Jason & Diana’s Bonaire Trip Report 4/6/03-4/12/03
This was our first Scuba Diving trip to Bonaire, planned with a budget in mind. We had a wonderful week of shore diving at our own pace (with no seasickness!), sometimes alone, other times with newly made friends. We enjoyed great meals, clean, comfortable accommodations at a great price, and awesome, memorable diving. We will be back!
Getting There-The Good: We used Delta Skymiles so flew free. Caught the 12:40 am flight from Denver to Atlanta, the Atlanta to Curacao. Delta flights were on time and we managed to sleep part of the way. The fun began on the DCA (Dutch Caribbean Airlines) flight from Curacao to Bonaire. On this flight, we met Becky and Tom who are an abundant resource of Bonaire information. The flight was quick and comfortable. But….
Getting There-The Bad: What DCA doesn’t tell you, is that your luggage will get to Bonaire when it gets to Bonaire….after lamenting the possible disaster this could develop into….we returned to the airport at 9 pm and successfully snagged all our bags, said some hallelujah’s, and headed off to get some much needed sleep.
Going Home - The Bad: DCA cancelled our flight and didn’t bother to inform us. We had already turned in our rental truck and spent 3 extra hours at the airport, but finished logging our dives while we waited so it wasn’t all bad. We were put on a later flight, but this flight also left late. We kept checking to see when the plane would arrive and were told, “Soon!”…”10 minutes”….”Soon!”…with DCA it gets there’s when it gets there…plane and your luggage.
Recommendations – Try not to fly on DCA if possible. If you must - try to get on the Dash 80, which is bigger and has more room for your luggage. Carry on your C-card, log books, regulator, computer, and anything else you consider essential and necessary upon landing because if you fly DCA, you get your luggage when they feel like sending it. Allow plenty of time so you won’t miss your connecting flight. Bring along a good book and check ahead before you return your rental truck. Be sure to let them know you have a connecting flight and ALL your luggage needs to be put on the flight. And did I say Good Luck??
Going Home – The Good: Delta flights were on time and had a pleasant flight home. All luggage made it safely back.
Accommodations: Divers Paradise
We chose the sleep, drive and dive package with Diver’s Paradise. The weeklong stay is package for two people for $1197.90. This included the apt, a truck from AB Carrental, and unlimited Nitrox from Buddy Dive for the week. (With Air, subtract $99 per person). Divers paradise is across from the house with the Bonaire Street WebCam. They have one bedroom apts with the option of choosing upstairs or downstairs. Each have their plusses. The downstairs saves you from lugging dive gear up a flight of stairs. Upstairs apt’s have balcony’s with an ocean view. Both have locked closets off the balcony or patio area to hang/stash your dive gear. We chose the upstairs apartment. There is a tank room at Diver’s paradise where you can pick up air tanks on site, but since we were diving Nitrox, we drove through the fill station at nearby Buddy Dive.
The living room was fairly large with wicker furniture, a wooden dining table and chairs, a TV with cable and HBO, and a CD player. We didn’t use the kitchen, as we ate out all week, but the refrigerator was handy. It had a coffee maker and stovetop, no oven or microwave. The cupboards had supply of cookware, dishes, etc.
The bedroom had two twin beds pushed together, with firm mattresses. There was a handy shelf above the bed to stash stuff and a lockbox for valuables in the closet. There was an air conditioner in the bedroom that kept us comfortable at night, and a nice breeze blew through the living room area when the balcony door and front doors were left open. The bathroom had a shower only, no tub. It was clean, with a fresh supply of towels every other day. We were pleased with our trip accommodations and Drive and Dive package.
Truck Rental:
The people that manage AB Carrental also manage the apt’s at Diver’s Paradise.
We were met at the airport by an AB Carrental hostess who greeted us, got us hooked up with our rental truck and then allowed us to follow her on the 10-minute drive to the apt. She made sure all our keys worked and left us contact information in case we had any questions or problems. Our rental truck had the muffler rusted in half and it was dragging at times. Midweek, after one of our dives we noticed our right front tire was going flat, so we headed for the airport and AB Carrental swapped our truck for another one with no hassles.
Dive Shop: Buddy Dive
Buddy dive gave us our orientation, left us to our own devises during the checkout dive and were helpful arranging our night dive at the town pier. The tanks were always 3100-3500 psi with no bad O-Rings all week. We grabbed new Nitrox tanks, used the analyzer and regulator hanging close by to check levels, signed for them, placed them in the back of the truck and were off in no time. The rinse tanks were handy and we were pleased with the efficiency of the whole operation.
