Hi everyone! My husband and I are headed for Bonaire on Oct 12 for our first official "dive trip" since our OW certification. We are very excited. I recently heard about this board and have been looking it over for lots of useful information. If you have any suggestions for first-timers to Bonaire, we would love to hear them.

4 days and counting...hope to see some of your there!

hard soled dive booties, sunscreen. and maybe some bug spray...lots of film...

divin' bonaire is definitely NOT rocket science

enjoy your trip

I agree with the hard soled booties - they are a MUST! and the sunscreen, and a hat, and bug spray. Try to pick up the book Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy by Jessie A.... (can't remember the full last name). It's worth it as it explains the best entries and exits for shore diving.

Have a GREAT trip.

Mara

Bonaire may not be rocket science, but a rocket scientist (and as a matter of fact, I am one) can certainly enjoy it. Ten trips in last six years, with the next one next week. Can hardly wait.

Hey, Rocket how are you getting to Bonaire, a Rutan design or one of your own?

Jennifer, you will have a great time! You may want to do your first few dives on the house reef, or boat dives to get a feel for the environment before you venture off to more shore dives. Here are a few links to the shore diving sites on Bon:

http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/BonaireN/index.htm

http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/BonaireS/index.htm

http://www.skin-diver.com/bonaire/main.html

Don't lock your vehicle and leave the windows down, and NOTHING of value in it...lock passports, credit cards, money, etc. in the room safe...when you pay by credit card, assure to keep your reciept and scratch out the card number in case it gets in the wrong hands...

visit the Donkey Sanctuary...visit Bongo's and the cams, hold up a sign that says you're having a great time and never coming home

NEVER USE THE BLUE PHONES

Cecil,

Will be getting to Bonaire on a much-improved variant of a design first flown by Wilbur and Orville, this one built by Airbus (i.e., flying an Air Jamaica A320).

Now about other designs, yes, Burt Rutan and his associates have done a number of things very interesting, not the least (or last) of which was SpaceShipOne.

Have never met Burt, but did meet his brother Dick about a year ago when he gave a lecture about his and Jeanie Yeager's non-stop, non-refueled round-the-world flight on Voyager. What an interesting presentation and what an accomplishment!

Perhaps some day we will all fly in variants of the Rutans' designs. In the meantime, I will happily settle for many more safe, wonderful trips to Bonaire to enjoy many of the other wonders of nature, only at a much more liesurely and relaxed pace.

Safe diving all.

Rocket

Back on subject, Jennifer, agree with Dilly and Wally. Make sure you make it to the Washington park. It's worth one day, the last day is normal (you can't dive that day anyway).

Back off subject, Rocket, why haven't you guys done your job? Us, EE's (funny since my degree is in Physics) have put microwave frequencies at your fingertips (most computers run at microwave frequencies >2GHz and these were perfected circa 1940's). Why do I have to take a Wilbur and Orvilles when I should be taking a Goddard's? A parabolic trip to Bonaire would take 20 minutes vs. those 8 hours on an Airbus/airports.

Jennifer,
We made our first trip to Bonaire in July, and really loved it. I was an inexperienced diver and found the diving wonderful. I would recommend if taking cash, to carry twenty dollar bills and smaller. That way you do not end up with a lot of foreign change. Enjoy your trip!

Well, I am very concerned! Both my husband and I have boots with a sort of soft rubbery sole. I am assuming these are not going to work too good. Checked with my LDS and they don't have any in stock right now and I don't have time to get them shipped before early Tuesday departure. Can you purchase them on the island, and if you could, would you want to pay the price? (I can only imagine.) Can they be rented?

Hope this is not something that will ruin our trip or even make what should be a fun and exciting experience a frustrating one.

Basically, ya just want booties that have a hard enough sole to allow you to comfortably walk over coral rubble, rocks, loose stones and the occasional urchin (!) when doing shore entries. And of course this only applies if you ARE doing shore diving as opposed to all boat diving. There are tons of hard soled booties of all types sold on Bonaire, and in my experience stuff is NOT absurdly overpriced -- you may not get the equivalent of the best internet bargain, but I'll bet that most of the time prices are competitive with your dive shop. For bootie selection, I seem to recall that the last dive store on the southern end of Playa Grandi had the best selection, but there are tons of places selling lots of different types of booties on the island.

Jennifer,
Bruce Bowker sells nice hard-soled booties at the Carib Inn. That's on the coast road just south of town, just past Divi Flamingo.
Scott is right, some shore dives have more coral rubble than others and some folks are more 'tender-footed' than others. Have a blast with or without new booties.
The other thing to consider is, when I bought my thick-soled booties, I needed a new set of fins. My high instep plus thick booties equaled new fins.

Hey Scott and Mary thanks so much for info. It is comforting knowing that purchasing them on the island is a possibility. That way if it does seem to be a problem for us, since most of our diving will be from shore, we will have the option of purchasing them there. Ours seem to be pretty firm, just not like work boots. Thanks for the info on the fins too, hadn't thought about that.

Jennifer, Mary is right on the money for the booties and any equipment you might need while on Bonaire...Bruce has it at the Caribe Inn...great stock, quality products and very well priced. He is cheaper than places here in New Jersey! Have a great time on Bonaire...you will soon become addicted to her! Ayo. Carole

jen, we just got back today and had a wonderful time. i have very flimsy booties and mine worked fine. i think everyone is just warning you that the entry into the water is over rough coral/rocks. but, once you're in the water, ahhh!!! we used buddy dive and recommend it highly. augusto is really knowledgeable and helpful. if you're ready to try a night dive, the town pier is an interesting, shallow, guided dive that you might enjoy. have a wonderful trip. p.s. if you go to washington park, you'll need a jeep/truck. the park ranger laughed when we told him we planned to take our little car. and it takes several hours, so go early if you have the air jamaica flight out at 3:10

I bought boots and stuff on the island and found many things were cheaper then or the same with shipping then on-line. Nice to spend local too

Well, in a few hours we'll be in Bonaire. We can't wait! We will give a trip report soon after we get back. Thanks again for all the wonderful advice.

Happy Diving!