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Trip Reports: Renea & Chris's Trip Report 5/17 - 5/24
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2003-04-01 to 2004-02-05: Renea & Chris's Trip Report 5/17 - 5/24
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Renea (BonaireTalker - Post #54) on Monday, June 2, 2003 - 8:49 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

This was our 5th visit to Bonaire and I must confess, this is my very first trip report! So, here goes:

Getting There
We flew on Air Jamaica from BWI through Montego Bay and then on to Bonaire. The flight left BWI on time and arrived in Bonaire probably 10 – 15 minutes late. Great flight, nothing out of the ordinary. Our luggage also arrived with us.

Accommodations
We chose to stay at Buddy Dive for our 5th time. We always purchase the dive/drive package with 6 boat dives and then we purchase the unlimited nitrox for the week. It has always been a great deal for us. Of all the times we have stayed there, they have always put us in building 4, which is, I think, an older building. Well, last time when we were there, I had heard that building 1 had been remodeled and was actually a lot nicer. So, when I booked the trip, I requested building 1 and was told that we would be in building 1. We got to Buddy’s and low and behold, we are in building 4 again. I told them that we were supposed to be in building 1. They said they could move us the next day but, we didn’t want to lose diving time moving our stuff. Plus, by the time they had told us we could move, we already had most of our stuff unpacked. So, we stayed put. They assured us that on our next trip there, we will be in building 1. The hot water heater in the room wasn’t working. Also, the air conditioning in the room was on its highest setting and not cooling the bedroom off. We reported these 2 problems to them. They got them fixed fairly quickly so, it wasn’t much of an inconvenience.

The Diving
We did a total of 21 dives during the week, 6 of which were boat dives. I will just list our favorite dives which were:

Red Slave – We saw the strangest thing here that we had never seen before. We saw what looked like a ‘chain’ of jellyfish (the ones with the brown dot in them) hooked together moving through the water. There must have been 15 – 20 of them hooked together. Very cool!

Karpata – As always, this is a beautiful dive. The coral formations were nice and we saw 2 turtles on this dive.

Oil Slick Leap – This is the first time we have been back since they have the new ladder installed which is WONDERFUL!! The dive is also wonderful as well.

Yellow Hut – This is an unmarked shore dive in the south that was just awesome. We saw a stingray and turtle here which was cool and the fish life was amazing! We also saw 2 cowfish fighting or at least that’s what it looked like they were doing. Pretty wild!

Bopec – The reef at Bopec is just spectacular! Very beautiful dive!

Taylor Maid – This was our FAVORITE shore dive! It is a little tough to get to but, well worth the trip! The coral formations were probably some of the best I’ve seen on Bonaire and the fish life was amazing! We will DEFINITELY do this dive every time we go to Bonaire!

Small Wall – Great dive and we got on the web cam! We also saw a lot of cleaning stations on this dive. Here’s us going into the water and here’s me on the webcam (thanks for saving them!):

entering

me

Of the boat dives, our favorites were Carl’s Hill, Jerry’s Sponges, and Kelly’s Reef, mostly because we saw seahorses on every one of these dives. And, we saw a frogfish at Jerry’s Sponges. We also saw what Alex (divemaster from Buddy’s) was calling a black petula at Kelly’s Reef. Supposedly, it is very rare in Bonaire. He pointed it out to us and it was actually living inside a coral head. Very cool!

One BIG Problem We Had
When we came up from our dive at Yellow Hut, we found that someone had rummaged through our truck. Stuff was everywhere. We had left all windows down and the truck unlocked as we always do. We had all the valuable stuff (money, keys, etc) with us on the dive in an otter box. Well, they stole our sun hats and my husband’s prescription eyeglasses! He had the eyeglasses in a yellow case so, the only thing I can figure is that they just grabbed the case without opening it thinking there would be money in it. Our hats say, ‘Olympus Dive Center’ on them so, if you see anyone wearing these hats in Bonaire, grab the hats for me! J We were very frustrated and upset by this. Just the idea that someone had went through our stuff made us uncomfortable not to mention that my husband’s glasses were just gone!!! Thankfully, I always pack an extra pair for him. We did go to the police station and file a police report. We had trip insurance which is going to cover the cost of the eyeglasses. This is the first time in the 5 times we’ve been to Bonaire that we’ve had a problem like this…..very frustrating. We now will take the eyeglasses with us on the dives! We decided though that we weren’t going to let this ruin our trip. And, of course, it did not.

