Bonaire is addictive...what can I say? Trip one was a year ago in June. Trip two in March. Trip three now in August. (It helps if one of you is an airline employee!) It's low season now, and there are a lot less people and more personal service. We flew in on the red eye from Houston on Continental getting here at o'dark thirty Sunday morning. We got our truck this time from Poppy at Telerin on the advice of folks here on the forum. WOW! How easy was that!!!! She works there at the airport, so after we got our bags, we just went over and signed the paperwork. She had a guy drive us over to our condo across from the airport that we are staying at while she got a truck washed and ready for us. We slept in a bit to recover from the flight. She came over around 7 to deliver it, but tapped so lightly on the door we didn't hear her. By 9 I was up when she came again with the keys. Talk about great service! Poppy is everything everyone raves about here. She is an absolutely delight! Had lunch at City Cafe and just soaked in the atmosphere, and bought our air card package at Yellow Sub (15 dives for $114). Then drove over to Cultimara to pick up some essentials--cold cuts, cheese, butter, water, etc. Since it was late in the day, the bread and a few other things were gone, so ended up supplementing our list at the Sunshine Market. We were hoping to take in Gibi's buffet that night but after calling were told that they weren't doing it because there were only a couple of people staying over there. I guess that is the down side of low season. Went to Bobbejan's instead and enjoyed the mixed BBQ plate. Really good smokey BBQ, and good value for the money. The next morning we woke up ready to dive. First went to Yellow Sub for the check out dive, and then on to Bari Reef first. Nice dive. We had a huge spotted eel swim parallel with us for a long ways only to switch directions when we finally started our way back. Friendly little guy! That has been the ONLY eel we have seen on this trip so far. Where are all of them? On our first two trips to Bonaire, there were eels everywhere! Mostly the spotted ones. Is it the time of year? Do they migrate somewhere? Napping? Inquiring minds want to know. Next dive was to Oil Slick Leap and this time we weren't chicken and actually LEAPED! What fun! It was a great dive. Saw a beautiful peacock flounder amongst all the usual beautiful fish. Saw some enormous French angels the size of platters! While we were gearing up there at Oil Slick, one of those aqua tailed lizards (what is the name of that kind?) came to check us out. He was completely unafraid of us. Walked right over our booties etc. I was helping my husband do some kind of hook up of gear, when I felt something kind of dangling off my leg. I thought maybe my light had come loose or something. It was the lizard! He had climbed up to my thigh! It surprised me big time! ha! I wonder if he was looking for dinner handouts or what? I figured them to be vegetarian, so didn't have anything for him. Dinner for us that night was at Cactus Blue, our first time there. Service was friendly, food was okay. Yesterday morning, we each had a tank left and headed up to Karpata. Karpata was really choppy when we came in March so didn't take it on. We heard the entry and exit was dicey, etc. so thought it would be a more challenging dive. Got all geared up and then found my air "knob" wouldn't rachet--just kept free spinning. Here we were all the way up at Karpata with one tank each and no tool to fix it. Darn! No one else at the site had a tool either. Note to self...bring a tool next time. Sooooo, we threw the gear back in the truck and headed back down to Yellow Sub to exchange the "bad" tank and get three more. We enjoyed the trip nonetheless. Lots of donkeys and goats to look at. Let a local guy hop in the back for a ride down to Kral. Went back up to Karpata...we were determined. The water was pretty much like glass. Looked like a really easy entry and exit, and it was. Got in the water, swam out a ways and LAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! The heavens opened and angels sang! Oh my gosh! This is the prettiest dive on the island! We headed out and turned right (north) and the topography is absolutely like no place else on the island. And the corals! So many kinds and colors! Everywhere! The fish were the usual beautiful fish, but the topography and corals were what really made it special. We are going to go up there again today and go to the left (south), and try that. I guess that is the direction the anchors are, because we didn't see those or the grids. Second dive was at Ol' Blue which also looked like a lake that day. That has to be the easiest entry and exit on the island. Nice dive. You know, even though we haven't seen all the eels, we have seen banded coral shrimp EVERYWHERE this time. They must vacation here in August, too. We see the little "feelers" popping out everywhere. Nice dive. Oh! On the way up to Karpata the first time, we stopped at Chat and Browse to meet Michael G. (hi Michael!). It was nice to have a face to put with the name that I see so often on the forum. Someone had told me about Antriol Catering as an alternative to Gibi's for Bonarian food and that Michael had a menu at his place. He did. They were extremely helpful in telling us how to get there and even xeroxed a copy of the menu for us. C&B has a little bit of everything in it, too. He runs a hopping business! Obviously no low season there! Last night, we went to Plaza for their BBQ on the beach. It's $15 a person (Tuesday nights), and was fantastic. They had some BBQ'd mahi mahi that was to die for! I'm usually not a huge fish fan, but that was great. They had a steel band playing and we talked with some very nice Dutch people that had just gotten back from a trip to the Galapagos Islands. (THAT would be a thrill!) For people looking to stretch their dinner dollars, pick up one of those long folded brochures that tells what is happening on the island for the week. A lot of it is just advertising, but there is usually a "special" somewhere almost everyday. You can plan out your "specials" and then supplement with your favorite places you don't want to miss. After dinner, we walked down Abraham Blvd. to walk off some of the calories. Abraham Blvd. was completely torn up when we were here in March. It is finished now (I think) and has really nice sidewalks to walk on so you don't have to walk in the road. It is also paved. Kind of a mixed blessing. Bonaire is starting to look a little less rustic and a little more "uptown". LOTS more building going on all over. Will check in more later. Jane

