REPORT PART 1:

Had such a great time I thought I’d share it here… hope it will also comfort me in the months ahead (between Bonaire trips hopefully)!! WARNING – it’s a long report!!!

HOTEL:
We stayed at the Plaza Resort, got a Grand Suite top floor for this return trip (its our second time in BON) because we loved having breakfast & lunch on the balcony overlooking the ocean. Even though we loved the Plaza, we are strongly considering getting an apt/condo next time we come so we’ll be reading these boards for recommendations.

WEDNESDAY 6-12
We took Air Jamaica from Newark to Montego Bay to Bonaire. The trip there was uneventful, loved arriving to the hotel by 3pm. Made my husband hide & groan because I kept asking all silver haired guys with glasses if their name was “Glenn” (see the Bonaire Talk: Getting to Bonaire: Early airport arrival thread I started on 6/7 for more details).

My husband remembered how good the pizza was at Rum Runners, so that was our first dinner. We both had the bbq chicken pizza, yum! Its always fun to look at the fishy life on the water right off the restaurant, looked like lots of tarpon were down there. After feeding the cats we found out that’s NOT allowed, so don’t let cat cuteness get to you too.

THURSDAY
The next morning we both had trouble with our checkout dives at 18 Palms. I got mask squeeze and my husband got major cramps on his legs. My eyes were nasty looking from the mask squeeze, so we decided to skip the afternoon dive and rest a bit. Mimi (from this board) was in the island and had invites us to stop by so we visited with her a bit, she gave us some good dive tips, such as buying the "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" book. She also told us not to be shy and go visit Jake & Linda. For dinner we had the barhop menu at Mona Lisa – it was soooooo goooood I really wanted to take this restaurant home with me. My husband had the chicken w/ peanut sauce and I had the wahoo, we shared the chocolate dessert. Highly recommended restaurant! Went to the internet café, and checked Bonaire Talk, and discovered that Glenn never did make it to Bonaire on Wednesday, and that there was a get-together at Gibi’s Terrace THAT very night! Talked my tired husband into hunting for Gibi’s, drove by it several times but the sign isn’t illuminated well at night so I missed the group (bummer!).

If you’re diving with Toucan and you got the 6 boat dive package – unless requested ahead of time, they automatically schedule you on the afternoon boat dive your first day and on the morning boat the rest of the week. We were not notified of this until we inquired. Also, I was a bit confused by the checkout dive, I assumed a divemaster would come with us into the water to make sure we knew what we were doing, but they all checked our work from the beach, about all they did was give extra weights as needed. Since this is my first dive trip after my certification I don’t know if that’s standard practice.

FRIDAY
My birthday! We celebrated by doing a much better morning dive at 18 Palms and boat dive at Joanne Sunchi. Had dinner at Richards, and was a bit disappointed. My shrimp pasta primavera should have been called “shrimp alfredo with bits of vegetables”, and my husband’s steak was ok but not all that great. We opted to get another chocolate cake at Mona Lisa for my “birthday cake” since we’d enjoyed it so much the night before.

REPORT PART II:

SATURDAY
Did the morning boat dive at Alice in Wonderland, got to see the “Bonaire Air Force” (flamingoes along the horizon by Salt Pier) which was cool. Decided to get adventurous and did our first shore dive of the trip by going to Andrea I. Helped some other divers whose camera batteries had just died (lucky for them my husband has lots of spares always). On the way back, decided to stop by the street cam, and my husband rang the Richter’s doorbell so I had no choice but not be shy and say hello. Had a lovely quick visit with Jake & Linda! They showed us video of a frogfish – way cool! SO now I can say I saw a frogfish in Bonaire (even if on video).
Our DM on the boat had told us of a dive they were leading that night under the Town Pier. Since I’d heard so much about it I thought I’d give it a try even if I was apprehensive about night diving, since I’ve heard so much about it on this board. Turned out to be a great dive but I don’t think I’ll do it again – I was struggling with not hitting the support columns or other divers half the time. Though the coral on the columns was incredible and I did get to see two seahorses so that made it worth the difficulties. Overall it’s a hard dive and I don’t recommend it for beginners like me (but I’m glad I did it and I made sure my husband took my picture down there!). Had a GREAT dinner at De Tuin.

