I've read about some of the known snorkel sites in Bonaire (I'm going for the first time next week) but having snorkeled a lot, I have sometimes found more fish and more varied marine life at little known spots – where lots of people don't go, like under piers, in along-the-road mangrove swamps and so forth.
Has anyone found any less impressive but more interesting nooks recently? I'll be staying at Buddy Dive with a group of divers and am the only snorkeler among them, so I guess I will spend some days on my own, shore snorkeling in Kralendijk.

Welcome to BT Evelyn, a rose amongst a bunch of thorns, I see. You did not mention if you will have a car. If not you will be stuck snorkeling at Buddy Dive which is not bad. Another suggestion is go with the divers and snorkel where they dive. Bonaire is different from most place in that the whole west coast has reefs right up to the shore so anywhere along that coast is good snorkeling and there's only a relatively small differences in the spots (flame on).

Two other suggestions, do a guided snorkel with Renee who will show you some amazing things and get a copy of Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy. This book lists all the sites and ease of entry and location.

Thanks, Cecil,
I think I'll have access to a car part of the time if the divers aren't using it.
So I see the underwater terrain is similar everywhere. I plan to join the divers part of the time and hang out to relax and drop into the water whenever I want on my own, part of the time. Sounds like anywhere I go will be fun. I plan to do some birding, too. Any must-trake trips inland?
RAT (Rose Among Thorns)

Evelyn - welcome to BT. I hope we all help answer your questions. There are all sorts of valuable opinions and insights from folks here.

BSDME ( http://www.infobonaire.com/bsdme/ ) is your best bet for information on snorkeling. Many say places like 1000 Steps and Karpata make great snorkeling up north since the reef is closer in with little sand and rubble fields. Others say the sand and rubble flats central and south are their greatest joy. Many say the chance to join Renee or the Woodwind for snorkel trips to Klein is unbeatable.

Evelyn: Get the BSDME book. In the meantime, take a look at these two websites to find places of interest for you.

http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv03.htm

http://www.bonairedivingpro.com/map.html

Though it was a few months ago (pre-Omar),
two of my favorites were the area between
1000 Steps and Witch's Hut. Just park at
1000 Steps, then walk the road to Witch's
Hut to enter. Go with the current back
to 1000 Steps, going into the cave-like
areas along the shore. Zig-zagging between
the shore and the drop-off you'll get a nice
mix of topography. Certainly not
"unknown", but enough effort involved
that you'll probably feel like you have
the ocean to yourself. The area from Tori's
Reef to Pink Beach was also great. Pretty
much a continuous overhang/ledge with so
much to see, especially if you dive down
a bit to see all the hidden critters.

RAT,
June will be my 28th trip to Bonaire and here are my favorite snorkel sites...but don't tell anyone.
1. Blue water snorkeling. This is anywhere off the coast out in the blue water beyond where you can see the reef. 4 to 6+ pm for the angled sun. Top 2 meters. There is more to see there than anywhere else on the island (imho). It is loaded, teeming is really amazing, bizarre tiny to sometimes large pelagic stuff. Go away from boating traffic. Test currents.
1a. Inside Lac reef. Walk across from fisherman shack to other side through shallows. Watch urchins at shallow entry. Study this on Google Earth. Follow contour of the reef to the end. Fish start small..really as colorful and close as anywhere on the island. Many are inches away. Go past Alka-Seltzer water. Clearest water for snorkeling imaginable. Straight from the east. again mid to late afternoon for angled, acute sunlight bouncing off all kinds of colors and textures.
1aa. B Bay. south of Margate Bay before Atlantis. Easy drive up. Medium entry. Watch kite traffic. Soft coral reefs line the shallows and are loaded with life. Merging zone transitions to harder corals and then out to dropoff. Always something to see. One day counted 12+ goldentail morays ranging in coloration from banana yellow to dark chocolate.
1aaa. Pink Beach shallows at night. Stuff comes to you. Aquablue water and amazing sandy bottom. Only for diehards and waterbabies.
1aaa. (can't count) Mangroves are teeming with juvies. Watch out for stinging hydroids. Lots of fish.

Bud


Boca Raton

I had my first trip to Bonaire in Dec 2008 and enjoyed the snorkeling "down South" between Sweet Dreams and Red Slave. There seems to be somewhat of a double reef, different from the sites North of town, e.g. 1000 Steps and Ol Blue. I thought the snorkeling down South (see BSDME for some of the unnamed sites) and the sites off the Southeast of Klein (via Woodwind) were better in terms of coral and sea life. Those areas probably didn't catch the full force of Omar.

Thank you to everyone. I also read many of the other, earlier posts about snorkel sites and am looking forward to some wonderful sights. In years of snorkeling I've never seen an octopus or a sea horse.
I've printed all of it to study in the airports and on the planes on the way down.
3 days to go!

I saw my best octopus snorkeling near Alice in wonderland. In the sandy shallows "under" an old coral head.

im so sad and no one will talk to me. Just kidding trying to make points. LOL

I've found octopus the last 2 trips near Eden Beach. It is not a lesser known site, but I've been pleased with what I've seen.

HTH - Bea

When I go back (next year?) I'll have to look for an octopus. I didn't see any in December, but I really wasn't looking. How big can they be? Are they hard to recognize when they're hiding "under" things?

My wife is our groups "Octopus Finder". She claims she spots them by seeing their eyes open and close. Most of us spend at least five minutes looking directly at the spot she points at before we see it. They are absolutely amazing at camouflage.

The best snorkel we had in February was just south of Den Leman. Maybe it was Front Porch. Access was super easy. Turn towards Den Leman at the roundabout. Go straight on the dirt road instead of turning right into their parking lot. Park near the shore. There are sandy places to just walk into the water. The day we went the water was very clear and it was like snorkeling in an aquarium. Plenty of fish around the old pier and also along the shore to the south. We saw about every fish I know of in an hour and a half. This isn't an unknown spot, there were 3 other couples snorkeling when we were there, but it was new to us and a great spot.

see below.

(Message edited by dand on March 5, 2009)

For us it was Karpata and Andrea II during the week of February 14-21. Am working on photos now that we took with a cheesy ten dollar plastic camera.
In the meantime...

The snorkeling sites located within the Park at the north end of the island are certainly "remote" and lots of great stuff to see. My own favorite are the dinner plate size French Angel Fish at Karpata II. They come to meet you when you enter the water and follow you aroung like friendly puppies.

My wife will snorkel - she likes the two Andrea sites

I made a mistake in my posting above. The site with the angelfish is Wayaka II, not Karpata. Sorry about that.