Jane, glad you are having a fabulous time. Bonaire is getting more crowded Progress I guess. I hate it when the "nobby" thing just spins...have had that happen to me before. Ole Blue is one of my favorites too, lots of lettuce sea slugs

Spinny nobby things?
STOPITJOE

25 days and counting down

Joe...spinyspinningnudenobbythings...

STOPITCYNDE

too many days to count

Greetings All,
What a wealth of information for anyone heading to Bonaire!!!
Whoever put this site together has done an outstanding job!!! Not to mention the continuous maintenance.
This will be my fourth time back to the island. My last stay was in September 2006 and stayed at the Divi. We rented 3 of the studio rooms that had the screened in pouches and the kitchenettes next to the dive shop. They were remodeling the week we were there. We didn’t complain because after looking at our 3 rooms we could tell that the remodel was well over-do. (Hard to complain about something when you can see that people are trying to fix it). Air-condition was out in one of the rooms and the shower would flood the floor in another etc. etc. etc.
Back in 2006 we only had 2 complaints. Both of the complaints were my fault for improper planning.
Problem:
The red-eye flight out of Houston puts you in Bonaire around 5:30 am. You get you luggage and pick up your rental truck and head to the Divi. When the 8 of us arrived at the Divi we discovered that we were homeless until the regular check-in time of around 2 pm. What this means is that we had 3 Trucks full of luggage that you are afraid to just leave in a parking lot unattended. The group missed the 9:30 Dive orientation and the first 2 tank boat dive.
Solution:
All I would have had to do was just rent one of the Studios for the previous day and
we would have had that room to store our luggage and to prepare for the first dive.
By the time you split the one extra night by everyone the cost is negligible. The
reservations takers will tell you that they will “Try” to accommodate the group and
have one of the rooms available. But this is suppose to be a vacation so don’t be
cheap just rent the room and spare yourself the worry.
Problem:
When we returned the 3 rental trucks at the airport. We were told that one of the
Trucks had “fresh damage”. I can’t even begin to describe this scenario. I looked at
This truck that looked like it spent the last 5 years in war torn Beirut. I was told that
The back bumper had a new dent in it. The back bumpers on all three vehicles
Were all beat in. It was absurd that they would even try to make a case for fresh
Damage. I asked how can you tell fresh from pre-existing? She told me by the
Rust. She said that the dent she was looking at did not have any rust in it
While the other 50 or so dents all had rust. When we looked at the documented pre-
Rental inspection report it just showed distributed back damage.
Solution:
One of the members of the group took the pre-rental inspection report and began
Showing it to the long line of people that was waiting behind us to pick up their rental
vehicle. The claim was so ridiculous that the line of people immediately became
agitated to the point that the girl just told us to leave. fortunately we had a jury of
unbiased third party witnesses making such a commotion that they had to drop the
claim.
The down side of these two problems was that they took place at the beginning and the end of the trip. After the second day of diving and the wonderful breakfast at the resort the whole group had mostly forgotten about the first problem. But when you end the show with problems at the airport it doesn’t leave you a lot of room to make up for it. As the trip leader all you can do is try and put a positive spin on it. I was doing good all the way up to that point. Thank God the food at the Divi was so good and the visibility was excellent. The group had a blast and left with wonderful life time memories. I just wished that the folks at the airport car rental companies would understand that they are the send off crew. When the people get in the plane for their 4.5 hour flight back home I want them thinking about all of the memorable underwater scenes not the one that just took place at the rental car check in stand.
Well now its 2 years later and I booked September 27, 2008 thru October 4, 2008. Hopefully not back to the old Divi but to the New and Improved freshly remodeled Divi Flamingo Resort and Casino. Rented the studios again but this time I have the extra night. Have not made up my mind on the rental company yet! I plan to research this forum for that answer. Thanks to all that contributed to this ocean of information that is going to help me make better decisions on this trip. Does anyone out there know if the breakfast package at the Divi is still as good as in years past? And is Sergio still running the dive operations? And has the resort finished their remodel?
Thanks again
John

