I am convinced that someone put a "Bonaire Curse" on me. When we went in '99, I couldn't dive for the first three days because I had a cold. It started on the night before we left, as we were packing. This trip it was even worse! Read on. The trip there (Wednesday 8/28): We flew on Air Jamaica. We got to the airport at 3:15 AM as requested by the airline. There were no ticket agents on duty, but there were several passengers waiting. We got in line, and waited until 4:00AM for them to open. We slept most of the flight there. When we got to Bonaire they x-rayed all of our luggage before we left the airport. I thought that was strange. Karen from Buddy Dive was waiting with a Buddy Dive sign, so we loaded up our baggage and just as we were getting into the truck, another couple came over who were also staying at Buddy. The problem was Karen was expecting them, and not us!! Luckily, they packed light, and everyone and all of our baggage fit into the truck. When we got to Buddy,Karen dropped us off at the front desk to get our situation figured out. Asgard , the guy at the front desk, said: "We weren't expecting you but, we're certainly glad you're here!" I showed him my confirmation paper, which showed that we did indeed have a reservation for August 28. He scurried into the back to find us a room. There is a long story about problems with our room assignment, which I won't bore you all with. I will say that Asgard went out of his way to make us happy and we ended up getting upgraded to a 3 bedroom apartment! He asked that we only use one of the rooms - not a problem! We moved all of our stuff into one of the bedrooms on the ocean side, and cranked up the air conditioning. Once we had unpacked, we went down to get something to eat. There were a lot of people at the Pool Bar and it was Mexican Buffet night. I wouldn't recommend it. When we got back to the room and went to bed, it didn't seem very cool in the bedroom, but we thought it was just taking a while for the A/C to work. It didn't get any better though, and we ended up moving in the middle of the night to the other bedroom, which was nice and cool! Thursday (8/29) Our first full day on Bonaire! We woke up, went to Dock of the Bay for breakfast which was pretty good. They have fruit and scrambled eggs, French toast, bacon, sausage, potatoes, juice, etc. out, and a nice lady who will make omelets or eggs to order! After breakfast, we went to do our Bonaire Marine Park check out, and finally we got to do the checkout dive – it was fantastic! We saw lots of fish, and about 7 or 8 eels, some of them were babies. After the checkout dive, we loaded our gear in the rental truck, and low and behold, the battery was dead! It was taking forever for them to switch the battery - they couldn't jump it - so we went to have lunch at the Lion's Den next door. When we got back, the truck was fixed, but what a pain! We drove to Salt Pier where we found the pink dive bus. It was an awesome dive! There is lots of coral and sponges growing on the pilings, and there are tons of fish hanging out there! Plus it looks cool with the sun shining, and the pilings making shadows. I really liked this dive, it is on my list of favorites. After our dive, we went to Cultimara (the grocery store) for supplies. I couldn't find any lunchmeat for sandwiches, so we ended up buying beer, water, and candy bars. You know, staples! Then we went back to the pool bar for happy hour and ½ priced drinks. Both Steve and I started feeling sick. Steve's ears were bothering him, and I had a sore throat, lungs and ears! We got a doctor's name from T.C. (the bartender). We were supposed to meet other B.T.'ers at It's Raining Fishes, but neither of us were feeling well, so we decided to stay in. Sorry we missed everyone! Friday(8/30) We both went to see Dr. Schrader. Steve had a reverse block, and I had an ear infection. I got a RX for antibiotics (Cipro)and cough medicine. He told Steve to keep taking decongestants, and to clear early and often. We both had the go ahead to keep diving - what a relief! After out Dr. visit, we went into town to check out the stores. Steve got a good deal on a Dive watch at the Bonaire gift shop. We also went to Buddy Dive store in town because I needed new dive booties. My old ones were giving me foot cramps because they are too small. Plus they were ripped up pretty bad (they were very old). I also got a pair of cheap sunglasses that I wouldn't be afraid to leave in the truck while diving. After that, we went to dive Front Porch. It was one of our favorite dive sites in '99 - that was pre-Lenny. It wasn't the same at all! The concrete pier was destroyed, and there were big chunks of concrete, and rebar everywhere. There was a lot of damage to the reef as well. After that dive, we had lunch at the Dock of the Bay. Steve had escargot and chicken fingers. I had a cheeseburger, which was awful! I only ate half. After lunch we did another dive at Buddy Reef. We swam down to La Macha