Bonaire the confidence to dive the sites. The Town Pier night dive was crowded but one of the most colorful divesites I have ever seen. Alex from Buddy Dive pointed out a seahorse for us.
IN SUMMARY: A wonderful island to visit as well as to dive. The people are kind and helpful. (we had no theft at all.) I appreciate all on the board who posted before me as the information made our trip easier and more enjoyable. Thanks to Jake for the island info.
Sorry I missed the Gibi get together...we were under the pier. I am certainly no expert but would gladly answer any questions about our experience.
JOHN and CAROL

In sounds to me like you will return to the beautiful island of Bonaire!!! I am glad that you had such a wonderful trip. And just for the record, I think you are a great critic!! When I am in Bonaire, I have never have had a bad meal anywhere and I find the dining is as good, if not better, than anywhere that I eat in my area.

Your report was great John ! Captured the spirit!

John & Carol,

Great report! We will be arriving in August for our first trip to Bonaire. You said the visibility was good but not great? Was it around 60'?

Thanks,
Ida

thanks for sharing your report.

Ida,
I have always felt the term visibility was so subjective and frequently depends on the mood of the diver. I would call the visibility 60 on the worst dive to 80 on the later dives as the water settled down. Again this is great visibility in many locals and since most of the fish were right on the reef as opposed to swimming off in the distance it was really not a factor. My pics came out clear but they were all close of course.
I did not put lists of all the fish seen since it is so variable but every dive was great for marine life viewing. We missed seeing a turtle and octopus. The dolphins in a large group were there, a very large moray just south of Buddy Dive, lots of squid, and the seahorse were among some of the more interesting. I am still I.D.ing some of the fish we saw. For numbers, water temp ran 81-82 degree. There was a surprising lack of change in temp from surface to 146 feet.
I am still in awe of the whole trip. I think of it and just say,"WOW!" I thought I was a cynical hard judge of things but can't think of a significant negative about our trip. Oh, I also placed a Guilder coin on the dash or seat of the truck several times while diving.....it was never gone. Talking to folks there I found that theft was the exception not the rule while we were there. Hope your trip goes as well as ours.
John-----a new Bonaire fan.

SHOULD BE "LOCALES". SORRY.
JOHN

John Irle,

Thanks for responding 60'to 80' will be great!

Ida

Happy to hear you had a great time,John !Now you can relate to the things we talk about here,Bon bini to the group!