Jane; Thanks for your report & enjoyed reading it..
But PLEASE use paragraphs..
It makes it so much easier to read.

As a side note, it always pays to check the air in your tank before leaving for a dive site. Sometimes tanks are light on air. Live & learn.

Vince, I actually had checked the air in the tank because I want to make sure I had my full tank, if ya know what I mean. The spinny knobby thing (yes, Joe, I know it has an official name somewhere....I also call my recharger for my phone a "plugger inner" just because it is easier for me to remember!)somehow just stopped ratcheting (you like that official word?)sometime between the time I checked out the tank and the next day when I actually used the tank. Something must have gotten jostled or bumped or moved or repositioned or...

And yes, that was a rather long "paragraph" I posted. Mea culpa. I was just excited I guess.
;) Jane

Jane,
Thanks for sharing
John,
Welcome to BT!
Skip

Duh....the "phone plugger inner" is a gol dang DOODAD.
Don't nobody speke englich but me?

I only pick on people I like....(ok I keep it secret it I don't like ya)

good report. I'll do the paragraphs if I can choose from an assortment of completely inappropriate punctuation like duh duh dots....(parenthesticals) and the occasional cApItUlAtIoN.

Sitting here dreaming bout warm water and wondering who's young enough for the "Jr. Olympics"

happy evenin' (that's the...I spent all my money on a trip to Bonaire and can't afford "G"s mark) to all

joe

holy smackeral.....I've babbled my way through 500 posted pearls of wisdom....uh huh...not pearls

Joe,
Con-grat-ul-ations on yer 5 hunnerdth postin.
May yur had meeny mor.
Skip

congratulashuns on yer 500th post joe, yo' haf done fine! Fry mah hide!

Which truck rental company?

Jane, just out of curiosity, isn't the North (right) of Karpata a restricted area?

I'm heading back to Bon in 32 days (who's counting) and am really looking forward to hitting Karpata again. We are staying at Carribbean Club so it will be nice and close. ;)

NoGo, the truck rental company is Telerin.

Aaron, I certainly hope it was not restricted! We went that way on the advice of another diver we met at Yellow Sub. We just entered the Karpata dive site the usual way and then started swimming to the right. There weren't any signs posted saying it was restricted. Swam about a half hour to the right and then a half hour back to the left. No one was waiting to arrest us as we exited. Jane