Just back from a week at Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn on Bonaire and the following are my impressions from that trip. The Travel Millie and I flew Air Jamaica from Boston to Bonaire by way of their hub in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Our flight from MoBay to Bonaire was slightly delayed but other than that everything went without a hitch. All of our dive and photo equipment arrived with us and in one piece. If you are departing Bonaire on the AJ 3 P.M. flight you can check in for the flight as early as 11 a.m. We have done this on the last 2 trips to Bonaire and it leaves you time to go back into town for a nice leisurely lunch and a little extra island time before dropping off the rental car and boarding the flight home. We rented a Toyota Hilux pickup from Budget at the airport and the bill for the week was $281 including tax and an additional driver. I choose Budget because they accept American Express. Some of the other car rental agencies on Bonaire do not. Carib Inn I will not go into great detail about the accommodations because the Carib Inn has been written up many times before and nothing much has changed. You get a lot of "bang for the buck" and although not luxurious everything works, the rooms are clean and the clientele consists mostly of mature and congenial divers. Many of the guests during our stay we had met on previous trips. The Food Our room at the Carib Inn had a full kitchen and we ate breakfast in each morning and fixed our own lunch on a couple of afternoons. The rest of the time we ate out and I would say that we really didn't have a bad meal during our stay. The first night Millie wasn't feeling real great so we got take-out from Bobbejan's Barbeque. This was the best inexpensive meal of our stay. We had ribs, chicken and sate that were very tastie and cheap. Our other dinner experiences I would categorize on two levels: excellent and good/ok. Excellent: Cappricio's, Rendezvous and Mona Lisa's. I would have a very difficult time choosing one as better than the other. All were great. Cappricio's had the best deserts. Rendezvous was an old favorite that we had not been to in a while and will return to the top of my list - great sate appetizer. Mona Lisa had excellent service, timing and food. All of these ran us about $60-70 for two. Good/ok: City Cafe, It Rain's Fish and Richard's. City Cafe was somewhat less expensive than the others and the food was somewhat less inspiring and the waitress never returned to refill water glasses or to see if we wanted anything else to drink even though the restaurant was not crowded. The food at It Rains Fish was good but the service was very slow. Richard's was the big disappointment of the trip because in the past it has always been one of our favorites. Millie had to send her filet back because it was overdone - medium well when she asked for medium rare - and what they brought back was obviously an inferior cut of meat. We also had lunch at Chibi-Chibi and at Lion's Dive. Both of these were very good and I would like to try them for dinner but didn't have time on this trip. The Diving The first day of diving had clear and sunny weather and excellent visibility at Ol' Blue and lots of schooling fish - jacks, snapper and margates - on the second reef at Angel City. On days 2-5 the weather deteriorated with lots of overcast and occasional rain that somewhat reduced visibility. Sites visited included Monk's Haven, Divi Tree, Calabas, Something Special, Town Pier, Oil Slick Leap, Andrea II, Mi Dushi, Invisibles and Bonaventure. The overall health of the reefs seems very good and fish populations are abundant. Highlights: lots of intermediate spotted drums at several sites, several red seahorses at Mi Dushi, a pair of huge Midnight Parrotfish and a large stingray at Oil Slick, a juvenile Cowfish that very kindly posed at Town Pier, a good selection of Chain, Goldentail, Spotted and Green Moray and a couple of Coronetfish and Nassau Grouper for good measure. The real highlight of the trip happened on day 6 when Larry announced that conditions where good for a trip to the White Hole. The White Hole is on the east side of the island on the ocean side of the barrier reef that protects Lac Bay and trips there are rare but the day had dawned sunny and the air was still so extra fuel was loaded and we headed for the White Hole. When we arrived at the site the ball was missing so I volunteered to jump in with mask and fins too look for the mooring block and the first thing that I spotted wasn’t the mooring, it’s a reef shark. Now I know this is going to be good. The shallow terrace is covered with sea fans and occasional Elkhorn corals. Large animals are the name of the game here and we are not disappointed. As we reach the slope we are greeted by a pair of large turtles. Next up was a resting nurse shark then a trio of eagle rays and then a pair of the same When we swim up and over the reef into the white hole itself things continue to happen one after the other. The White Hole that the dive site is named for is a depression in the shallow reef terrace that has a pure white sand bottom and is surrounded by 15-20 ft.walls. I move into position to shoot a group of six tarpon and the rest of the group is exploring a ledge about 2/3 of the way up the side of the wall and they are gesturing wildly for me to come over with my camera. This better be good, I say to myself……it is good, way good. There on the ledge, backed into a small hole are two huge nurse sharks complete with remora. Surrounding the sharks and filling the small cave are a halo of hatchet fish and silversides. Holy photo opportunity, these guys practically let me crawl into the hole beside them as I blaze away with my NikV and 15mm lens. All the while I’m photographing the sharks Millie is frantically pointing off to her right but my view is blocked and I can’t see what she is pointing at so I decide to stay with the sharks. Back on the boat I asked Millie what she was pointing at and she said it was only an eagle ray with about a 5 ft. wingspan that swam right up to within touching distance of her. “Oh, that’s all” I said. To add insult to injury to the folks that decided to sleep in we snorkeled with a group of about 12 spinner dolphin near Red Slave on the way home, twice. What more can I say. The Negatives Despite the fantastic trip to the White Hole there were a couple of negatives. We dove two sites – Mi Dushi and Monk’s Haven – that were heavily damaged by Lenny and despite the seahorses at Mi Dushi these sites are still a mess. I had hoped to see some improvement in the shallow areas after almost three years but these areas still look like a bomb, no several bombs, went off. Even the reef slope at Monk’s Haven is a jumble of toppled coral heads and debris from the shallows above, very sad. And I now have to report that I am now a victim of theft on Bonaire. On the night before our departure I left two sets of fins and a beach towel outside the door to our room to dry. In the morning they were gone and even though this won’t keep me from returning it does leave a sour taste in my mouth. |