Dining
The food all week was spectacular. Here are the highlights:

It Rain’s Fishes – Very good food, service, wine at reasonable prices. I had their fish au gratin which was excellent. My husband had their ribs which were also excellent.

Blue Moon Café – Good food and service. A little bit pricey but, we enjoyed it.

City Café – As always, the burgers were good. The happy hour is great…2 for the price of one!

Gibis – We joined Jake at Gibis on Tuesday which was awesome! The fish soup was wonderful and it was great to spend some time with Jake. Thanks Jake!

Casablanca – This was probably our favorite. The food was good, service was wonderful and the prices were VERY reasonable. We got a lot of food for the price. Our bill came to $38 US. This included, 2 full meals (which neither of us were able to finish it all), bread, and a bottle of wine. Very reasonable.

Pasa Bon Pizza – We were told that this place has the best chocolate cake anywhere. Well, it is true. They have the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had! So, if you are a chocolate fan, at least stop here for dessert! We ended up going there twice for dessert and once for dinner. Their pizza is pretty good to as was the service.

Mona Lisa Restaurant – The food was great and so was the service. I did think the prices were pretty high though. Don’t get me wrong, it was excellent but, I think I liked Casablanca better.

Getting Home
Getting home proved to be quite an adventure. The Air Jamaica flight coming from Montego Bay to Bonaire had to turn back because of mechanical problems. Another flight coming from Curacao took us to Montego Bay. We left a little over an hour late and almost everyone missed his or her connections in Montego Bay, including us. Well, Air Jamaica put us up for the night in what I would probably consider one of the worst hotels I’ve ever stayed in, Doctors Cave Beach Hotel. It was not very clean, very old, and there were bugs in the room! Yuck! Pretty disgusting. We didn’t leave for BWI until 5:00 PM the next day so, had a little time to walk around the town in Jamaica where we were staying…..that was pretty scary! We got to BWI a day late but, they announced over the intercom that is was ‘another Air Jamaica on time flight’…..I was like, yeah, well, if you consider 24 hours late on time! That is the only time we’ve ever had a problem with Air Jamaica though and at least it happened on the way back and not on the way to Bonaire. And, I wouldn’t want them to take a chance with a plane that has mechanical problems.

To sum up, the week was wonderful and too short as usual! A week is never enough time in Bonaire. We can’t wait to go back again. Maybe next time we’ll stay longer than a week! Oh yeah, we are, of course, suffering from post Bonaire depression!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dean Botsford (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #242) on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 6:39 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Very nice report...where is Taylor Maid?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DARLENE ELLIS (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #748) on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 8:41 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great trip report! Would Taylor Maid be any good for snorkeling or is it too deep? Sorry to hear that your stuff had been gone through.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Renea (BonaireTalker - Post #55) on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 10:54 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Darlene,

I don't think Taylor Maid would be good for snorkeling....you have to go through a small channel to get to the drop off of the reef. It could be difficult to find on the way back in but, we studied the area and marked it on the shore by putting a stick up in the rocks before we went for the dive. We also marked it with our truck.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DIVER DEBBI (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #289) on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 10:55 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

We also would like to know here is Taylor Maid site ? Hav'nt heard of that one...we also had our van and apartment robbed and trying hard to figure our where to stay that is safe....pretty sad when they steal your perscription glasses...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Renea (BonaireTalker - Post #56) on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 10:56 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Dean,

Taylor Maid is north of the Bopec Oil tankers. It is listed in the yellow shore diving book by Jessie Armacost. The directions in the book on how to get to the site are accurate. I wouldn't think it is dove very much though because of the location. But, I think it is worth the trouble of getting to!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Renea (BonaireTalker - Post #57) on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 2:04 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi again,

I also printed off info. on Taylor Maid from a post on scubadiving.com. Here's the link to that:

http://www.scubadiving.com/talk/read.php?f=1&i=692384&t=524793

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dean Botsford (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #243) on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 3:57 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

woooo...that is a detailed report. thanks again!

 


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