SUNDAY
As much as I love diving, I love exploring, so since we’d done three dives the previous day we did some exploring – visited the Donkey Sanctuary (such cute friendly donkeys!), then hunted for Maiky Snack for lunch. When I got my goat stew, my husband looked at my stew, then at the cute goats roaming in the area, then back at my stew… nope, he didn’t guilt me into anything, I had a great lunch anyway! I tried looking at the chickens then at this plate, but somehow it didn’t have the same effect. We then drove to see Sorobon & Lac bay – how pretty that area is! We also drove towardst he salt collection areas, and saw the very heavy surf on that side of the island. For the afternoon dive, we did a great shore dive at The Lake.
Had no idea where to go for dinner, and as we’re driving into town I realized that the Garden Café was open (which was strange since its usually closed on Sundays). Turns out they were preparing for the Dive Food Festival to be held on Monday night, so he opened up the restaurant. Had a GREAT dinner there – highly recommended! – and bumped into a nice couple from Texas who’d just arrived.

REPORT PART III:

MONDAY
Did a shore dive to the Hilma Hooker. I had some ear squeeze while down there, panicked a bit, so my wonderful husband “rescued” me and helped me get back to the surface but in the excitement of it all we forgot to do our decompression stop, so no diving for the afternoon. Made up by doing an easy snorkel off 18 Palms. Then we did a sunset cruise on The Mistress – what a nice boat! We’d done this sail last time, so it was great to see Captain Mike & his mate Jules again. For dinner we hit the Dive Food Festival and had some great stuff there (too many things to try!). We ran into that nice couple from Texas from Sunday, and discovered they’re also Bonaire Talkers and that they were diving Small Wall, so we agreed to dive it together the next day. We even bumped into Jake & Linda and confirmed it all with them – as Linda put it, “welcome to small island syndrome!”.

TUESDAY
Last Dive day! Did a morning boat dive to Angel City, then the afternoon dive at Small Wall with Michelle & Leif. Loved hanging out at the web cam, but unfortunately our pictures barely came out. I’d even brought a cute critter to show in front of the web cam but my buoyancy is still crappy so I wasn’t able to hang in there the required two minutes. Oh well, that just means I’ll have to do it again ;) And I talked my hubby into one last sunset snorkel at 18 Palms while Moogie was playing music at the Coconut Crash bar – had a great time! For dinner we decided to return to Mona Lisa and had more of the barhop menu (pork tenderloin in mushroom sauce. snapper in garlic sauce and apple pie – yum!)

WEDNESDAY
Pack and return – bummer! Had an unventful flight. Drafted my resignation letter on the plane (but that’s another story…) And now we’re suffering from PBD and hoping for a return trip … soon!!

great report, thanks for sharing... I know I would have 'guilted' my bride over the goat stew, it will be 25 years this August, got to get your fun where you can, lol.

Just sounds like a terrific time.

Hi Ana,
Nice report! Looks like you had a good time.
I also met Michelle and Leif, they are fun. We went diving yesterday and today. We saw heaps of cool stuff. I hope they'll write up a report also.
BTW.. it's barhap (hap = bite in Dutch :-)
Bas

Ana sounds like you guys had a great time...so much to do...so little time.....Lucky you to do Alice in Wonderland...that site is a bit of a jinx for us...we have tried it 5 times! and either regulators broke...fin straps...or too much current.....so we have chalked it off to "better safe then sorry" we have never experienced anything like it! Trying to break the malinx but not last trip! Thanks for sharing....

Sounds like you had a great trip. I enjoyed your report and appreciate restaurant reviews. Counting down to our arrival...one week from today! This will be our second year at Buddy's since the first stay was so enjoyable. We would like to try other places but it's hard to change once you stay at a place you've had a great experience with. Thanks again for the great report!

Yeah, we had such a great time we're starting to mull the thoughts of returning already (just need the $$$ for it of course!)

Meryl,
we did Alice in Wonderland from a boat, maybe that's what made a difference?

-Ana

Great Report! We return to Bonaire in October. Missed alot of good places to eat the first trip so your recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Ana,,,yes thats I guess our next try....I am not a boat person..but want to break the cycle...so I guess next trip will be a boat dive there...I heard it is a great dive.....Love to explore the countryside myself....wish the back road maps were more descriptive....we drove for hours trying to find one set of caves and never did....(Bas how about a back island tour company?)

Meryl, the boat rides are short, 10-20 minutes for most, not like going to So Cal's channel islands or out to the Flower Garden off Texas. I have touchy ears, they used to call me RRRRalph for good reason, but I don't have a problem at Bonaire. So go for it and enjoy Klein dive sites.