Trip began on AJ from BWI. For the most part all ran on time, and trip was very smooth. No lost luggage and a great flight rate!
Once at airport in Bonaire, no one was there to greet us, not sure if that was a travel agent issue, or hotel issue? We found Bonaire Tours by the name on their bus, and told them it was their responsibility to get us to the Divi Flamingo. With only minimal confusion they cooperated nicely.
The trip to the Divi Flamingo was short. The Flamingo has done a nice job in the first half of its renovations. The desk staff could be much more helpful in expliaing the ammenities of the facility. The resort is beautiful and well maintained! The room was spacious and comfortable. They just need to work on customer service in those portions of the operations where there is no tipping.
The diving was superb, as was most of the dive operation (Dive Bonaire.) The house reef Callabass is loaded with moray, a small school of squid, nice soft corals and resident tarpon who will hunt in your dive light once you get away from the shallows. My 11 year old had a bad experience trying to clear her mask, and ended up only trying diving once. Not that diving is for everyone, but I think starting out in the pool, and more patience from the instructor may have been helpful. She still enjoyed snorkeling the rest of the week, but I would really have liked her to share our love for diving.
We had a three boat dive a day package. This is not needed for most folks on Bonaire, as shore entry is very accessable. We are "big" people so boat diving is easier for us. The dive boats averaged between 14 and 20 people per trip. It was a busy week for the resort. They were running 4 boats morning and afternoons. The experienced DM's were excellant! Pepee and Orlando did an outstanding job pointing out reef life and sea horses. We saw two of the largest sea horese we have ever seen on this trip. One, a large red male was just beautiful. I could have burned a whole tank trying to get one picture of him. None came out well though.
The turtles were prolific on this trip. We saw a turtle almost every day! One looked to be the size of a Discovery Special turtle. I thought it was a leatherback. Others who saw its face thought it was a hawksbill. It had barnicles on its shell, and was huge! It is impossible not to be impressed with such beauty. This turtle was seen on Klien Bonaire near "Jerry's Reef." You could really see the storm damage here, and how the upper portion of the reef sort of avalanched down upon the low portion during the hurricane. The sight of the turle almost makes you forget what was once there.
We ran into a second large turtle at "Bachelors Beach Reef." It was larger than a full sized SUV tire. It was resting under a coral pinnacle, and allowded us to photo it for a few minutes before gracefully swimming off right in front of us. This reef is in great shape, and the turtle was just another outstaning sighting on a great trip.
We dove Margate Bay my last day, and it was a very prolific reef. We also did a "drift dive" in a very strong current starting a little below the house reef. It was fun. We had about a 3 knot current and just floatded down over about two or three dive sights.
The morays were in great shape on nearly all the dive sights. We saw huge green morays, chain morays, sharp tails and even some golden morays. Those near the Callabas and at the Town Pier were very diver friendly.
The Town Pier remains an outstanding dive! We did it with DM, Pepee, and it was a fantastic dive. That amount of life, in such a small space is tremendous. We saw frog fish, a huge puffer, big friedly moray, juvinelle angel and drum fish, the usual huge tube sponges and the prolific orange coral pollyps found on the pilings. We swam off the peer briefly, shut off our dive lights and observed the bioluminesence. It was quite unique. Many people now say the Town Pier is over done, but I could not dissagree more. It was well worth the minimal fee under the guidance of someone like Pepee!
The diving remains excellant!! The charm of and friendlyness of the islands people remain excellant. You always feel safe on Bonaire.
The food at the Divi was excellant. We ate most breakfasts there as part of our package. The omletes, pancakes and french toast were extrodinary. The choices were the same almost daily, but the food was so good that you did not really need diversity.
The dinners were $15-$20 a meal, but the food was excellant! The wahoo in creole was excellant. The steak filet was as good as you will find anywhere in the world. The blackened tuna was also very good, as well as the pasta dishes.
The flight home began with a delayed boarding, then a technical problem that eventually got resloved. We were over an hour late taking off. the connecting flights in Montego Bay, Jamacia did wait for us though. More storms near Baltimore has us circling Richmond, VA for a bit, but finally got in. No lost luggage, and no major issues. The long portions of the flight coming and going had movies as a diversion.
This was my second super trip to Bonaire. I'm already to start planning my third. |
By Jerome Rose on Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 9:24 am: 
