I have studied BT website for 8 months before we arrived in Bonaire so we had a good idea of what to do and expect when we arrived. We arrived on American Eagle from San Juan, (free airline miles from our VISA card!) and our arrival was 4 hours late because American lost a beacon from San Juan to Bonaire. The airline lied to us and said they were doing military operations in the Caribbean south of Puerto Rico so we had to be delayed 4 hours, then when we did get on the plane we were notified we had to go around all the Caribbean chain of islands to get down to Bonaire. How we found out American had lied to us, we read it in the Bonaire newspaper that the beacon had been out and not expected to be up and running until January 30th or so. I don’t know why they didn’t just tell us that, but I suspect they were not supposed to be flying without a beacon and they did it anyway. So we arrived at midnight instead of 9:30 PM. It was OK for us though, we were already in vacation mode so we just enjoyed not being at work!
We got a midnight taxi to our house called Ultimo Cas, north of the city. It was very clean and nice and Sherri, the owner was up to greet us. She is such a nice lady and we really enjoyed our stay with her. Our house was right on the ocean with a sandy entry into the ocean and we ended up snorkeling there many times. You could see the parrot fish rolling in the shallow reef right there from the beach at her house.
We are snorkelers, and that is our main interest, except I found that my husband really wanted to dive since he was certified 20 years ago and never dived much since. So, I tried a resort course dive with Capt Don’s and when we got in the water with all that heavy stuff on, and I breathed from the regulator, I chickened out and got out of the water. My husband went out on a short dive with the instructor, just the 2 of them. I felt like a failure, but I just wasn’t ready to learn all the hand signals etc to actually feel comfortable to be out diving with this instructor. She was nice, but I had no confidence with her. So, I was determined to have a good time just snorkeling! I see that 50% of the visitors to Bonaire just do snorkeling so this is my official snorkeling report.
I want you all to know that the amount of fish life in Bonaire is more than anywhere we have been in the Caribbean or Hawaii. So many huge schools of parrot fish in so many colors and huge schools of blue tangs that you soon find yourself losing the amazing feeling of seeing so many fish. If you ever want to just see tons of fish, Bonaire is the place to snorkel. The coral reef has been devastated along the whole shore, and you can see the evidence of that all along the shore. One can only imagine the paradise that existed before Hurricane Lenny. There are so many graveyards of coral that are lying on the bottom. It must have been a total paradise under water before Lenny. Well, it is still a paradise with all the fish life. I am the type that loves the underwater garden of coral as much as the fish though, so I was so “touched” by the graveyard that I saw of the coral reef. I think it will come back though. The fish certainly don’t seem to be affected by the coral reef destruction.
Our previous “favorite” snorkeling” island was St. John. It has so many nice beaches and lots of reef to explore, but when you get to Bonaire, the reef is surrounding the whole island and there is so much more to explore. We were there for 2 weeks in Bonaire and it was not nearly enough time to explore every snorkeling site.
We spent 2 days snorkeling at our house. It was between Small Wall and Andrea I. We drove our car down to Andrea I and walked back to our house, then snorkeled down to Andrea I. It is a nice 1 hour snorkel with the reef all along the shore. It’s very easy to snorkel along that part of the shore. Just make sure you check out the entrance and exits before you get in the water. The reef has only a few spots where you can get back on shore. I wear the fins that have no booties so I have to be careful to find a sandy entrance and exit. That is something you have to really look for on Bonaire. There are not many real sandy beach entries anywhere except Klein Bonaire.
Andrea II has one entry area that has a small sandy channel. There you will find lots of elkhorn and (deerhorn?) other corals to the North. I saw a baby octopus that day, and if I was a diver I just know I could have seen so much more. It is amazing how much area there is to explore under water here. And if you can shore dive in these areas you will see so much from a few yards offshore. It gets very deep just outside the shore reef, I would estimate it gets about 50 – 100 feet in the next level after the shoreline reef so diving would be simply amazing there. I must try to get the courage to try it again!
Then, up North farther, we snorkeled 1,000 steps and found that it was not nearly as great for snorkeling since it was too deep to really see everything close up. We then snorkeled Jeff Davis Memorial and there we found some nice elkhorn coral, but we found that both days we went up north the waves were much stronger and the entrance for a chicken like me was not as easy as down by Andrea I and II. And Karpata was very rough the afternoon we went, so I think it is best to do those spots in the early morning. I found out that the dive boats always go to those spots in the AM for this very reason. We never did get back to Karpata and that will be for our next trip. One note for those who do not know. When you drive up North from town to all these snorkel/dive places, it is a one way road at some point where you have to drive a big loop to get back to town. I think it becomes one way at 1000 steps or so. So, if you do get to Karpata and want to go back to town the short way. You drive toward Rincon, and just a few minutes from Karpata you will find a well used gravel road that goes back to town. Just take that first gravel road to the right after entering the road to Rincon from Karpata. Someone told us this and we were very grateful since it saves a very long drive back to town. And it is totally good enough for a rental car that is not 4 wheel drive. We had a Toyota car and it did very well on this gravel road. But, we did have to rent a 4 wheel drive for our day in the Park since we heard the Park headquarters would not let you enter without it.
