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Trip Reports: Bonaire for the fourth time
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2002-09-26 to 2003-03-31: Bonaire for the fourth time
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jon Lehman (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 1:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Parrot fish always have a destination in mind and are in a hurry to get there, which is not the normal pace for anything else on Bonaire. This was our fourth trip to Bonaire in two years. The first two trips were for one week each. Then we wised up and started going for two weeks and it still isn’t long enough. We learned something from watching parrot fish. You don’t need to hurry, the diving and food will be there when you are ready.

We’ve had good luck with Air Jamaica out of Chicago. Leave at 6:15 a.m. Just a short stopover in Montego Bay. You’re in Bonaire by 2:30. Just in time to check in and enjoy happy hour. One other thing about flying...no one has ever complained about a parachute not opening.

We’ve always stayed at Buddy Dive Resort and taken advantage of their Dive and Drive package. It includes a truck, breakfast (my wife doesn’t like to eat on an empty stomach, so she didn’t take adequate advantage of the breakfast), unlimited shore dives and some boat dives. The people at Buddy have treated us like friends. What more could you ask for? We even got hugs from some of the staff this time. They have given us no reason to try another resort. We’ll keep going back.

We talked to so many people this year who have made multiple trips to Bonaire and now, after diving all over the world, go nowhere else. Of course everyone goes to Bonaire for the diving. But the environment above the water is just as pleasing as below. For instance, the ease of getting around: no stop lights; drive on the right side; no crowds or traffic, except the wayward goat or donkey. And the food. Excellent food at almost every restaurant and bar. Makes you want to go in for reasons other than drinking.

Everyone likes Capriccio for their good Italian food. That goes without saying, but I said it anyway. We were so busy eating, we didn’t make it there this time.

De Tuin (the garden) is a favorite. Don’t forget to pet the cat.

When the Emperor Constantine turned Christian, he banned the eating of sausage, which of course immediately created a whole army of sausage bootleggers. That may explain why Al Capone looked like a sausage. Speaking of sausage, Pasa Bon Pizza & Bar makes their own sausage for their outstanding pizzas. We ate there several times.

Some places you go to eat you know they are serving veal, but the chef tried to make chicken salad, bit it tastes so much like turkey they call it tuna. Not so at The Lion’s Den. The Lion’s Den is a hoot if you can get Kirk, the chef and owner, out of the kitchen. But you don’t want to keep him out of there too long. He’s in charge of the food. It’s excellent. We ate there several times, as we do on every trip to Bonaire. Their main waiter is humorous also. I asked him how long they cook their spaghetti. He said about 10 inches.

Rose Inn in Rincon has the best fish and beef stew fixed by Malfina, the owner. Oh, their beer out of the freezer ain’t all that bad either. While exploring, we found the back road into Rincon. It’s dirt but saved lots of driving.

Donna & Giorgio has a very nice waitress with the pretty name of Charmililian (that’s my spelling, probably not hers). The restaurant is right by the main road and she always waves at us when we go by. Makes us feel like regulars, which we are. Their food is a mouth-watering Italian feast. We ate there a couple times too.

The little out of the way not advertised neighborhood places are the treat of the island. While wandering lost one day - a great way to explore - we came upon Divi Divi Bar & Restaurant on Kaya J.G. Hernandez 26. Can’t tell you how to get there, but the goat stew is worth hunting for the place. It’s definitely neighborhood eating away from the downtown tourists. If I can find it next time, I will go back without a second thought. And you get six songs on the jukebox for one guilder.

We heard Gibi’s Terrace was good, so we stopped by and were disappointed. Not in the food. Just because they didn’t have any. Evidently, they had a big run on meals and sold everything that was ready. Since we were hungry from a day of diving, we decided to come back later, but since we were on island time, we never made it. Next time for sure. Any place that sells all its food before dinnertime must have good eats.

You have to try Swiss Chalet. Oh yeah, the food is to die for, but it was just as much fun talking with Susy, the owner. She told us to quit eating like Americans - meaning stop gobbling our food. Eat a little, drink a little and enjoy the conversation. We were there a couple hours and took home enough food for another outstanding meal. Near the end of the mayhem, Susy brought us a large glass of beer and orange juice. Yuck. Does that sound like a bad combination or what? You will have to try it and be amazed yourself. What a fun and delicious meal! Next time we’ll try the cheese fondue.