which is Captian Don's reef. Someone told us earlier that there was an octopus there and we were looking for it, but no luck. We did see a scorpion fish hanging out on the wreck. I had a slight problem with my regulator free flowing on the way back, so I took it to Marc at the dive shop. He cleaned it out, but said he couldn't find anything wrong with it. After that dive we went to the pool bar for the rum punch party. We ened up eating there again - it was BBQ nite and it's the worst BBQ we've ever eaten! The company was nice though. Saturday (8/31) I woke up feeling like crap. I was up all night coughing, and was very congested. We walked around town for a while, and fter that, we went to Subway for sandwiches and drove to the pink bus again, this time at Windsock! We got water at the bus, and ate our sandwiches in their picnic area. I love the pink bus! We met some people from Maryland who's flight was delayed by a day. They were not happy. The dive at Windsock was easy and one of our favorites! We navigated perfectly, and saw lots of cool stuff. We had dinner at the Lighthouse Bar and Grill. I had Seared Tangerine Tuna, it was Delicious! Steve had Wahoo – he liked it a lot. Sunday (9/1) We were both signed up for the 10:30 boat dive. I was feeling very crappy. Lots of coughing and congestion. Again, not much sleep. We had breakfast and then walked over to Captain Don's camera shop, because we couldn't get the film in the MX-10 to rewind. We left it there, and rented a strobe for the digital. We (everyone on the boat dive) decided on 1000 steps. (Really 72 steps – Steve counted). We geared up at the divesite and jumped in. I got down to about 27 feet and was having trouble clearing. Anyway, I ended up slightly upside down because I was going head first trying to clear my ears, when my regulator started free- flowing again. I took it our of my mouth (and used my octo), and we tried banging it, but it kept on flowing. So, I told Steve to join the group, and I surfaced. I got back to the boat and Murphy (the Captain) offered to give me another reg, and take me to the group, but I was coughing, so I decided to sit this dive out. The other reason was I wanted to test the Relief Band. Guess what? It really works! No Sea Sickness - Yay!! I had a nice talk with Murhpy. He told me all about Lenny, and how he started diving. He's very nice. Murphy suggested we take my regulator to Carib Inn to be fixed. So after the dive we went there, but they didn't find anything wrong with it. Hmmmmm... We went back to Buddy and did a dive off of their pier. We used the stairs to get in instead of a giant stride. I was having a lot of trouble getting down, so I ended up coming back twice for more weight. Ken (one of the divemasters) brought it out to me, so I didn't have to get out at least. I thought it was the extra buoyancy of the strobe, plus nerves, but in retrospect, I think it was that plus the congestion in my lungs since I couldn't really breath in or out right. Anyway, the dive sucked because I had to keep kicking to say level at 35 feet, plus I had a ton of air in my BCD. It wasn't fun (event though I was trying to take pictures and figure out the strobe), so after about ½ hour we went back. While we were rinsing our gear, my nose started running in addition to the coughing – not a good sign! That night, I was feeling feverish, so we got KFC for dinner and ate in our room. Then we watched some TV and went to bed. Monday (9/2) I got really congested and was up coughing all nite, so in the morning I visited Dr. Schrader yet again. Dr. Schrader said the ear infection was in both ears plus, I had bronchitis and my bronchial tubes were spasming. He gave me ear drops and an asthma inhaler and said no diving until maybe Wednesday. While I was at the Doctor's office, Steve was diving on Klien Bonaire. They went to Forest. He saw (Alex pointed out) a pipefish, and a file fish. The pipefish is more rare than a Seahorse! We went to lunch at City Café. It was delicious! The best lunch place on Bonaire. We both split a pita with cheese, tomato, onion and Bacon, and the BBQ chicken sandwich. After lunch we went to the Bonaire Gift shop, and I bought the ladies version of the dive watch that Steve got. It was a present to me to cheer me up. I really like it. We went to Cappricio with some people we met at Buddy's. It was really good, but I had a coughing attack, and spent most of the night in the lady's room! I ended up getting my dinner to go. Tuesday (9/3) I rested most of the day. I was feeling very, very sick. I asked Steve if we could go home on Wednesday, but he didn't say anything (which means he didn't want to go yet). He went on the dive boat again to Hands Off on Klien Bonaire. Still no sea horse sightings (Whew!). Wednesday (9/4) Went to the Dr. one more time to get my lungs checked. I was still congested, and he told me still no diving, but I could probably dive on Thursday. We rented scooters at rent-o-fun. What a blast! We