We had an excellent trip. As usual, the people, weather, diving and R&R were great!

We stayed at Hamlet Oasis. Our hosts, Bert and Meib, are wonderful people. Hamlet Oasis is one of the newer resort developments on the island. The resort is not exactly finished yet, but it was certainly very adequate for our needs. They are in the process of adding a restaurant and dive shop. That will definitely complete the setup. The resort is made up of small individual cottages. Each cottage has a studio unit and an apartment unit. We rented an apartment unit which had a seperate bedroom, bath, dining room, living room, kitchen, and large patio. The attached studio was unoccupied so I don't know if privacy or noise would be a factor otherwise. But overall, very nice units.

We dove with "WannaDive". Though we didn't do any boat dives this year, Bart and Ruland "BOB" are quite the charactors. Had a great time with them. At the time of our trip, they were still operating out of Eden Beach Resort, but they are working on their second shop at Hamlet. Great guys, would highly recommend them!

Dove Ol'Blue (many times), 1,000 Steps(several times), Oil Slick Leap, Andrea I & II, Cliff, La Machaca, Angle City, and a few others. The coral is definitely recovering from Lenny. We spent the end of each dive studying the shallows and found infinite signs of new life emerging from the rubble. Mother Nature's hard at work and taking care of her own! Jim took some great UW pictures, I only wish I had a scanner so I could share them with you. His picture of a Hawksbill almost justifies the purchase. This picture is so awesome, it needs to be shared!

This year we did most of our own cooking. After a long day of diving, we find it more relaxing (and much cheaper) to stay in and fix dinner. However, we did dine out several times and "It Rains Fishes" is still our favorite. The grilled Wahoo with mustard sauce is the best. The shrimp and crabmeat cocktail is also very good. This has become a very popular restaurant and sometimes there is a wait, but in my opinion, well worth it. I think they may make reservations now, I'm not sure.

Alas, another ALM adventure. We flew Minneapolis - Miami - Curacao - Bonaire. I can't complain about the trip down. We were only 4 hours late. I'm pretty sure that consistutes "on-time" for ALM. However, our trip home was altogether a different story. We left Bonaire as scheduled, however, our Curacao to Miami flight was cancelled. ALM rebooked us on the next American Airlines flight back to Miami the same day. Unfortunely, we couldn't get a flight back to Minneapolis and spent the night in Miami. Overall, we were 29 hours late in our return home. The upside -- no lost luggage, ALM paid for our hotel and meals in Miami, and most of ALM's employees were very helpful. In Miami, even after the ALM counter had closed, an ALM employee waited for us in order to issue hotel/meal vouchers. Would we fly ALM again? Absolutely. Would they be our first choice? Probably not. We heard quite a bit of talk, speculation with regard to other airlines offering direct service to Bonaire. Time will tell if anything actually comes to pass.

Like so many of you, we have fallen in love with Bonaire and can't wait to start planning our next trip!

Thanks for the trip report...and I'll get to see the picture of the Hawksbill - Hopefully before I leave. Your report makes me want to be there NOW. A universal sentiment, I'm sure.

And thanks for the tip on the Wahoo with mustard sauce....I can't pass up anything with mustard (as would be evidenced by the seven varieties in my frig :-)

FYI -- It Rains Fishes does take reservations, we made them in Feb. Great meal again (pretty poor, even for island-time, service, but I think it was the one particular person)

We did not have reservations at It-Rains-Fishes. When we got there the maitre d' asked if we had reservations and since we did not he immediately seated us at a large high table with high stools. I guess this was the non-reservation section! It was very comfortable and service was excellent.

Loved your report ! masha danki for sharing!