Another real gem of our restaurant tour was Chez Nous. It’s the chef school on the island. High school kids learn how to serve and prepare three or four course gourmet meals. This isn’t a place that is open all the time. You can’t just show up and expect a meal. They require a 24-hour notice to reserve a seat.

Since I live right and am lucky as hell, we called two days before we were to leave Bonaire and asked if we could get in. We did. We were seated at a formally set table with three sets of silver for each person. There we are, four people in shorts and t-shirts from the sticks in Kickapoo, Illinois, wondering what the heck to do with the extra utensils. And I couldn’t find a plastic spork anywhere.

Our friend Debbie said, “I hope we get through this with some dignity and sophistication.”

My wife, Joyce, said, “I just hope we can be civilized.”

The students were preparing for a competition where they are given a list of ingredients to use. They must make their menu from that and can use nothing else. The teacher stopped at our table with a potential apology by telling us these were just high school students and sometimes it doesn’t turn out like they plan it. We were a little apprehensive, but only until the first course came. It’s hard not to eat fast when the food tastes like that. Elbows were flying - our arms a blur.

By all means, try this place. Not only did each course have unique tastes and textures that combined into yearning to come back many times, but the price is...what’s the best way to say it...cheap. We had four people pay $80 for a gourmet three course meal. That included eight beers, one wine and a very generous tip.

Since we were there on the island, we decided to do some diving. We’re pretty conservative divers - only two to three dives a day, usually just two. Hey, there has to be time for drinking and eating and drinking. One time I dreamed I drank the world’s largest margarita. When I woke up there was salt on the toilet seat. Glad I decided not to eat the worm.

The first week we saw turtles on almost every dive. Some dives had two to three turtles. The weather the first week had some rain. Don’t know if that had to do with the turtle sightings or it was just timing and living right. The second week we only saw maybe a turtle a day. All the ones we saw didn’t mind swimming within of foot of us.

The water temperature from October 24 to November 11 was 81-82 degrees. When we were in Bonaire in February the water temperature was 78 degrees. Don’t know if it makes a difference to the fish, but it seemed to me there were more baby fish in the warmer water. Lots more. Everywhere you looked. There were so many they got in the way.

The variety of baby fish was impressive. We saw trunkfish the size of a pea, tiny spotted drums with the cool dorsal fins, a baby eel less than an inch long, a baby sea cucumber (I would have to guess the mother loved it, but it was homely), and a pretty blue baby anemone the size of a quarter with a shrimp freshly moved in.

There were so many fish everywhere you looked, you couldn’t possibly name them all. We tried. Bob, Bill, Henry, Mary, Harriet... But we ran out of names.

This time we liked the southern end of the island better than Klein or the north end, although we dove all of them. The south end just seemed to have more of everything with less divers.

One day the water was calm enough to dive Wllemstoren Lighthouse on the very southern end. The water there is usually too rough to enter and exit. When I say “calm enough” I mean only three foot waves. I may exaggerate a little, but it’s my story. Since it was late in the day, we didn’t stay in long. We didn’t want to have to walk out in the dark with heavy waves and a billion urchins. (We saw them hiding and waiting for us when we entered. They were snickering.)

What we did see diving at the lighthouse were lots of very large sea fans - as far as you could see. ‘Course there were all the other kinds of fish you always see on Bonaire, but not quite as plentiful. The fish that live in this rough water must be lacking in the smarts department. They must be the fish that ride to school on the short bus. We also saw some tarpon and other large fish that appeared to be crevale jacks. We saw them on another dive at Red Slave (southern end) too.

Among the other unusual sightings were the squid seen on four or five dives. One dive had a formation of six squid that swam up to us as we patiently hovered motionless. They curiously floated within two feet of us while they changed colors. We must look as strange to them as they do to us. At least the other divers with me looked pretty strange, but I’m getting used to it.

There were lots of eels (oh, there’s another one, ho hum). The garden eels were fun to watch dance. A few octopus entertained us, as did the frogfish and seahorses. Alex, the divemaster at Buddy Dive, is the expert at finding frogfish and seahorses.

We found two scorpionfish sitting next to each other (about six inches apart). They were different colors. That’s another fish that has to be loved by its mother. My theory on why there aren’t very many frogfish and scorpionfish: I suppose if everyone’s mother had such ugly babies every time, it would be a good incentive not to have very many.

