We really had a great time the last two weeks drift snorkeling Bonaire. We used Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy (BSDME) to help get some info on additional entry points from what we had used before, and did a little scouting of entry and exit points to make sure we knew where to get out - that was fun too :-).

Our favorite was LaDania's Leap to Karpata. Turtles were around just about everywhere we went but we had at least 15 sightings here in two trips. There are also lots of shallow areas with abundant coral and fish.

It is hard to separate out the other areas we drifted:

Get in at Andrea I and drift to Andrea II.

Get in at Yellow Hut and drift to Soft Coral Garden.

Get in at Red Beryl and drift to Margate.

On the southern sites I recommend parking near your intended get out in addition to scouting shoreline landmarks - they just look different from the off shore perspective.

I just can't leave Ol' Blue out of this as an old favorite. This one bucks the recommendation to fight the current first and drift home. The elkhorn and relatively shallow coral heads near the mooring are great, and the shallow soft coral forest 100-200 yards north of the mooring rivals that seen in the south. Have to fight the current back but it is worth it.

May be a silly question: How do I get back, when my car is parked near La Dania? Walk? For how long?
Oh Man...... I need to go back to Bonaire...

Yes walk. It is about 400M from Karpata to the LaDania's "trailhead" on the road. We parked at the first paved parking spot North of the LaDania's trailhead, which is in-between.

When we dove LaDania's last week, there were three of us, initially parked at LaDania, took all our dive gear to LaDania's and left two people in our group with the gear and then one of us took the truck and parked it at Karparta and walked back to LaDania. It is about an 8 minute walk back to LaDania's. After we dove LaDania to Karparta, we had the truck waiting for us at Karparta. After we got our gear off, we enjoyed a couple hot dogs at the snack stand before we started back home. Very nice drift dive, always a must do when on island for us. The hot dogs at the snack stand are naf. 4.50 or US 3.00. And, yes, they take wet money.

bas had us parking on the side of the road at the la dania "trail head"...i guess in case someone inadvertently left dive gear in the truck...same walk back from karpata to get the truck after the dive...

i normally do it the other way around but...

enjoy

(ps: we need to find a way to shore dive/snokel rappel)

We eyeballed that too. About the only thing we could figure was getting in at Ol' Blue and out at Karpata. We odometered it and if I remember correctly it was 1.7K. That is just too far for us for it to be fun

Maybe next time...

hey there, we just got back from BON yesterday. Avid snorkelers and another couple we bumped into said for the past 4 years this was the windiest and cloudiest they had seen. We bought full length wetsuits after 5 days in the 78 to 80 degree water, but it was still gorgeous. Stayed in 6 hours our last day -- did Karpata, Ol Blu, Andrea 1 & 2,. Fish there sure are different than Turks & Caicos & Cayman. But ooooh the coral was awesome, especially at Karpata and over at Klein.
Got a truck and took the redeye out. First day drove all over. Hit Slagbaii on day 3. beautiful at Wayaka 1,2 and 3 there. snorkeled all the way over to Boca Slagbaii. Angelfish came right up to our masks in the shallows and they were HUGE about 18 inches and just kept circling us. wowie. Most pristine reefs I've ever snorkeled.