If there is a better diving location than Bonaire, anywhere in the world, someone will have to hit me on the head with it for me to believe it.
We (my son and I) just returned from our second trip and I must say, the "off-season" seems to be a lot more crowded than the "on-season".
Every dive site had several trucks parked and every restaurant seemed to be almost full. Even the streets seemed more crowded.
More and more people are starting to figure out what we have figured out - Bonaire is the place.
Anyway, how about our trip? August is lots hotter than January even if the air temp is not a lot different. Amazingly, the water temp is about the same but I did find visibility to be not as good as when we were there in January.
We (meaning mostly me) have concluded that Oil Slick Leap is my most favorite dive spot. It seems like a whole different dive if you go left from the buoy instead of right. Either way, the dive is spectacular. We saw a pretty big octopus right off the ladder on our 3rd and last Oil Slick dive of the trip. I have some pictures and if I can figure out how to post them, I will.
We saw several large Eagle Rays but only one came close - he swam up to us almost nose to nose before he veered off. Ok, ok, he got about 2 meters away before he veered off but it looked nose to nose.
We saw the biggest sharp tail eel ever, this guy had to be 2 meters or close to it. And coming back on one dive, this incredibly big barracuda swam in front of me. Largest barracuda I have eve seen, his teeth alone were a foot long (ok, 3 inches but believe me, a close up giant barracuda looks like he has foot long teeth)
We ate at Mona Lisa (the best food of all the restaurants we visited). We ate at Capriccios and were very disappointed, the fish (wahoo) was not fresh, tasted very fishy and the only thing good was the orange juice they give you as an appetizer. We went to Cactus Blue and had the goat stew. I swear it looked like beef, tasted like beef and I need to see the goat skin before I order it again cause I think they gave me beef. We liked Bobbejan's again but did not go there until our last night. That place has the best meal value on the island, by a HUGE margin. The other restaurants are extremely expensive. And the only complaint I would have about Bonaire is it gets weary paying $80-90 for dinner when we are not ordering drinks, wine or even dessert.
As for diving, we like the south still for the best diving. Although Witches Hut, Oil Slick Leap, Thousand Steps, Karpata, etc are all great dives. I am kinda mad at Andrea I cause I banged my shin on one of those nasty rocks while getting in. I may take a while before I forgive that dive site, even if it is a good dive.
The south seems to have bigger fish and a better chance of seeing eagle rays, turtles and the like. I will say that there is not a single bad dive on Bonaire so just suit up and hop in, you cant go wrong.
I did not accomplish my # 1 mission - to see a sea horse and frog fish but I did see a scorpion fish. I just put my camera on reverse zoom and I am going to lie to everyone and swear it is a frog fish. If I keep the fish book out of sight, I might get some believers.
We stayed at Lighthouse Beach Resort #7 again and I must say, it is a very convenient location, very nice facility and fairly priced. We were supposed to visit someone but missed out (sorry about that). We met a nice couple who locked themselves out, turned out he was a doctor and gave me some antibiotics for my banged shin.
We did not do much else besides dive, eat and rest at the condo. My excuse is I am old, my son has no excuse but we did no cave exploring, no donkey sanctuarying, no land sailing, nothing.
One disappointment I have is that I emailed fish-eye photo about setting up a class but he did not respond and I did not take the class. Last visit I managed several terrific photos, this trip I reverted back to my sucky usual camera work and only have a few worthwhile shots. Thereby, using my system, take 5000 pictures and hope for 5 good ones.
Oh yea, did I say only one complaint? I meant two, the week went by way, way too fast. Before we blinked it was Thursday and presto, zippo, Friday, then Saturday and time to fly home.
We look forward to our next visit. Will probably dive the same spots plus 5 or 10 new ones, eat at different restaurants with repeat visits to ones we ate at on this trip or our last trip. We will soak up the splendor of great dive sites and offer smiles at anyone and everyone because Bonaire offers the best vacation spot for everyone.
Now, how do I incorporate some photos?

Interesting that you find the restaurants extremely expensive, as I'm looking forward to my trip in a couple weeks since it's a lot cheaper eating out in Bonaire than it is in L.A. I guess it all depends where you're coming from.

That's really too bad about Capriccio's wahoo, since that's what I might have ordered. On our last visit there, I had a very disappointing filet after an excellent half-order of lasagna. When we eat there this trip, I'll definitely stick with the pasta!

I sure hope those eagle rays are still around when I have my wide-angle lens on.

VINCE...Loved the humor

Nice report!
For instructions re posting photos, go down to the box at the very bottom of the page and click the "BIU Formatting" icon. Scroll half-way down the formatting page to "Images."

Vince great report and can't wait to see the photos., they have to be less that 100kb in size and they have to be either in .jpeg or .gif format,, save the photo to your computer where you will find it and then in the posting box below format them like this \image{YOUR PHOTO's DESCRIPTION} mind the slash and the squiggly brackets.. you can write anything between the brackets as long as it if family friendly.. follow the prompts when you go to post it and you should be fine... on the first page you will get a black and yellow rectangle hit post again and you will be prompted to browse your computer for your photo click on it and you should be fine.. if you have any problems just yell and we can help..Good luck!!

thanks for the report and humor...

if dinner truly costs $80-90 without drinks or dessert
I think our group will be eating in!! (we arrive for our annual
trip in 3 weeks)

look forward to photos.

Not to fret Nell...lots of very reasonable meals to be had..pasa bon pizza..city cafe's cheeseburgers(not as good as the old green parrot, but still), bobbie jan's, lots of others, no need to spend a lot of $$$ unless you feel like it

I guess it depends how "fancy" you eat?

But choosing meals that cost $40 per person (without tip)are NOT uncommon at most white tablecoth restaurants in these parts, in fact they'd be considered a bargain. If that's $45 for sitting on a wood plank with a vinyl placemat on the table, then THAT would be excessive IMHO.

I was able to find very good meals at both ends of the price spectrum around Bonaire (less booze of course) and evening meals at $30 or less are not that hard to find.

Vince,
On your next trip be sure to try El Fogon Latino and China Nobo. Good food and quite inexpensive (less than $30 for two with a few beers before tip).

My husband and I found Divi's restaurant (Chibi Chibi) to be quite reasonable and the portions were big. We also enjoyed Pasa Bon Pizza. For us, the key to saving $$ was to drink our beers after dinner when we got back to our room ... much cheaper to buy a case of Brights at the grocery store.

Vince...A week on Bonaire is really just not enough.
And yes it does go by way too fast.
There are many, many local inexpensive places to eat on island. Check out Bonaire updates to see what's going on..
http://bonaire-update.com/

Hi Vince,
Post #5 - welcome to BT.
It sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for the report.
I hope your PBD doesn't get too bad. lol
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