This trip we tried to dive some of the unmarked sites like Petries Pillar (don’t even try it) Chocogo, Bopec and Yellow Hut. All were great dives with lots of things to see. Petries Pillar was very hard to get in and out. You can find directions to these sites and all the other dive sites in the yellow book “Bonaire Diving Made Easy.” It’s sold in Buddy’s dive shop and other dive shops on the island. Well worth the little money it costs (about $10).

One of the highlights of this trip, if you can separate the knock-your-eyes-out diving, eating and super Bonaire people, was the coral spawning. Watching that is like seeing a train wreck. It makes you want to put your hands over your eyes but peek out of your fingers. Coral spawning looks like a very personal experience - one that someone other than another coral shouldn’t be watching. It only happened on two dives when we first got there. Way cool.

No doubt about it, we’ll go back to Buddy Dive and Bonaire. We’re going to shoot for three weeks next time.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Renea (BonaireTalker - Post #19) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 2:02 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Jon!

Great trip report! I couldn't agree with you more about Buddies. We have also been to Bonaire 4 times and stayed at Buddies every time. They are remembering us now when we come back. We will be making our 5th return to Bonaire in May and we CAN'T WAIT!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dave Flook (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #139) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 2:04 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jon:

Great report. We too like Buddy. Always feel like family. It is good to hear that Alex is still there.

We have wanted to Dive the lighthouse for years, but it is always too rough. We have gone there countless times to check it out and have always had to abort the idea, so we wind up diving red slave.

And you are right, one week is way too short, two weeks is still too short, but we can not get away for longer until we retire in about 20 years.

Where the heck is Kickapoo?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Wood (BonaireTalker - Post #90) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 2:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Excellent & humorous report, thanks!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2012) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 2:42 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Wow, what a great report, Jon! You had a terrific time....wonderful descriptions. Can't wait to get back there in May for two weeks (me and Joe). Are you booking your return trip yet?? CArole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jon Lehman (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 6:43 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

We're going back the first week of June and again in November for two weeks. Both trips are booked. There has been talk of another trip in August. We've been to Turks & Caicos, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Dominica, and Roatan. Bonaire is by far the best. Can't wait to get back and I hate to leave.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2014) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 10:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jon, it sounds as if you are ready to make that "big move" to Bonaire very soon...either that or you will be supporting the airline industry! It must be wonderful to be able to travel where and when your heart desires...in this instance, Bonaire. Lucky fella! Carole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ida Christie (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #766) on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 10:50 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jon,
I enjoyed your report, sounds like you and your wife had another wonderful vacation. Maybe one day I'll be able to stay longer than eight days.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Renea (BonaireTalker - Post #20) on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 12:59 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I hear you Ida!!! We can usually only go from Saturday to Saturday. I'm extremely envious of all these folks who can go for 2+ weeks!

Maybe someday!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Yana girl (BonaireTalker - Post #60) on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 5:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hey Jon,
Great report & very funny. We will also be in Bonaire the 1st week of June . BTW you should add your name to the Everything Else Bonaire - May and June Visitors list.
Yana

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DARLENE ELLIS (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #682) on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 1:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Awesome Report!!!! I really enjoyed the humor and I damn near fell off my seat with the Largest Margarita line!!! Way too funny!!! :-) Glad you had such a wonderful time. I get to go again in just two short weeks and I will be able to experience all that fine dining and under water adventures once again!!! Yipeeeeeee

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Collins (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #3) on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 2:58 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jon...
Great trip report. Really enjoyed it. See you've joined the many who return to this island paradise year after year. My husband and I have been to the Chez Nous also. Those students do a marvelous job. I don't think too many visitors are aware of this school and the great meals they serve. They're a talented group of high school boys and girls. By the way, have you tried the Mona Lisa (our favorite restaurant). A great bar. Very friendly locals and a wonderful bartender - Hans. We've been going there for over 10 years now and love it. The chef - Dauwe - is extremely talented. Also, the Rose Inn in Rincon serves wonderful fish and goat stew. So many wonderful restaurants...not enough time. Carol Collins

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By James & Margarite Hix (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #899) on Sunday, February 16, 2003 - 4:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Very fun report,Jon!! Thanks for the laughs and the memories....margarite

 


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