Our fourth trip to Bonaire, our first as *certified* divers (6-8 resort dives previously).

We use Caradonna Travel, and they got us a nice package at Lion's Dive. We had previously stayed at Buddy's, but this was a nice change, very quiet and Bon Bini Divers had an excellent staff. Our package included unlimited shorediving, weights, tanks and breakfast. Would've done RT transfers too, but we rented a car from Netty (nice lady, good value).

The diving: Being newly certified, we were a little nervous to venture out on our own, but after Eddie's orientation and getting set on weight, we headed out on the house reef, which we were already pretty familiar with due to the previous years of resort dives and extensive snorkeling. In no time at all we felt seasoned and comfortable. We needed to come up with a new hand signal for "awesome", then we felt communication was complete! Our first shore dive was Andrea I, supposed to be so simple with easy entry....not really, the surf was a bit rough, there are big coral pieces at the entry and not really a smooth channel to come in and out of...the dive however, was wonderful. Subsequent shore dives included Weber's Joy (good entry), Front Porch at Sunset, North Belnam (one of our favorites), The Lake, Angel City (saw a very large green moray here), Salt City and Tori's Reef. The rest were done of the Bon Bini dock, north to La Machaca, south to Buddy's and Bari Reef. We did one night dive from there (our first) saw a very large cornetfish that nearly scared the daylights (or is that nightlights) out of me. I only lasted 15-20 minutes and I was asking my partner to go up. Maybe we'll do town pier next time as you can at least stay more oriented there and Daniello stays with all the night diving newbies (besides he finds seahorses and frogfish!). All told we did 13 dives in 6 days and they were all wonderful experiences!

Food: Ate at Lion's Den daily for breakfast and once for dinner (it was excellent), Dock of the Bay (at Buddy's), Swiss Chalet (great Rosti, nice, nice people), It Rains Fishes (always good), Lighthouse (at Harbour) and for Valentine's Day we ate at Cappriccio, our all time favorite. I had pumpkin mousse ravioli that was certainly in the top ten meals I've ever had anywhere! Our lunches would be comprised of leftovers or PB and J on the whole grain rolls from the Cultimari. Great dutch chocolate too and fun snacky things.

Coming back to New Hampshire was a cold, harsh "re-entry", 7" of additional snow today, besides the many feet that is already sitting out there....the glow however remains....it was simply blissful as always.

Vanessa & Jayne

Thanks for the trip report, sounds like you had a nice time. These trip reports really help us snowbound Mid-Atlantic types.

Vanessa & Jayne,

Glad you had a good time. Great Report.

Vanessa, I enjoyed your trip report, sounds like you are a hooked diver now. The only fun after coming home after a trip to Bonaire is starting to think about your next trip. We hope to be there in June or July.

So what was the hand signal for "Awesome!" that you came up with?

Faith

Vanessa, thanks for the great trip report. I especially enjoyed your dive reports as we are fairly new divers (15 dives each) so when we are in Bonaire next week we will use your report to help us choose sites. We have always loved both Andreas for snorkels and are looking forward to diving there.

Vanessa,

Great trip report...I must agree with Gary....the ONLY good thing about coming home from a trip to Bonaire is planning the next one!

We're coming back in May and can't wait!

Just makes me want to go to Bonaire even more!

Vanessa,
Great report, we are looking forward to getting out of the snow and heading down(Mar 12th)

ScottJ