Trip Report - Tuesday, April 10 - Saturday, April 21, 2001

This was our third trip to Bonaire.

To and from Bonaire:

All flight segments left and arrived on time with no problems. We flew American Airlines between Washington, DC (DCA) and Miami (MIA), and ALM between MIA, Curacao (CUR), and Bonaire (BON). This is our third time using the American Airlines/ALM combination, each time without any difficulties.

Car rental:

Jessie from Sand Dollar was very kind to arrange a pickup truck reservation for us through ABCarrental. We picked up and dropped off the Toyota truck we rented at the ABCarrental Flamingo Airport office. We were pleased with the service we received from ABCarrental, and will probably use this company again the future. In the future we will probably plan our trip in whole weeks as the charge for 3 days was about 2/3 of the weekly rate.


Accommodations:

We stayed in a one-bedroom unit on the second floor at Sand Dollar. Big rooms and balcony make for good gear drying and allow you plenty of space to spread out in order to pack, dry gear at the end of your stay, etc.


Diving:

We used Sand Dollar Dive and Photo for diving. Relocated facilities are good; lockers are centrally located near the rinse tanks; tank pick-up and drop off area is convenient. The relocated dive center is across the parking lot from the Den Laman Restaurant. Leo gave us our post Lenny orientation, and was helpful in answering our questions throughout our stay at Sand Dollar. Thanks, Leo.


We did a total of 20 dives at the following sites, most sites we did multiple times: Bari Reef, Ol’ Blue, Hilma Hooker, Jeannie’s Glory, Invisibles, Tori Reef, Small Wall (including webcam, thanks for the captures, everyone! we also saw Charlotte hanging out around the Reefcam), and Oil Slick Leap. We also did one boat dive on Klein Bonaire at Nearest Point. No particular favorites, we enjoyed each site equally. Thanks, Kelly, for recommending the Hilma Hooker for photography. Visibility was very good, with a couple of days in the superior category. I shot every dive with either wide angle (dual strobe with 20 mm) or macro (1:1, or 1:2), while my husband shot video on each dive.

Post-Lenny note about Sand Dollar

This was our first trip back to Sand Dollar post Hurricane Lenny. We enjoyed our stay at Sand Dollar, but we do miss the ambiance of the dock area. Having the dive shop, photo shop, gear storage and (now defunct) Green Parrot Restaurant in one location made for a great place to hang out meet people, talk about the day’s or night’s diving and so on. Although the new arrangement of the dive shop next to the parking lot is convenient for getting tanks and gear to your vehicle for shore diving, we found comparatively little hanging around for dive talk and the like.

To the folks running Sand Dollar, the place is not the same without the dock area. I fear that if the dock is not replaced soon, the resort environment will dissipate and you may begin to lose repeat guests to other similar resorts that have rebuilt since the storm. We, for example, are considering other options for future visits as well as hoping for a new dock at Sand Dollar.

Supermarkets:

In addition to looking forward to scuba diving while on Bonaire, we always look forward to shopping for items we either cannot find in supermarkets in our area, or are difficult to locate. In past trips, we have noticed that on certain days, Cultimara, the large supermarket in town, was either brimming with goods, or bare. We have since found out (thanks, Jake!) that late Wednesday and early Thursday are good days for grocery shopping on the island due to the weekly boat schedule.

During this visit to Bonaire, we took the time to explore the other markets in the area, and it confirms our opinion that we do not need to bring groceries from the States. My husband loves to cook, and enjoys cooking a variety of styles. A lengthy tour (fortunately after a meal, otherwise we would have bought enough for a month’s stay!) of Consales, The Warehouse (don’t know if this is the correct name), and Tropical Flamingo was pleasant.

Consales, to us, had the best selection of fresh produce (to the right through the warehouse section to the very back corner, it’s not obvious when you first walk in); The Warehouse had the best overall selection and prices; Tropical Flamingo and Cultimara are good in-town sources for everything. Consales and The Warehouse are located outside of town, going toward the airport, turn left at Lisa Gas, about 1/4 of a mile along Consales will be on your left and The Warehouse on your right (they are right across the street from one another).

Some items that we noted were: numerous Indonesian sauces, several varieties of Gouda cheese, Italian salami, Argentine beef, a very tasty sauce made by Heinz for the Russian market, curry ketchup, chocolate spreads, European pastries (frozen), good assortment of breads and rolls, cornmeal for funghi (my husband made it one night for dinner, mmm, good!), sodas made in Curacao, and many, many American products.