Restaurants:
All restaurants had good service, tasty food and were reasonably priced, depending on what you chose. We were really happy with all our meal and restaurant choices. We ate a lot of “catch of the day’s” and some recommended selections from Bonaire talk.
Capricios – our first meal on the island. Good food and good service.
Rose Inn, Rincon – One of our best meals on the island, this location was recommended by Becky and visited after diving La Dania’s Leap to Karpata. We had wahoo with Creole sauce, beans & rice, and the ever present French fries (they serve French fries with everything in Bonaire!) We highly recommend you stop here on your way through Rincon.
Casablanca – We enjoyed this Argentinean meal shared with our new diving friends, Becky, Tom, their friends Debbie, Angela, Murph, and Richard.
Zeezicht – Diana had the expensive but worth every penny Garlic Lobster. This lobster tail was the size of my keyboard. YUM! Did anyone else spot Gene Hackman, a known scuba diver, on 4/6 8-9 pm having dinner outside on the patio? We think we did!
City Café – The Chicken pita’s are as good as everyone said they are. We ate here twice!
Lost Penguin – We had both breakfast and lunch here…yes the Belgium waffles were a hit and the service flawless.
Coco’s – We really enjoyed this outdoor restaurant with an ocean view. Ask for a half mango, half strawberry frozen daiquiri – I’m still dreaming about them…aah.
Cazzoli’s – We grabbed a pizza here on a night we were tired and just wanted to go “home” early and chill. It was good. (across from KFC)
Eating on the run – Wattaburger and KFC were handy to just grab something to eat and keep on diving!
Saving the best for last…THE DIVING:
We researched dives sites (read books, asked our dive shop and checked out what Bonaire Talkers had to say) before leaving home and had a loose plan mapped out for our diving that we stuck to pretty closely. We mistakenly thought we needed to group north dives and south dives together, but you can go either direction in about 20 minutes, so any dive site is quick to drive to. We picked 2 that were close together, then headed back to Buddy dive to swap out tanks, and set out again. Because Diana get’s seasick and we were enjoying the shore diving so much, we opted not to visit Klein Bonaire via boat. There were so many great dives we visited some sites twice and didn’t feel we missed a thing by making this decision. There is no bad diving on Bonaire, it just depends on what you want to see as to where you should pick to go.
We bought Jessie Armacost’s “Yellow Book” titled, “Bonaire Diving Made Easy, Practical guide to the shore dives of Bonaire”. We used this book to locate dive sites, help us decide what dives to do, and what entry point to use. The book is a must have and costs about 10 bucks. You can pick it up at the dive shops, we saw it at some restaurants as well. We were very fortunate to get our copy autographed by Jessie when we dove Margate Bay and Angel City with her at the invitation of Becky and Tom along with Angela, Murph and Richard.
Shore Diving in Bonaire requires a truck to throw your gear into the back of, the yellow book, some water, and off you go looking for the yellow rocks that mark the dive sites. Most were really easy to find, ones that are more difficult were located with the help of Jessie’s yellow book. We got 20 dives in, diving Sunday through Friday morning. We left our windows down, and just our t-shirts, shorts, and dive bags in the truck while diving. We had no problems with theft.
Water temp was 79 degrees on night dives and a steady 81 degrees during the day. We wore 3ml’s as did most of the other divers we saw, although a few people were in shorty’s and skins.
Visibility ranged from 60-100 ft.
Some nice things to have:
· Dive boots with thick soles and open heel fins, as you put your fins on after entering the always rocky entries.
· Jessie Armacost’s Yellow Book, “Diving Made Easy”.
· A camping shower bag. We threw this on the hood of the truck and used it to rinse off our faces, masks, and cameras. The sun warmed the water. It was the bomb! Just be sure not to slam the hose and nozzle in the truck door!
· Hard candy to take the salt-water taste out of your mouth.
· Bug Spray – if you are sensitive to no see um’s be sure to pack some. They will find you.
Underwater Camera:
This was Jason’s first experience taking underwater pics. He used the Sea & Sea DX3000 with YS-90DX Strobe. You can see improvement from the first dive throughout the week. He really has an eye for it. To view our pics visit this link: Jason & Diana's Pictures
Buddy Reef
We did our check out dive here and another 30 minute dive we were squeezing in before our night dive at the town pier. Abundant fish life and easy entry down the stairs into the water or giant striding off the pier.
The Lake
Our first shore dive. We learned to choose entry sites carefully, go slow, watch the waves and time your steps accordingly, and put our fins on after you enter the water.