drove the south end of the island up to Lac Bay. We had lunch at Kon Tiki. I had a hamburger, it was the best I've had in a long time! Nice and RARE! YUM!!! We went to the Lions Den for dinner. They had a BBQ buffet, but this one was good! Too bad I still wasn't very hungry. Thursday (9/5) I was so miserable, that I tried to get us a flight home. Unfortuantely A.J. only flies on Wednesdays and Saturdays! I tried to get out through Curacao, but it would have been $670 a piece more! We were stuck so, we took the scooters North. Again it was lots of fun! In the afternoon, Steve's ears were acting up and my lungs were still not clear, so we went snorkeling instead of diving. Snorkeling and I just don't mix. I ended up with what felt like a quart of sea water in my lungs. Blech! We did our t-shirt shopping because Friday was Bonaire day, and all of the shops would be closed. Then, we went to Carppricio's for dinner. We got a booth in the back. They remembered us because of my coughing fit on Monday. We had the same thing for dinner it was awesome! (Much better than nuked leftovers). Friday (9/6) Steve's ears were really bothering him, and I still felt a little congested, although I was a lot better, so we didn't dive. It just wasn't worth the risk. We went to the webcam (street cam). It was weird standing in front of someone's house holding up our signs, but we did it! We took another drive up around the north side. It was Bonaire day and there was going to be a big festival in Rincon. We took the road that goes past the flamingo sanctuary. It's very pretty up there. We saw a goat family on the side of the road, getting ready to cross. There were about 5 goats including a newborn (it still had it's umbilical cord attached). Just as they were trying to cross, a bunch of bikers rode by, and scared the baby! He tried to run away, but got stuck in the cactus on the side of the road, then he tore off across the road and away from us down the road. It was so sad, and I was so mad at those bikers! The mama goat was calling to the baby, but it kept going. The mom chased after it, and there was another goat by our truck who almost went after it too, but she stayed behind and was calling to them instead. Finally the mom caught up with the baby goat, and they headed back towards us, but were too afraid to pass us, so we drove by them. Then they ran to join the others. It was so sad and cute at the same time! I felt bad for them. After our drive, we wanted to eat lunch around the hotel. We decided to go to Captain Don's but they were about to close down for lunch (it was 3:00) and they were rushing us to make an order, but Steve didn't like the menu. So we went to the Lion's den, but they were done serving too. Finally we tried Dock of the Bay, and even though they were closed, they said we could eat. (They are SO nice there). We both had Hilma Hooker Club sandwiches. They were good! After lunch we hung out in the room for a bit, I started packing. Then went to the pool bar for the rum punch party. We were late for the free rum punch, but there were lots of people down there. We ended up skipping dinner and just partied. Saturday (9/7) Time to go home. We finished packing, and ran into town for some last minute stuff - like a shot glass and a Bonaire flag. We also went to the Donkey Sanctuary. The donkeys are so cute, but it's sad because the lady there takes care of the ones that were hit by cars, or abused. We donated our leftover gilders. The Trip Home We went to the airport at 1:00. There was a long line at the A.J. counter, and we were at the end It took about 1 ½ hours to get through the line and checked in, and boy was it hot! Finally we got into the departure lounge (there's only one) and it was air conditioned. We waited there about 45 minutes. The plane bringing happy people to Bonaire was a little late, then they had to clean it. We boarded without a problem and were on our way! We were both very, very anxious to get home. The second flight was very bumpy. Steve had a really hard time on both planes with his ears! He was in a lot of pain, but we made it, and so did his ear drums. Now that we're home, we have Post Bonaire Depression big time. Strange, since while we were there, we couldn't wait to get home. We loved the diving though, and want to go back to see what we missed! We still have to do the Hilma Hooker, and a Town Pier night, we also never saw a Sea Horse! That's my long, sad tale. In spite of not diving, we did have a great time. Mostly because of the people we met both from Bonaire and elsewhere. I have never been anywhere where the people are so nice and go so out of their way to make sure you have a good time. Because we love it so much, and we didn't get to dive, we've decided to break open the piggy bank and go for the gusto! We've just made reservations to return to Bonaire for Thanksgiving! I am determined that the third time will be the charm, and the Bonaire curse will be lifted. Wish us luck! |