Now, if I could only get one of my local grocery stores to carry YogFit yoghurt from Germany, I’d be in heaven! It’s one of those treats that I find only in Bonaire and not in the States.

Note to cooks from Dennis: Since I knew I would be cooking a good bit on this trip I took the opportunity to root through my spice cabinet and pull out some of the old stock as well as little bits of some essentials (Michelle’s old film cans work great for transporting spices). This accomplishes two things for me, it lets me have the herbs and spices I want while on-island and lets me get rid of some of those that are past their prime. I leave all of the herbs and spices that I take with me on the island to avoid any possible questions from the various customs folks.

Restaurants:

Given the above section on supermarkets and the success we had in acquiring everything we needed, we did not go out to eat very much. We did have dinner with Jake and Linda, Dara (in the midst of her DM course), Kelly and Linda, Caren and Franz of Sea and Discover, and yes, Mr. Moose, at Old Inn. Thanks to Jake and Linda for ordering a fine rice table meal and other entrees. We ate well, we had a great time, and enjoyed meeting folks from Bonaire Live. We hope that Dara passed her DM course with flying colors, Jake and Linda’s trip to Miami went well, Kelly and Linda made it back to New Orleans OK, and Caren and Franz’s wedding planning continues to go well.

We also ate at the Lion’s Den, and the restaurant at Sand Dollar, both new restaurants. Good food at both places.

For ice cream, we stopped at Prisca’s in Rincon and enjoyed two of their excellent flavors of ice cream. If you’re an ice cream fan, don’t pass this up! It’s worth the stop. Prisca’s is open every day except Thursdays and is closed midday (noon to 2 p.m. I think).

The national park:

On our last day on Bonaire, we spent the morning and early afternoon at Washington-Slaagbai National Park. It was a very nice visit, particularly the ‘bird watching’ area where we were treated to numerous sightings of yellow warblers and troupials. Note: If you park your vehicle right before the sandy dip in the ‘bird observation’ road just before it ends, you will probably find yourself with a yellow warbler on your mirrors and maybe even flying through, it’s quite a sight. Entrance fee is US$10 per person.


For first time visitors to Bonaire:

During our stay in Bonaire, we ran into a number of snorkelers and divers who did not have hard soled booties, and were having lots of difficulty crossing over rocky areas to get into the water. If you haven’t been to Bonaire yet, and are planning to visit and either snorkel or dive from shore while on the island, invest in some hard soled booties. Your feet will thank you!

Exit tax from Bonaire for flights to the US is US$20 per person.

If you have an old mask, fins, or snorkel:

Sea and Discover is collecting these items for donation to Bonairian youths who participate in a marine environment course. Contact Caren at Sea and Discover for more information. Items should be in usable condition.

And finally . . .

Hi to Gene and Helen of Glacier Gourmet Garlic Company from Montana. We ran into them at Sand Dollar and enjoyed talking to them after our nightly dives on Bari Reef.

Thanks to Jake and Linda for all their helpful tips about Bonaire and making the web cams and Bonaire Live happen.

Hi Michelle & Dennis (& Mr. Moose)!

It was nice meeting all of you! Correction on the Cultimara produce times, BTW - Thursday nights and/or Friday morning/mid-day are generally the best time to go. The week you were here the boat was a day early.

Here are the photos from that evening:





Jake

Great report Michelle - we leave this Friday night/Saturday morning and plan to be toasting a sunset by Saturday evening. Thanks for the info on food shopping - although we plan to eat our dinners out we will still need some supplies for breakfast (bananas for our shakes) and happy hour items.

Michelle - meant to ask- the lockers at Sand Dollar - are you given a padlock to secure or should we take our own?

They have locks on the locker. Michelle, very nice trip report. Thanks for sharing it with us. Food shopping is always an adventure depending on what the boat brings and when it arrives. We are very partial to Bari Reef

Thanks for the great trip report, Michelle. One food item we can only find in Bonaire is a terrific gouda cheese with cumin in it - I highly recommend it to one and all.

On our previous trips to Bonaire we had a hard time finding ground black pepper, so this time I brought a fresh can along. And guess what...there was black pepper available in every grocery store, as well as several "left behind" containers at the house we rented. So I can cross that item off of my dive trip packing list!