Bari’s Reef
This was Diana’s favorite dive site. We dove it 3 times, each around 4 pm – it was like an aquarium. Critter’s everywhere and we always saw something that “Made the Dive”. A free swimming octopus during the day, 8-10 (spotted, golden tail, sharp tailed) eels, a hawksbill turtle, and hilarious red lipped bleanies under the pier. The entry is easy via the stairs and after the dive, we watched the sun set while rinsing off ourselves and our gear. We chose this site as our last dive of the week. (sniff *sniff*)
Salt Pier
Another favorite. We dove this site twice during the day and once at night. Have your dive shop call the Harbour Master to get permission, or dive when the Pink Bus is here. This is to make sure no boats will be coming in. There is no reef life, but the junk under the salt peer is home to many critters and makes for great pictures. We saw our first squid and spotted scorpionfish here. Also see tarpon, barracuda and other plentiful fish life. It’s easy to swim out and back, and shallow enough to allow for a long dive time.
Alice in Wonderland
Easy dive 60 ft visibility.
Oil Slick Leap
The new ladder makes this entry fun and easy. Fish were plentiful. Good dive.
Ol Blue
Saw a little of everything, but no stand outs on this dive. Met up with our new friends Becky & Tom who introduced us to Murph, Angela and Richard. We discovered we were all headed to La Dania’s leap & Karpata next, so we followed them there as it is unmarked and harder to find.
La Dania’s Leap to Karpata
A must do. Drop your gear off at La Dania’s Leap on a calm day and then move your truck to Karpata and walk the short distance back to La Dania’s Leap. The long walk down to the jump off spot (lugging all your gear) is over lava looking rocks watch your step and be careful! But the leap is fun. Make sure the last person jumping off has all their gear – there’s no going back once you are in the water. Then swim north (right) to Karpata. We saw several turtles on this dive. Exit to the left of the concrete block, holding onto it to steady yourself when getting out. Up some stone steps and you are done. Be sure to stop at Rose Inn in Rincon for lunch on your way back into town.
Night Dive at the Town Pier
Must set up with your dive shop. A must do even though it’s a bit crowded with other divers. Saw our first frog fish, 3 seahorses, an octopus, 3 spotted scorpionfish, many varieties of eels, spotted drums and a hawksbill turtle sleeping under the pilings. The coral is so colorful we thought maybe it was paint! It’s as good as they say it is. Bring bug spray, the no see um’s ate Jason alive while we waited our turn to dive.
Something Special
A really nice dive. Dive on air if you want to look at the garden eels on the sandy bottom around 70-90 feet. We saw a HUGE green moray eel here, and watched schools of fish swirl magically around us.
Margate Bay
Met Tom, Becky, Angela, Murph, Richard and Jessie Armacost for this dive. Very colorful, lots of green and yellow corral and normal fish critters seen on every dive in Bonaire.
Angel City
Another dive with the same group from Margate Bay. This double reef has large hard coral formations, which are its main attraction. It’s like another world down there! Unique dive, different from the others on Bonaire.
Hilma Hooker
Visit this site before 9 am to beat the dive boats. Extra divers tend to kick up the silt. Dive with air so you can go deep and get a close look at the garden eels in the sandy bottom. Bring your dive light.
The Cliff
We parked north of the Hamlet Villas, where nice stairs lead down to a beach area and an easy entrance. We met lots of other divers on this dive and saw a large blue parrot fish, a seahorse and other common Bonaire fish. Enjoyed the small wall dive, a change from other dive sites.
Andrea II
Easy to find and easy entry down a paved road. There is a sign marking entry/exit spot into the water and cute little beach umbrella’s allow sunbathers some shade, so there are people on shore at this site if you visit later in the day. Saw another huge blue parrotfish here.
Underwater Camera:
This was Jason’s first experience taking underwater pics. He used the Sea & Sea DX3000 with YS-90DX Strobe. You can see improvement from the first dive throughout the week. He really has an eye for it. To view our pics visit this link:
Above Ground Activities:
After our last dive and the final dunking of gear, we spent the day photographing above the water. Visited Gotomeer Lake to see Flamingos and Lac Bay to watch the Kite/Wind Surfers. We also snapped pics of the yellow rocks to use as separators between our pictures of each dive site.
We had a great trip to Bonaire. We will definitely be back!
___________________________ ><(((º> <º)))>< ____________________________
|
By Diana Miller (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Monday, May 5, 2003 - 10:26 pm: 