We spent one day exploring at the Park. The Ranger told us the best snorkeling there was Wayaka I and II and he was so correct. We had read that is was great snorkeling at Playa Funchi and we did try it there, but it was so damaged and we really explored the whole bay trying to find out what was written about it being good there. It was awful. Totally destroyed from the past storm, the coral was laying on the bottom everywhere and there were no fish. We even went way out beyond the bay and found ourselves in a strong current taking us away and it took quite a swim to get back into the bay. Now, Wayaka II was just awesome for snorkeling. You go down some newly built steps there to a small sandy beach that nobody was at and the angel fish are there in 1 foot of water and they will not leave you alone. Then, you snorkel out this sandy channel and head over to the left (South) and the reef is big and keep looking because you will find a school of 3 foot long parrot fish of many different colors. I swear these were as big as the huge salmon we catch in Oregon. I know these fish must live there permanently because they are so huge and they seem to not have a care in the world. We spent lots of time just swimming around with these big, peaceful fish and stared in amazement that they were so big. Of course, there were tons of other fish there too, but these big ones are something we have never seen in other parts of the world. Another thing about this spot, you will notice blue tail lizards all around when you get out of your car. Take some scraps of bread and throw them some bites and you will see hundreds of them come from out of nowhere. My husband held out his hand like he was giving a bite to one of them and it jumped up and bit his finger. These are 8 to 12 inch lizards and very pretty. Then tons of them swarmed around us to look for food. They did leave us alone on the beach though which we were thankful for.
Next, we took the Skiffy’s water taxi over to Klein Bonaire for the day. We heard that you could do a drift snorkel and this is how it works. You call Skiffy’s and they pick you up at the docks of the major resorts, we had him pick us up at Capt Don’s. He drives you directly over to No name beach where you can get off there or just get off to drop your stuff off at this beach and then he will drive you down to the other end of the island to Ebo’s reef so you can drift snorkel all the way back to your stuff at no name beach. He has a ramp on his boat so you don’t even get your feet wet getting off the boat! Don’t worry about your stuff because barely anyone goes to this island and we never got anything stolen. Unless it’s cruise ship day, then we heard that Skiffy’s did not take people over because the cruise ships take over the whole beach. Don’t worry though, the cruise ships barely make a dent in the quiet town in Bonaire. They don’t stop there that often. Ebo’s reef is just awesome. You can spend hours just exploring this reef and following it back to no name beach. Skiffy’s drops you off out in the water on the edge of the coral reef that lines the whole shore. No words can explain all the coral to see on this trek back to no name beach. We did this day trip twice and it was so nice to get back to the beach and read our books in total seclusion with only 3 or 4 other people on the whole sandy beach. Next trip to Bonaire we will find more ways to explore the other parts of Klein Bonaire. It is a very pretty little island and I understand that Renee on the Windwood takes you snorkeling there too. So, we will have to try her trips next time.
Other things that you might want to know about Bonaire. It is quiet and not crowded anywhere. No traffic lights, not much shopping, only one stop sign on the whole island and I ran that one, almost! Well, it was a while before I could understand the international signs on the road. The people here were very friendly to tourists and we never felt in danger anywhere. We had heard about all the theft from the cars at the shore dive sites, but we did not have any trouble. We left our window rolled down and the car unlocked. And we heard they had arrested some teenagers for theft recently and maybe those were the ones causing all the recent car theft. Hope they don’t come back because this island seems very safe to me.
About the resorts. We checked out Capt Dons, it was nice, but very overpriced and so was the Plaza. Buddy’s was very nice and friendly and so was Sand dollar. Divi was a bit run down and the restaurant there was very expensive and low quality food. I suppose Divi might be OK, if you don’t mind the resort atmosphere, but Capt’ Don’s and Buddies, and Sand Dollar were at a much nicer end of town in my opinion. I think the only way to go is to rent your own house. Next time we will rent a house called Crown Court 44A in Sabedeco. It is a nice housing area North of Andrea II and we looked at the houses there.
About Rincon, the only other real town on the island. It is small and old and I suppose you could find something interesting there if you are into history. But, that ice cream store we read about on this website was horrible ice cream. The day we went it was thick and gooey ice cream and we threw it away. That was a good thing though because we ended up stopping in the town’s grocery store twice for drinks and the lady there was so nice even though she didn’t know English. It’s funny when you buy a beer in a store and they ask you if you want it opened. That would never happen in the States! We didn’t notice if it was against the law to drink and drive. We did notice that we saw only 3 police cars the whole 2 weeks, so I can see why a criminal would get away with crime if they wanted to. We did explore the South end of the island too, but I could go on and on for days, like one person said “write a book”, so I will quit now.
We are coming back next January. On first impression the island is ugly, desert with cactus and scrub brush. But, under the water is where the beauty lies. You just can’t beat the huge coral and fish gardens on Bonaire. We liked the friendly atmosphere there, and the uncrowded feeling we had at all times. If you want further information on our snorkeling adventure, please email me: Renee97038@aol.com
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By Renee Ross (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Monday, March 17, 2003 - 7:50 am: 