Really fine trip report, Michelle. Thanks.

Jake - care to identify the sentient beings in
the photos you posted? I recognize you and
Linda, can figure out Dara from her
appearance on the web cam in front of your
house a week or so ago, and have a good
guess on Caren and Franz. From there it's all
guessing in the dark...it looks like you all had
a good time. Where was the "rice table" and
what is it?

Now I am getting visit-sick for Bonaire, and I
thought it would take longer before this set in.
=o {

Thanks, Jake, for the correction on the boat delivery days.

I'll give it a shot on ID:

Top row from left to right:

Left photo: Dara, Cara

Right photo: Cara, Franz

Second row from left to right

Left photo: Kelly, Mr. Moose, Dennis

Right photo: Dennis, Mr. Moose, Michelle

Third row from left to right:

Jake, Linda (Kelly and Linda), Linda (Jake and Linda)

The specifics of the rice table, don't know, but it's Indonesian style cuisine with multiple dishes, some savory, some spicy, all very good. No expert on this, so anyone feel free to give a more detailed description. The group met at Old Inn Restaurant.

Oops, I meant Caren, not Cara!!

Well done - actually, if you just keep your arrow cursor above the photo for a few seconds, a description will pop up as well, with all the names (the same text one enters between the curly braces when tagging an image upload).

Jake

Jake,
Does this work on a Mac? I position my cursor about the photos and nothing. I click and can save the photo

Katherine...time to switch to PC

Katherine,

Ignor Michael. He really is jealous of Mac'ers every time
his PC crashes. :–)

'This' does work on my Mac. Just positioning the cursor
brings nothing. Must click and hold to get a menu of
image actions.

What else did you mean by 'work'? All the functions of
the newsgroup have worked for me in both Explorer
and Navigator. Happy to help where I can.

You must click with PC also to save an image but if you just hold your cursor still over the image for a second or two it will show you a little window with the name that you put in the {description} when uploading an image.

Same here, Glen. Although we never figured out why your lines are short! (Not that you're the only one...) OK, Windows does pop up a name label over the picture, but this is just window dressing. It is not a necessary function. And you can type anything you want inside the brackets; it's mainly to prompt yourself which file you're uploading. When we later save files others have uploaded those names are replaced by 4 digit numbers. At least that's what happens on a Mac. We're over 5100 now.
(Is there a Y2K situation down the road, after Parrot P**p No. 9999?)

Niki,

If I had read Jake's comment earlier in the thread I
might have made more sense. The answer should read
'this doesn't work on the Mac'--at least for Niki and me.
Can't imagine why I missed that--it wasn't that early. No
coffee yet but....

The short lines seem to be related to IE 5.0--I think it
puts an invisible 'hard return' character when it wraps
lines in the 'composing' window that carry on into the
post. When I input a long URL that wraps it won't
preview/post properly and I get an 'extra character
inserted' error message. I can't find anything to change
it.

Navigator on my Mac doesn't do that so when you see
an 'unwrapped' post from me it was done in Nav. Bill's
elves strike again!

Katherine,

Don't click on the picture. Just move your mouse so that the cursor is over the picture and then just wait (without moving the cursor). The alt tag text should pop up within a few seconds and disappear as soon as you move the cursor.

Jake

If Katherine's on a Mac like mine, in Nav., the tag text will not show up no matter now long the cursor hovers over the picture. Oh, well.

Glen...myh Apple stock crased faster than my PC the day agfter I bought it on the last 2 for one split. I should have bought it three years ago at 12...I still have 3 macs btw.

I also have problems with my spelling crashing as well.

Thought that was Microsoft spelling. After all Bill never
did finish school.

You guys are all just doing this to rattle me, right? 'Cause I'm gonna make the big decision on computer now? 'Cause I'm not sure Mac or PC is any longer an issue? You guys are just sick puppies, that's all...pickin' on a tender Lang. and Lit. Major like me.(sigh) It doesn't matter....does it? C'mon.....?

me thinks the lady doth protest too much!

Kerri, go with a PC, remember Betamax was better than VHS.

Hmmm,the question is, can I believe a man who posts sunsets....and posts sunset letters which he knows I can't respond to, telling me how nice they are, and so sorry the thread's too long?!!!Mmmm. Naah!