Hello,
We are arriving in Bonaire for our first visit 7/24. We snorkel and have only snorkeled from boats in Cozumel and Jamaica. The appeal of Bonaire for me is the freedom of shore entry. My question is about the red and white dive flag. Should we have one on a buoy and swim along with it or what? There will be 5 - 6 people in our party and we will be renting a car to take advantage of all the spots around. Thanks for advice. Lola

I have never see a dive flag on Bonaire except on a few boats and on the walls of the dive shops. Just exercise some caution around the docks of the resorts as they do have dive boats coming and going and you will be fine without one. If you have been reading this board, I am sure you have seen this but, do take hard soled booties with you. The rocks and coral rubble are pretty hard on the feet. Enjoy your stay on Bonaire.

Thanks Herman!
Yes, per this board we are fully equipped with booties and dive skins and Paul Humann's books. We are so excited! Now if I could justify a UW camera....

Your welcome, most of the dive shops rent UW cameras for a fairly reasonable price. Mostly MX-10's and Reefmasters. They are both point and shoot and use 100asa 35mm film (take some along). The real trick to UW photography is to get close to your subject then get even closer before taking the shot. Here is a link to one dive shop I know rents cameras to give you an idea of what to expect http://www.buddydive.com/photography.html#camera

Herman

Again, Thanks Herman!
I did buy a little cheap LeClic UW $19, 35mm w/flash. I am going to take your advice on renting a better one while there so I can see the results. I appreciate all your input!

I wish that we had done that we bought those cheap underwater cameras and the pictures did not come out that great. I told my husband since our underwater love affair has begun that we need to invest in a underwater camera and to take photography class we met one of bonaire talkers from ft pierce florida who attended underwater picture taking class and said it helped her alot

Christine,
I'll let you know how the LeClic does..I have my reservations but the disposable UW's run $10 and have no flash so I figure that's some improvement over them. I was hesitant to invest very much money into a "nice" camera without more research... ;-)

Just a quick question on the "hard soled booties"?
Our family of 4 (2 adults and 2 girls ages 10 and 13) will be leaving for our first visit to Bonaire on 02-14, and I've just read the note about makeing sure we have the booties. I'm not sure what they are? It doesn't sound like they are like either Teva's or rubber soled wet socks, so can you clarify?

Thanks, Denise

*We are so excited abou this trip and have so enjoyed reading all the trip reports, snorkeling info and other great information!

Denise,
these booties are Dive-Boots. You wear them inside the open-heel fins. If u have closed fins, u cannot wear booties. The boots make entering the water much easier (and less painfull ).

Igor

The sole is like a pair of deck shoes, for example check out http://www.diversdiscount.com/resources/frameset-cat.asp?cat=Boots . What you need is the hard soled boots, look at the sole on the Henderson or Tilos boots.

One other small point - if you all are snorkeling, and have full-foot fins, you could use Tevas to get to the water - the sole on those is a good thickness for foot protection. But then you would want to be able to loop the sandals together and through a belt, to wear out of the way while you snorkel. So your decision re footwear may depend on fins. (Some dive booties are tropical weight, providing only minimal protection, mainly to keep the fins from rubbing sore spots on your feet!)

Thanks all for the bootie info! We all already own closed heel fins, so guess we'll have to figure out how to either toss the shoes back up to the beach or secure our Teva's to our bodies! It's good to know that we have to have a plan!

Thanks,
Denise

A little comment on the Teva's:
I wouldn't throw them back at the beach!
How will u get out of the water without cutting your feet (bare foot) or breaking your neck (with fins)?

One comment on snorkeling with a dive flag. At DEMA, a company had a product that was a belt with a small dive flag extending out the back. Looked like the wearer had a dive flag stuck up her ...

If you could get over the embarassment of wearing such a thing on dry land, it looked like it might make snorkelers more visible.

I like the idea of a back flag, as long as there is not a lot of drag incase you want to dive. I used to wear closed heel fins, but I had to get boots and open heeled fins when I took my diving lessons. Big change! I had been using a pair of very light foam soled sandals (I got them in Mexico. They have velcro closures and float like corks). I would wear them out to where I could put on my fins and strap them together and then to my belt. It was always a problem swithching if there was any surf at all.

Duh! I guess if we threw the shoes back to the beach we indeed would not be able to get back out of the water! What was I thinking?!? Sometimes I scare even myself with these little mini mind snaps. Kind of like painting yourself into a corner, eh?

Thanks again for great information,
Denise